PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OF SECURITY SERVICES – THE CASE OF VOA-VBA
PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OF SECURITY SERVICES – THE CASE OF VOA-VBA

Author(s): Aleksandra Zdravković, Danica Rajin, Emilija Milenković, Ksenija Filipović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Security and defense
Published by: ISAC - Centar za međunarodne i bezbednosne poslove
Keywords: security services; democracies; reform; control
Summary/Abstract: The subject matter of our research is parliamentary oversight of military security services, because of the parliament’s role as the main mechanism of democratic control over security bodies, primarily the military, the police and the security services. After the political change in Serbia 2000, a thorough reform of the security sector, including the security-intelligence system, was launched. This dynamic process has its own course, stages and certain rules. A more complete control should be established and the somewhat vague legislation should be modified. Clear-cut laws need to be adopted to regulate concretely the work of the security services and specify their jurisdictions in deploying methods, measures and procedures that violate human rights and freedoms. Some progress has been made lately in increasing the transparency of security services in Serbia with regards to updated fact sheets, compliance with provisions concerning information of public importance and cooperation of security services with the civil society. Is that enough, however? Is the current law being implemented and does it need to be modified – those are some of the questions we have dealt with in this paper. Our recommendations will focus on the need to increase the initiative by MPs in the Committee for Oversight of Security Services, and the possibility of including independent experts in the Committee’s work. This practice has been used in other countries and would contribute to depoliticising oversight.

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