Đurđe Ninković

Đurđe Ninković, (born 1942) was a founding member of the Democratic Party (DS) in Serbia who joined the Founding Committee of the Democratic Party in December 1989. From late December the meetings of the Founding Committee and later the Executive Committee of the DS took place in his law offices in Belgrade where the Pismo o namerama (Letter of intent), the first party political program of the DS, was drafted and published in January 1990. At this time the central office of the DS was also located in Mr. Ninković's law offices in hotel Astoria for a few months ^[1] .

Biography

Đurđe was brought up in a pro-democracy family where both his parents were opponents of communist totalitarianism. His father was a lawyer educated in France and Yugoslavia, who was persecuted after the communist government was established in Yugoslavia in 1944 and his mother also studied law at the University of Belgrade. They both believed in individual human rights and the rule of law, both of which were trampled by the communist revolution. This influenced Đurđe in his belief that for Serbia to move forward it was first necessary to fully dismantle the legacy of the communist dictatorship ^[2] .

He graduated from the Belgrade Law School and completed his post-graduate studies at the University of London. He is also a graduate of the Kokkalis Program at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Executive Education leadership course in 2000, having received a Kokkalis Foundation scholarship.

Djurdje Ninković was decorated Knight of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star in 1988 for legal services as long standing Counsel to the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade ^[3] .

Political life

Đurđe was a member of the Founding Committee of the Democratic Party from mid December 1989. He was elected Secretary of the Executive Committee at the founding party conference in February 1990 and was an elected member of the General Committee of the Democratic Party until July 1992.

He left the DS with the pro-DEPOS coalition wing of the party and was a founding member of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) in July 1992 with Vojislav Koštunica, Vladeta Janković, Mirko Petrović, Draško Petrović, Vladan Batić and others. Initially, for the first few months, the administrative central office of the DSS was also located in his law offices in hotel Astoria. He was elected to the DSS' General Committee at the founding party conference.

Both within the DS and DSS he was concerned with establishing a democratic system in Serbia premised on the rule of law with a strong independent judiciary and a government of just laws. Since the beginning of the 1990s he has campaigned for the adoption of four specific essential laws to achieve a complete moral, political and economic break with the totalitarian past which would also underpin the establishment of a just society based on democratic values and respect for individual human rights. The four laws are: the Law of restitution of property forcibly nationalised by the communist regime without compensation; followed by the Law of privatisation; the Law of rehabilitation of political prisoners; and the Law of lustration effectively barring those individuals who had been instrumental in the abuse of human rights under communism from holding public office for a period of years. His published view was that society, by adopting these laws, would also make a moral statement that totalitarian policies had failed and had been deeply unjust and would make a best attempt to right the wrongs perpetrated over 60 years of communist rule and establish a free market economy allowing individuals rather than the state to control economic resources. A similar approach to transition from Communism to Democracy had been recommended by the Council of Europe in 1996 in its Resolution 1096 on measures to dismantle the heritage of former communist totalitarian systems.

In 2001, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Serbia led by Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister. His role included chairing various government expert working groups drafting new democratic laws to underpin the post-communist civil society, including laws regulating non-governmental organisations (NGOs), political parties and the judiciary, all of which were adopted by Parliament in 2001/02. As Deputy Minister of Justice he was also the chairman of the working group preparing the draft law on restitution of nationalised and confiscated property in 2001 (which has yet to be adopted by Parliament).

After leaving office he remained involved as a legal expert within government working groups preparing draft legislation and was appointed the deputy chairman of the working group preparing the draft law on Restitution of confiscated church property (adopted by Parliament in 2006), and was a member of working groups preparing the law on Rehabilitation of political prisoners (adopted by Parliament in 2005) and the law on registration and evidencing of nationalised/confiscated property (adopted by Parliament in 2005). He also campaigned for the adoption of legislation on lustration of communist apparatchiks especially within the government, judiciary and the police (such laws having been adopted in post-communist countries including Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary). A law on the "Responsibility of individuals for breaches of human rights", the so called "law of lustration", was passed by the Serbian parliament in 2003 but has not been applied to investigate Milosevic era and Communist era abuses by the Serbian judiciary and police.

Since 2006 he is no longer actively involved in party politics having experienced a continuing lack of political will for genuine deep rooted political reforms.

In 2009 he actively campaigned for the immediate adoption of the Law of restitution of nationalised and confiscated property, which is a condition of Serbia's potential candidature for membership of the EU. His campaign included a direct action occupation of hotel Astoria which had been built by his grandfather and owned by his family until forceful nationalisation by the Communist regime in 1948.

References

1. ^ British Library Catalogue Article "Remembering the beginnings of the (re-established) Democratic Party", SOUTH SLAV JOURNAL, 2006, VOL 27; NUMB 3/4, pages 62-71
2. ^ British Library Catalogue Article "Remembering the beginnings of the (re-established) Democratic Party", SOUTH SLAV JOURNAL, 2006, VOL 27; NUMB 3/4, pages 62-71
3. ^ Crown Cabinet Members Biography of D Ninkovic

External links

• Article by Dj. Ninkovic about the assassination of the late Zoran Djindjić in English
• Transcript of interview on B92 TV about the law on rehabilitation of political prisoners in Serbian
• Article on reform of Serbian Judiciary in Serbian
• Article on Restitution of nationalised and confiscated property on behalf of Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) in Serbian
• Short biography in English
• Council of Europe Resolution 1096 (1996)

Persondata
Name	Ninkovic, Djurdje
Alternative names	Ninković, Đurđe
Short description
Date of birth	1942
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death