Serbian Ombudsman Zoran Pasalic said on Wednesday that he would be monitoring the state of human rights under the state of emergency declared by the authorities to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Pasalic said his office had formed a mobile team to monitor the situation. “A mobile team from the Institution of the Ombudsman, made up of members of the urgent response department, arrested persons sector and National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, is following the state of human rights on the ground,” he said in a press release, adding that the mobile team will react in situations when civil rights are in jeopardy.  

Pasalic said that he would contact the authorities when human rights are jeopardized to make sure that those rights are fully respected under the measures introduced by the state of emergency. “Article 200 of the constitution says that measures can be introduced in a state of emergency which run deviate from constitutionally guaranteed human and minority rights,” the press release said.  

The Serbian authorities imposed a state of emergency across the country on Sunday, March 15 calling the population to stay at home to help stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and later imposing a curfew and ban on movement for the elderly.