Young people in Serbia are facing numerous problems and challenges of contemporary age, but one of the greatest challenges in our society is the decrease in number of young people in total population. Young people are expansively leaving country, primarily because of their belief that they will have better perspective abroad for education and later for employment. Unfortunately, many of them will not return, said Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic on the occasion of International Youth Day. She stressed that emigration of youth is not just a problem of Serbia, but of the whole region too.

Commissioner emphasized that the institution of Commissioner is especially dedicated to the young and announced that, along with many activities aimed to support youth, a big conference about their position in Serbia will be organized later this year in cooperation with Europe Youth Capital Novi Sad (OPENS2019).

One of significant problems that young people are facing is violence and according to available data more than half of young people were exposed to some type of violence. Peer violence is worrying. Situation is similar with discrimination – more than half of young people were discriminated against in some way, said Commissioner Jankovic. Young are often discriminated during the employment, because employers request them to have experience, while they have no opportunity to gain it. It is good to have a positive trend which, according to data, show that percentage of unemployed young people is decreasing, still just a quarter of young have employment in accordance with their field of study.

Brankica Jankovic pointed to variety of positive measures undertook by the state in the strategies aimed to improve the position of young and says that today is an opportunity to talk about these problems.