Đurđe Ninković
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Đurđe Ninković (born 1942) was a founder 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. At this time the administrative office of the DS was also located in Mr. Ninković's law offices for a few months. 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 office of the DSS was also located in his law offices. He was elected to the DSS' General Committee at the founding party conference.
He was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice in the Government of Serbia led by Zoran Djindjić, the Prime Minister, in 2001. 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 also participated in the government working group drafting the privatisation law (adopted in 2001) and was the chairman of the working group preparing the draft law on restitution of nationalised and confiscated property (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 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 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 Serbain judiciary.
