European Court of Human Rights Rules Serbia Failed Romani Child Victim of Assault

European Court of Human Rights Rules Serbia Failed Romani Child Victim of Assault

06 October 2026

Brussels, 6 October 2026: The European Court of Human Rights today delivered its judgment in Pavlović v. Serbia, ruling unanimously that Serbia violated Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to protect a Romani child's physical and psychological integrity who was the victim of a violent assault.

The case was brought by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) on behalf of Robert Pavlović. In July 2016, aged nine, he was playing the accordion with his sister in a square in Valjevo to earn money for their family. An adult man, identified as a lawyer employed by the municipality, grabbed the boy and slapped him in the face after earlier threatening to break his instrument. The child suffered lasting psychological harm, including sleep disturbances and fear of staying home alone.

Instead of prosecuting the perpetrator, the Serbian prosecutor discontinued criminal proceedings on the condition he paid a modest payment of around €250 to a State flood relief fund. The perpetrator had refused to apologise to the children or compensate them. Under Serbian law, the victim had no right to appeal the decision.

The Strasbourg Court held that this response showed disregard for the victim's interests, failed to account for his vulnerability and best interests, and therefore breached Serbia's positive obligations under Article 8. The Court rejected the Government's argument that compensation awarded by the Serbian Constitutional Court and in civil proceedings had cured the violation. Serbia must pay him EUR 3,400 in non-pecuniary damages.

"A municipal employee slapped a nine-year-old Roma boy in the face in the middle of Valjevo, and Serbia's answer was to let him pay money to a flood fund and walk away. Today, after a ten year wait, the Court in Strasbourg said what we have said for years: this country's authorities do not do enough to protect Roma children from violence" said ERRC President, Đorđe Jovanović.

The European Court separately declared the discrimination complaints inadmissible, finding that the applicant had failed to make a strong enough case that the assault was racially motivated or that the investigation was discriminatory. While the Court recognised Robert's vulnerability as a nine-year-old child and separately acknowledged prejudice against Roma in Serbia, it did not meaningfully examine how these circumstances could interact. The ERRC argue that Robert was not just a child in one part of the case and Romani in another part, he was a Romani child whose allegations needed to be assessed in that combined context which did not happen.

The ERRC has litigated numerous cases concerning police and prosecutorial failures to investigate violence against Roma across Europe. The A11 Initiative for Economic and Social Rights intervened as a third party in this case.

The Pavlović v. Serbia (application no. 42160/21) judgment was reached by the European Court of Human Rights, Third Section, on 1st September 2026 and was published 6th October 2026.

This press release is also available in Serbian.

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