European Council has called on Serbia to urgently adopt the Law on Missing Babies to highlight the fate of children allegedly missing from Serbian maternity wards.
The case of missing babies escalated in Serbia in March 2013, when the European Court of Human Rights issued a verdict in the case of Zorica Jovanovic vs Serbia. This found Serbia guilty of violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on respect for family life, by failing to provide families with due information concerning the fate of these lost newborns.
The court gave Serbia a year to secure the establishment of a mechanism to provide individual redress to all parents in the same situation as Zorica Jovanovic. The court also ordered Serbia to pay Jovanovic 10,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages.
According to unofficial data at least 10,000 babies (over 20 babies per month) were stolen in Serbia in last 40 years an yet Serbia still does not have a law to prevent such crime.
