The correlation between the complaint procedure before the commissioner for the protection of equality and other anti-discrimination proceedings

Abstract

In the Republic of Serbia, the system of legal protection against discrimination includes various forms of protection within the normative framework of civil, criminal, misdemeanor and constitutional law, as well as the protection afforded by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality as an autonomous and independent body specialized in combating discrimination. In order to ensure effective protection against discrimination, the Serbian legislation envisages the possibility of instituting a number of simultaneous or successive anti-discrimination proceedings pertaining to the same discrimination act. In this paper, the author examines the correlation between the proceedings before the Commissioner and other anti-discrimination proceedings concerning the same discrimination incident which are either underway or have already been concluded. The author analyses the domain of application of the legal rule prohibiting the Commissioner to act upon a complaint if another proceeding on the same matter is either pending or has already been adjudicated in a court of law. The analysis shows that this rule applies only to anti-discrimination litigation proceedings but not to criminal and misdemeanor proceedings or administrative proceedings. If a discrimination complaint has been filed on the grounds of a discriminatory norm contained in some legislative or statutory act which is subject to judicial review for the assessment of its constitutionality and legality, the complaint procedure before the Commissioner is provisionally stayed until the completion of procedure before the Constitutional Court. The constitutional complaint procedure takes precedence over the complaint procedure before the Commissioner.

Keywords

• discrimination
• Commissioner for the Protection of Equality
• anti­discrimination proceedings