Eminent human rights defender and President of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights passed away in Belgrade in 20 April 2010.
Biljana Kovačević – Vučo was a human rights activists in Serbia. In her long career of peace and human rights activists, she was, inter alia, a founder of the Human Rights Council of the Center for Anti War Action in Belgrade; head of the SOS hotline for legal assistance to the victims of political, ethnic and labor-related discrimination (1992-1995); founder, general secretary and head of legal aid office of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (1994-1997); president of the Managing Board of the Center for Transition to Democracy (1997) and founder and president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUKOM – since 1997 (former Yugoslav Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights). She was the initiator of the majority of NGOs coalitions and networks dealing with the protection of human rights in Serbia and in the region. Since 1996, she was practicing law in Belgrade in her law office specialized in criminal law and human rights violation cases. She was representing victims of human rights violations before national and international bodies (UN Committee for Human Rights and European Court for Human Rights).