Brankica Janković, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality met with the members of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance which was held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

During the fifth round of monitoring by ECRI’s experts who were on a country visit to the Republic of Serbia, the delegation met with representatives of independent state bodies, state authorities, local self-government units and civil society organizations so as to gain a comprehensive insight into measures undertaken by the Government with an objective to combat racism, racial discrimination and intolerance.

During this round of monitoring, one session was reserved for representatives of independent state institutions. In the course of the meeting the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Janković and her team of experts discussed with ECRI experts issues pertaining mainly to the scope of authority and mandate of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, complaints filed with the Commissioner, incidents of hate speech and mechanisms for combatting discrimination. Commissioner Janković stressed that ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation  No. 15 on Combating Hate Speech is extremely valuable and can serve as a clear guideline in fighting hate speech and resulting discrimination.