Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic took part at the regional conference “Implementation of Council of Europe Istanbul Convention – challenges and forthcoming steps” which was organized in Sarajevo by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of BiH and Agency for Gender Equality of BiH.
In her addressing, Commissioner reminded that Serbia was among the first countries that ratified this document and stressed that the amendments of the Criminal Law significantly contributed to the harmonization with Istanbul Convention standards.
Reminding that it was acted upon the recommendation of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and that legal framework was harmonized by enacting of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, Commissioner Jankovic emphasized the importance of urgent measures, which present a great improvement in the protection against violence, in spite of numerous challenges. Also, Commissioner stressed the significance of further cultural progress and changes in the public sphere related to the role of women and men in contemporary society.
Having in mind that gender is one of the most common grounds of discrimination for complaints that our citizens submit to our institution, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, as the central state body for suppression of all types of discrimination, has realized numerous activities related to prevention and protection against gender discrimination and gender based violence, through numerous educations and trainings held for health and social care workers, police, judges and also through recommendations of measures, warnings to the public about the most common, typical and hard cases of discrimination, as well as in other different ways, stated Commissioner.
All participants at the conference stressed the role and importance of the regional cooperation, which is very good, long lasting and continuous, and the results of this cooperation are visible in all countries in the region.
Regional conference was opened by Director of the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH Samra Filipovic-Hadziabdic and beside Commissioner Brankica Jankovic, other speakers were also Director of UN Woman BiH David Saunders, USAID Director in BiH Peter Duffy, Council of Europe Office Deputy Head Toni Pavloski, Ambassador of Sweden in Sarajevo Anders Hagelberg, state secretary in the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Issues of Republic of Serbia Stana Bozovic and representatives of Montenegro, Macedonia and others.
