The Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights and Gender Equality, Ms. Jelena Stojanović, stated today that the cooperation of all competent bodies and Institutions is very important in combatting human trafficking and in the process of protecting the victims of such trafficking, as well as that the media have significant role in this combat.

“The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings binds the Member States to take measures in order to prevent and eliminate human trafficking, and Article 11 recognizes the media as stakeholders in the combat against human trafficking and specifies the protection of victims’ identity and privacy”, said Stojanović in her address at the workshop for journalists organized by Council of Europe Office in Belgrade.

Stojanović added that the same Article of the Convention specified that member states should consider the adoption of the measures aimed at encouraging the media to protect the private life and identity of the victims and added that the protection of the privacy of victims in human trafficking meant not only the protection of their identity, but also the non-publishing of the photos of the premises in which they lived, interviews with close relatives or headlines.

The Deputy Protector of Citizens reminded that the Protector of Citizens was delegated the mandate of the National Rapporteur on the fight against human trafficking under the new Law on the Protector of Citizens and called on all journalists to contact this independent state institution regarding all doubts they have when reporting on human trafficking and victim protection.

The workshop for journalists on fact based ethical reporting on human trafficking was organized by the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade, within the project "Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in Serbia" which is part of the joint program of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal facility for Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022 ".

The Deputy Protector of Citizens for Gender Equality, Jelena Stojanović, has underscored today that this Institution is mandated to launch initiatives to amend the regulations and called on the elderly women from Ivanjica and neighboring villages to approach the Protector of Citizens if they believe that their rights were violated.

“It is important that elderly people, especially rural women, be empowered to report all kinds of violence to the authorities, and recognize various forms of discrimination that they are exposed to. The Protector of Citizens can initiate changes to applicable regulations that would improve the position of the elderly " said Stojanović at the gathering "Prevention of violence against the elderly women in pandemic and challenges in accessing social and health care services".

At the gathering organized by the Associations "Laris" and "Snaga Prijateljstva - Amity”, Stojanović reiterated that in addition to poverty, discrimination, and violence, the main problems faced by rural women were the lack of special services, support services, and difficult access to health facilities.

The representative of the Association "Snaga Prijateljstva - Amity" Nadežda Satarić has pointed out that it is essential that elderly women discuss various forms of violence, neglect, and abuse of the elderly, and be informed about it, bearing in mind that four women were killed in Serbia in the last seven days, three of whom were over 60.

“Violence, neglect of the needs of the elderly and their economic exploitation (in cases when someone disposes of the entire pension of the elderly and neglects their needs for food, medicine, orthopedic aids) should be reported, " said Satarić and added that, after two years of the pandemic, the elderly should be freed from fear and try to return to their lives and regular activities.

The participants have stated that during the pandemic, access to health services was difficult for elderly patients who did not have Covid, that the ambulance in the suburbs of Ivanjica and the surrounding villages is not working and that the pharmacies in the villages have not been working for six months. All the participants of the meeting believe that the biggest problem in the suburbs of Ivanjica and the surrounding mountain villages is local transport and very bad, inaccessible roads.

The forum was held within the project “Promotion of indiscrimination and protection from violence against the elderly women amid pandemic” supported by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, within the program “Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Policies in the Republic of Serbia for 2021”, funded from the budget of the Republic of Serbia.

The Protector of Citizens identified the illegalities and irregularities in the work of the School Administration in Kosovska Mitrovica as it failed to accomplish the legally specified obligation to cooperate with the Protector of Citizens, it violated the principle of good administration because it failed to respond to the complainant’s request, and requested that the liability of the employees be determined for the irregularities made.

School Administration in Kosovska Mitrovica of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development failed to submit the information requested by the Protector of Citizens, which poses a violation of the obligation to cooperate with the Protector of Citizens under Article 21, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Protector of Citizens, as well as the violation of the good governance principle, and it was to the detriment of the complainant’s rights.

In addition to non-cooperation with the Protector of Citizens, which added to the length of the investigation to control the legality and regularity of work, the school administration acted illegally and incorrectly because it did not respond to the complainant's request to increase the teaching load at the "Branko Radičević" Elementary School in Kosovska Mitrovica.

In the recommendations for rectifying the shortcomings, the Protector of Citizens emphasizes that the School Administration needs to act in its future work by the Law on the Protector of Citizens and submit clear and complete responses to the requests of this independent state institution, as well as to respond to the complainant regarding her request for increasing the teaching load.

The Protector of Citizens requests the Head of Kosovska Mitrovica School Administration to take measures to identify the liability of the acting employee for violating the obligation to cooperate with the Protector of Citizens and to acquaint the rest of the employees with this recommendation to prevent similar, or the same, illegal actions in the future.

The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, talked with the owners of private care homes who have reported that they had most problems with the length of the licensing procedure and the existing tax regulations and he announced that he would contact the competent Ministry in order to look at all problems that they possibly had.

“I will request the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs to notify me on the issues that the owners of private care homes raised in order for working conditions to be equal for state-owned and privately-owned care homes and for beneficiaries to be provided with the highest level of services”, said Pašalić at the meeting with the members of the Association of privately owned social protection institutions, care homes for adults and the elderly.

Pašalić also stated that the Institution of the Protector of Citizens received a small number of complaints about the work of the care homes for the elderly, while there were more complaints about the work of the authorities which we are legally mandated to monitor, primarily the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs which is in charge of controlling social welfare institutions.

“The protection of the elderly, as I have previously announced, is going to be our priority in both state and private care homes for the elderly and in their families. Those are our mothers, fathers, other close relatives, and all of us together have a duty and obligation to ensure a dignified treatment in their old age wherever they spend it, be it in a care home or at their own home” Pašalić emphasized.

The Protector of Citizens, among other things, is mandated to preventively control the work of social institutions, which implies that the visits are conducted without announcement at any time of day or night because the focus of our work is the protection and improvement of the position of two most endangered categories of the society – the children and the elderly, Pašalić said.

The President of the Association, Mr. Radoslav Milovanović, pointed out that the problems that they are facing such as, first and foremost a long licensing procedure and existing tax regulations, are the problems of our entire society, but also of the elderly who are in need of such accommodation, and that better cooperation and state support are needed in order to advance their work.

The members of the Association said that they also had problems with unfair competition created by illegal care homes for the elderly which they had reported to the competent Ministry because their work and quality of services were not under the control of the competent inspections and the eldest beneficiaries could be particularly endangered.

Representatives of the Association also pointed out the problem with media reporting on the problems they have in their work and highlighted that when a case reaches the public, the data that are released to the public are generally not verified, which affects the reputation and business operation of all private homes that care for the elderly.