About the initiative
The “You Have the Right to Know” advocacy initiative is an initiative administered by the Balkan Regional Rule of Law Network (BRRLN). The initiative is supported by criminal defense attorneys who are part of BRRLN’s Criminal Law Working Group practicing in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. The goal of this initiative is to advance the Rule of Law through mutual cooperation between criminal defense attorneys from the region.
The Criminal Law Working Group, as part of their engagement identified two common issues that they are faced with in all of BRRLN’s member countries:
- Right to the defense to have investigation order at the beginning of the investigation and the right to appeal to the court against the prosecutor’s order to conduct an investigation;
- The right of the defense to inspect the prosecutor’s evidence before a pretrial detention hearing.
The aforementioned issues were defined based on the recommendations found in the Criminal Law Reform Assessment Report (http://brrln.org/uploads/documents/292/clr_web.pdf), as well as during the BRRLN Working Groups Meeting held from April 13th-15th, 2018 in Ohrid.
In addition to the national advocacy activities, regional advocacy activities are being conducted under the auspices of BRRLN with the sole purpose of advancing the procedural rights of criminal defenders and harmonizing them with EU standards.
In implementing these activities, the Criminal Law Working Group is using the support of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) office in Skopje, the expertise provided by the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE), Bar Associations who are members of BRRLN, as well as advocacy experts from the region.
