Serbia | New Ombudsman appointed

Zoran Pašalić, lawyer from Belgrade, was elected as new Protector of Citizens (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Serbia. He was born in 1958 in Belgrade and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade in 1992, and passed the bar exam in 1995.

From 1991 to 1997 he worked in a law firm in Belgrade, and from 1998 he was engaged as a legal advisor to domestic and international companies.

In 2003, he was appointed as Belgrade Misdemeanour City Court Judge. He continued until 2008 when he was appointed first as Acting Chief Judge, and later in December as Chief Judge of Belgrade Misdemeanour City Court Judge. He became Acting President of the High Misdemeanour Court early 2010, and the President of this court in 2013. The following year, he was elected as President of the Misdemeanour Appellate Court.

He has been a member of the Association of Misdemeanour Judges since 2004, and of the Association’s main board since 2005. He became the President of the Association of Misdemeanour Judges in 2008. He has been a member of the Managing Board of the Judicial Academy since 2010.

He is a member of the working group on UNIFEM’s project “Advancing Women’s Economic and Social Rights in Serbia – Development of Curriculum for the Judicial Academy“, as well as a working group tasked to develop “Practicum for Judges on Plea Agreement“.

At the session of the Serbian National Assembly held on 20 July 2017, he was elected as the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia with the votes of 142 MPs.

Source: Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia