On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – 25 November, the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, shed light on the fact that the living conditions imposed by the pandemic increase the risk of violence against women and stressed that rural women, women with disabilities and Roma women, who had been in a vulnerable position before the pandemic, faced the most challenges.

“Fears, uncertainty, poverty and economic insecurity increase the risk domestic violence and violence against women surge, which may result in tragic consequences. I therefore reiterate my call to local governments to allocate funds to allow victims of violence to be examined immediately by a forensic doctor in order to establish the link between the violence and the consequences”, Mr. Pašalić stated.

The Protector of Citizens highlighted that special attention should be devoted to the protection of vulnerable groups of women, as well as to improving and developing community services through which women in a situation of violence will be provided all kinds of support and assistance.

Mr. Pašalić stated that the competent authorities should fully implement the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence and work on raising public awareness of the absolute inadmissibility and punishability of gender-based violence, as well as that Safe Houses and other forms of alternative accommodation should be available to victims of violence, as well as other measures of assistance and support.

The Protector of Citizens also highlighted the need to adopt the National Strategy for Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women in the Family and in Intimate Partner Relationship and the accompanying Action Plan and to the need to harmonize the Criminal Code with the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combatting violence against women and domestic violence.

For more than 20 years, the campaign has been conducted every year in about 100 countries around the world “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” where 1,700 organizations are taking part. The campaign starts on November 25 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on December 10 - International Human Rights Day.

November 25 has been designated for the date of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as the day of remembrance for the Mirabel sisters (Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa) who were brutally assassinated by the dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Two decades later, in 1981, this date was designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women at the first meeting of Latin American and Caribbean feminists (Feminist Encuentro) in Bogotá. The United Nations put it on the official agenda in 1999.

In an investigation initiated upon the complaint over the impossibility to register the change of sex done abroad into the registry books in Serbia, the Protector of Citizens identified omissions in the work of the competent authorities, the rectifying of which enabled the complainant to be issued a certificate of gender reassignment and register the reassignment of gender in the registry books in the relevant local service.

Upon receiving a complaint from our citizen residing abroad, the Protector of Citizens launched the investigation of controlling the work of the Cabinet for Transgender Conditions of the Clinic for Psychiatry of the Clinical Center of Serbia (CCS), which is in charge of issuing certificates of gender reassignment, as well as the work of the Republic Expert Commission for Transgender Conditions of the Ministry of Health.

At the Protector of Citizens’ request, the Inspection of the Ministry of Health in charge of controlling the work of health institutions found irregularities and ambiguities in the operation of the Cabinet for Transgender Conditions of the Clinic for Psychiatry of CCS and Republic Expert Commission for Transgender Conditions of the Ministry of Health during the implementation of the Rulebook on the manner of issuance and the form of the certificate of the competent healthcare institution on gender reassignment.

The inspection of the Ministry of Health informed the Protector of Citizens that it had taken all legally prescribed measures and that the competent health institution had issued and sent a certificate of gender reassignment to the competent registry office in Serbia.

The Protector of Citizens, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, sent a telegram of condolences to the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox church after the repose of His Holiness Irinej, Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch.

In the telegram, the Protector of Citizens expressed deep sorrow over the passing away of Patriarch Irinej, whose departure is a great loss for Orthodox believers and citizens of Serbia who respected his spiritual path.

According to elementary and high school students, participants of the Youth Advisory Panel of the Protector of Citizens, Covid -19 pandemic denied the children and the youth the right to good quality education, the right to socialize and the rights to rest and healthcare, pointing out on that occasion that even amid the pandemic the children and the youth should be asked about their needs and rights.

At an online meeting organized on 20 November, the World Children’s Day, the children and the youth stated that the pandemic had prevented them from attending classes regularly and from having good quality lectures, and claimed that the school system had not been prepared for the transition to online teaching, primarily due to the lack of teachers’ training and their readiness to apply modern technologies in teaching.

In addition to numerous objections to the organization of online classes, the most common of which relates to fitting the time of such classes to teachers and not students, the young panelists also pointed out the impossibility of some children, especially in rural areas, to attend the classes online, as well as the difficulty in exercising the right to education of children with disabilities.

Final grade elementary school pupils expressed concern whether they will be able to master the material for taking the finals and earn enough points to enroll in the desired school. In this regard, it was agreed with the representatives of the Sector for Child Rights of the Protector of Citizens to ask for clarifications from the competent ministry regarding the final exam and holding the entrance exams for the enrollment at the faculties.

The panelists stated that due to the uneven online classes organization, they were denied the right to socialize and rest as they did not have time for that because of all-day online school duties, and some also complained that they were not seeing all their classmates while others stated that they had not yet met all the classmates they go to school with.

Also, the young panelists stated that the right of the child to health care was jeopardized due to the pandemic since, as they explained, they need to test for Covid and wait for the results in order to be examined by other doctors, which is particularly problematic for children with rare diseases.

In their suggestions for overcoming the problems in the exercise of child rights, the participants of the panel, among other things, pointed out the need for adults to pay more attention to children and their opinions when making decisions, and above all to criticism. To that end, as they stated, children should be informed in a timely and accurate manner.