Brankica Janković , the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality attended „Significance of Informal Parliamentary Groups“  session presented by the Group for Empowering Persons with Disability and Women Parliamentary Network, which represent important examples of contemporary parliamentary activity in cooperation with organizations of civil society.

Janković stressed that Commissioner for the Protection of Equality has supported the Project of strengthening political participation of persons with disabilities in Serbia from the beginning, as well as the foundation of permanent parliamentary working group dealing with issues of rights of persons with disabilities.

Commissioner said that a great improvement was made, when it comes to this sensitive group and their rights, but much remains to be done, especially in areas such as education, security, work and employment, social and health care.

During the discussion, Commissioner Janković stressed that the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality had launched an initiative with the Ministry of Justice to amend Article 179 of the Criminal Code that defines criminal act of sexual assault against helpless person, which was accepted and included in the Draft  Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia.

“Our suggestion was to make the penalty for this criminal act equal to or even higher than the penalty envisaged for the criminal act of rape,” said Commissioner Janković.

Other speakers at the session included MP Vesna Rakonjac chairing the Group for Empowering Persons with Disabilities, MP Milanka Jeftović Vukojčić, representative of Women Parliamentary Network  and Gordana Rajkov, Project Director of Strengthening Political Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Serbia project.