OSCE Mission to Serbia 2023 Person of the Year Award
Recognition of an outstanding contribution to establishing the Environmental Law Clinic and developing environmental-law education.
On 7 December 2023 in Belgrade, the OSCE Mission to Serbia presented its 2023 Person of the Year Award to Prof. Dr Mirjana Drenovak-Ivanović, Full Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, and to Dejan Stojanović, a lawyer at the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications. The awards were presented by the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ambassador Jan Braathu.
The Person of the Year Award recognises citizens of Serbia who, as partners of the Mission, made an important contribution during the year to advancing OSCE values and commitments and had a positive impact on society. The Mission’s official announcement stated that the 2023 recipients had demonstrated exceptional dedication to human rights and the rule of law, good governance, environmental protection, gender equality, youth rights, sustainable development, media freedom and the safety of journalists.
Prof. Dr Mirjana Drenovak-Ivanović was recognised for her outstanding contribution to the establishment of the Environmental Law Clinic. The Clinic was launched in 2015 as an extracurricular programme of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, with continuing support from the OSCE Mission to Serbia. According to the information published in the award statement, by the time of the award the programme had enabled 600 senior law students to strengthen their theoretical and practical skills and complete professional placements in state institutions.
The Clinic connects academic teaching with practical legal problems in environmental protection. Through cooperation with institutions and legal practitioners, students gain insight into administrative, judicial and other proceedings, access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and legal mechanisms for protecting environmental rights. The Mission also highlighted Prof. Dr Mirjana Drenovak-Ivanović’s pivotal role in establishing the master’s programme in Environmental Law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law.
The recognition confirms the importance of the long-term cooperation between the Faculty of Law and the OSCE Mission to Serbia in developing practice-oriented environmental-law education. The experience of the Clinic and the master’s programme provided an important institutional foundation for activities of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Environmental and Climate Change Law, including the further development of clinical teaching and the Environmental Law Clinic Hub (E-L-C Hub).
Official OSCE Mission to Serbia announcement: https://serbia.osce.org/mission-to-serbia/559974