Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, took part at the conference “Human rights in Serbia – reality or farce?”, organized by Forum ZDF and Danas daily newspaper in Center for Cultural Decontamination.

Mechanisms for protection of human rights in Serbia exist also for protection against discrimination. I do not deny that there are single cases of violation of human rights and what we need to do together is to decrease the number of such cases. I think that we have an adequate legal framework, with possibilities for improvement, while we see chances for better legal framework through implementation of Action Plan for Chapter 23, said the Commissioner.

Commissioner also presented the results of the last year’s survey on relation of citizens towards discrimination.

This research indicated positive developments in area of protection against discrimination, while the most important indicator was that today significantly greater number of citizens would address insitutions for help. The number of citizens considering that discrimination in Serbia is growing has decreased and that is followed by reducing of distrust in state institutions, said the Commissioner.

Roma, LGBT and poor persons were perceived by citizens as the most discriminated groups and the opinion that discrimination is mostly present in area of work and employment is corelated with our Annual Report, which is logical, because we are all concerned about our existence, concluded the Commissioner.

Among others, speakers at the conference were Robert Sepi, Ombudsman Deputy, Goran Miletic, gay activist and „Civil Rights Defenders“ program director, Predrag Azdejkovic, gay activist and journalist and Jelena Dikovic, journalist of Danas daily newspaper.