Opinions and Statements

The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, extends his congratulations on 8 April, International Roma Day, and calls on all citizens not to permit the solidarity among people to fade away amid the pressure of the global economic crisis and growing apathy. He also urges them to pay attention to the needs of others and to extend their efficient and effective support to vulnerable social groups, including the Roma.

Pašalić indicates that the Roma still are the most discriminated against and marginalized social group, even though they are the largest minority community in Europe.

The Roma women belong to the most endangered social categories. They get married at an early age, face multiple pregnancies at a short interval, financial and other dependence on partners or elderly family members, and have a high risk of domestic and intimate-partner violence. The second most vulnerable group is Roma children, whose overall development in poverty and informal settlements carries many risks.

“There are systemic problems that the Roma encounter daily. Although the country has undertaken a range of measures and activities in the area of education, healthcare, and obtaining personal documents, the quality of life of this community did not improve to a large extent” the Protector of Citizens warned and added that the goals to be achieved refer to more accessible education, regular health care, reducing poverty through facilitated employment.

He added that the results achieved in improving the position of the Roma failed to remove key barriers in the process of their integration which is why the overall support for the Roma national minority needs to remain in focus. “We need to show preparedness when it comes to solving complex issues of that community. The Protector of Citizens is mandated to protect the rights of national minorities and last year was marked by a set of activities taken to empower and improve the position of the Roma, which have been laid out in the Institution’s Regular Annual Report” Pašalić highlighted. The Protector of Citizens will also monitor the implementation of measures of the new Strategy for Social Inclusion of the Roma for 2022-2030, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia on 3 February this year.

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 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 Protector of Citizens identified omissions in the work of the Secretariat for Transport of the Belgrade City Administration because it failed to provide the equipment for blind and low-vision people in the form of acoustic signals for crossing the street after it removed the pedestrian traffic light during the reconstruction of the lighting signalization on pedestrian crossings.

Following the complaint of a mother of the child with low vision from Belgrade that the reconstruction of the lighting signalization on the crossroads disabled her child from moving independently, as the child used to do before, since pedestrian traffic lights were removed from a large number of crossroads, the Protector of Citizens launched an investigation to control work legality and regularity of the Secretariat.

Due to the need to improve the position of children with impaired eyesight and ensure their better safety as traffic participants, the Protector of Citizens believes that the Secretariat needs to ensure the same level of exercising the rights for persons of impaired eyesight who prior to these reconstructions of lighting signalization could move independently because they could see the lighting signal on the pedestrian traffic light which was located at the traffic island.

Due to these reasons, it is necessary to undertake all the measures to ensure that acoustic signal for safe crossing is installed on the pedestrian crossings of wide city streets in Belgrade. In this way the safety and security would be ensured not only to children but to the adults of impaired sight as well.

In the Recommendation to rectify the shortcomings, the Protector of Citizens requests that in future the City Secretariat installs the equipment for marking the paths for the movement of blind and low-vision persons in the form of acoustic signals for crossing the street on all pedestrian crossings on which the pedestrian traffic light is removed and to notify the Institution on acting upon the recommendation within 30 days.

Mobile teams of the Protector of Citizens will monitor in the field the exercise of political rights of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia on Sunday, 3 April 2022, while the services of this independent state institution for human rights protection will work from 7 am, when polling stations open, until late at night.

“I urge all citizens of the Republic of Serbia, particularly people with disabilities and the elderly, to approach us either via phone or directly if they encounter any problems on Sunday, while exercising their political rights on the polling places, in order for us to be able to remove any obstacles” said Pašalić.

The Protector of Citizens has pointed out that the practice of the Institution already shows that people with disabilities and the elderly population were not able to exercise their voting right fully because it was difficult for them to access certain polling stations, which violated their political rights.

“Civil and political rights constitute the main part of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they are guaranteed by the laws and Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. On Sunday, within its mandate, the Institution of the Protector of Citizens will work on ensuring full and equal enjoyment of all human rights for all citizens of the Republic of Serbia,” Pašalić said.

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.

Today, the Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, visited the Ukrainian refugees staying in the Reception Center in Vranje and talked with them about their treatment in the Republic of Serbia, the problems they are facing and all kinds of assistance that they need.

“In Vranje Reception Center, there are currently 42 people from Ukraine – 2 men, 25 women and 15 children. I was told that they were satisfied with the accommodation and hospitality, and that they were grateful for the support they were receiving from the citizens of Serbia. I have called on them to approach the Protector of Citizens regarding any problem they might have”.

Pašalić stated that the refugees from Ukraine only mentioned as a complaint the fact that when entering Serbia, they had stayed longer on the border crossing and that only one person reported the lack of travel documents.

During Pašalić’s conversation with Ukrainian refugees, the Consul from Ukrainian Embassy in Belgrade Ms. Olga Antonova came as well to the Reception Center, and she was acquainted with the problems of a person from Ukraine who did not have travel documents which she needed to travel to her relatives in a European country.

In the Reception Center in Vranje, Pašalić spoke with the employees about the problems that they have been encountering and about the possibilities for improving the conditions in which Ukrainian refugees are staying, as well as about the importance of creating the conditions to eschew potential danger that the refugees from Ukraine, particularly women and children, become the victims of human trafficking.