November 8th, 2019

Today in Niš, the Protector of Citizens Zoran Pašalić said that it was necessary to form the Balkan Ombudspersons Association.

The flow of persons and goods, and communication in general in the region is at such a level that problems could be solved in a faster and more efficient way through the cooperation of ombudspersons or human rights protection institutions, Pašalić explained.

There are many examples of this, and the latest one is the case of the Burmazović family. What was not visible was the extraordinary and great cooperation between the Ombudsmen of Serbia and Turkey, which resulted in an epilogue that made us all happy, said Mr. Pašalić at a conference that brought together the Protectors of Citizens of the Balkan countries.

He said there were examples of problems, which citizens abroad were trying to solve for months, sometimes for years, and through the cooperation of Protectors of Citizens, the problem in question was solved in less than a month.

The Protector of Citizens also stated that although the Institution existed for 10 years, the citizens were not familiar with their rights and the possibility to exercise their rights through the Institution of the Protector of Citizens. Hence, constant contact with the citizens, visits to places in Serbia and establishment of the Department for Emergent Response that provides urgent and instant reaction the moment the problem appears, Mr. Pašalić said.

Ombudsman added that a significant number of citizens’ complaints refer to non-observance of trial within reasonable time, non-enforcement of court decisions and the right to a fair trial. It is a shocking fact that out of the total number of court decisions in the cases of Serbian citizens in the Strasbourg court, 82 percent refer to the trial within a reasonable time, Mr. Pašalić said.

During the last 19 months, the Institution of the Protector of Citizens realized the project “Increasing accessibility of the Protector of Citizens to the citizens living in the interior of Serbia’’ that particularly dealt with the national minorities problems, the Ombudsman reminded. Within this project, the Protector of Citizens visited 19 towns and municipalities in Serbia (Dimitrovgrad, Bosilegrad, etc…) to contact the citizens directly and to hear their complaints.

Most frequently, the protection of national minorities rights boils down to the protection of the right to use the language, scripts and the protection of the rights to education in the mother tongue, Mr. Pašalić stated.
He added that it was good that there was no systematic violation of human rights.

During a two-day regional conference in Niš, representatives of the Ombudspersons offices in the countries of the region - Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and Romania - exchanged their experiences regarding the accessibility of their institutions to citizens, national minorities position in Serbia and in the region, monitoring the activities in combating trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Serbia and strengthening the Protector of Citizens Institution in accordance with the Venice Principles.

The Protector of Citizens points out that the elderly need support and understanding in order to preserve their dignity and exercise their rights. It is necessary to combat the social exclusion and isolation of the elderly and to take measures dedicated to their active participation in society, the prevention of poverty and the improvement of financial position of the elderly, in the area of providing community services, health and social care, personal and family life, said the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pasalic, on the occasion of the International Day for Older Persons.

The most common problems faced by the elderly are poverty and neglect within the family, including disposition of their property without their consent, dissatisfaction with exercising the right to material support when they are in a difficult financial and life situation due to lack of income or insufficient amount of income, and when they are in poor health condition, exercising the right to the assistance and care of another person is difficult.

Although domestic violence has ceased to be a “private family matter” and a taboo topic, violence against the elderly is not recognizable and visible enough. The elderly are less likely to report violence, especially when the perpetrators of the violence are their children; in such situations – primarily because of loyalty to their own children – older and infirm parents are willing to suffer the most cruel forms of violence, rather than to seek protection from the system. In one case, which the Protector of Citizens investigated on its own initiative, an elderly woman was a longtime victim of her son's violence. She was kicked, slapped, punched, insulted and belittled. Still, she did not want to press charges against her son, in order to protect him from prosecution. Although the victim did not report him, the police, guardianship authority and the health institutions were aware of the violence but failed to take action to protect the victim and prevent the recurrence of violence. Despite the history of violence against the elderly by her son, police officials did not estimate that there was a risk of violence, and the guardianship authority, instead of violence, was concerned with “repairing family relations between mother and son”. The extent to which the police, health care and guardianship authority estimates were incorrect, and the activities inadequate, was shown by the unfortunate tragic death of the victim, who died at the hands of her own son, which is unacceptable.

The lack of support services is still present, especially home support services that are often necessary for this group of population, given that the elderly often live alone and do not have relatives to care for them. These problems are particularly pronounced in rural areas, where elderly women living in single households are in a particularly difficult position, Pasalic said.

Secretary general of the professional service of the Protector of Citizens, Olja Jovicic, participated in the conference of the highest representatives of the European institutions for equality “Towards effective equality – new responses to racism and intolerance” in Paris on the occassion of the 25th anniversary of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe (ECRI). The conference was held on September 26-27, 2019, within the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Council of Europe.

The main topics of the conference were mutual cooperation in the field of equality protection, the most effective ways to build an inclusive society, the benefits and risks of using new technologies, as well as the future of the idea of equality and combating racism and intolerance.

The aim of the conference was to formulate a common strategy and plan activities that will meet the biggest challenges in Europe in these areas.

Assistant secretary general, Natasa Jovic, and the Head of the Cabinet of the Protector of Citizens, Marija Podunavac, participated in the regular annual conference of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children, held in Belfast from 25 to 27 September.

The theme of this year's conference were the rights of the child in the digital environment, both from the point of view of protecting children on the Internet and from the point of view of promoting the rights of the child to information, participation, expression, association and the exercise of other rights and freedoms of the child through the use of information technology (IT). A significant part of the conference was dedicated to the participation of children, through the European Network of Young Advisers, which is made up of children, who gave their own assessment of the rights of the child in the digital environment, their perceptions of the risks they are exposed to and their views on how children can be provided with knowledge and skills for responsible and secure use of IT. Particularly significant is the fact that children indicate that adult attention is predominantly focused on the risks to children's safety when using IT, and less on the benefits that children undoubtedly derive from information technology.

Assistant secretary general, Natasa Jovic, presented experiences, achievements and challenges in Serbia at a workshop dedicated to safeguards and strategic documents in the field of child protection in the digital environment. She emphasized that Serbia has ratified all key international treaties that are important for the protection of children in the digital environment, and that it has a national legal framework that provides a very good basis for establishing and developing mechanisms for protecting children in the digital environment.