Assessing the Relationship between Parliament and Ombudsman: Evidence from Serbia (2007-2016)

Abstract

The work of parliament and ombudsman is of critical importance for democracy and the rule of law. Still, the relationship between these two institutions is considerably under-researched. This paper aims to contribute to filling this research gap by presenting a set of key criteria for the assessment of their relationship. These are applied in the analysis of the Serbian Parliament’s actions towards the Ombudsman in the first ten years of operations of this new institution in the Serbian legal and political system on the national level (2007–2016). Results show that the Parliament did not build consistent, predictable and efficient relations with the Ombudsman yet. Instead of being a supreme protector of the Ombudsman’s independence and its strongest ally in the protection and promotion of human rights, Parliament developed a practice of hampering the Ombudsman’s work. The results may serve as an indicator of the state of democratisation of Serbia, as well as for assessing the level of the Parliament’s institutional maturity. Outside the Serbian context, this study can be a useful source for comparative purposes, given the importance of this issue for all parliamentary ombudsmen, particularly those that are also national human rights institutions (NHRIs).