Brankica Janković, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, announced today the changes of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination that should improve protection of all citizens and also estimated that discrimination in Serbia is much more existent than reported.

At the debate called „Implementation of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination“ , organized by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, the Commissioner said that Serbia has undertaken obligations related to negotiations with EU, Chapter 23, to make amendments to the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. Among top priorities are amendments related to the improvement of position of persons with disabilities on the labor market.

She said that in many cases discrimination was caused by public authorities, but the fact that employees working in public administration did not intentionally discriminate and put citizens in unequal position is encouraging. They did it because they lacked knowledge about antidiscrimination laws and that is why the education for the employees working in the public sector will continued this year.

Nevena Petrušić, professor at the Niš Law School and former Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, said that now is the right moment to make the amendments, because seven years of practice revealed the need to fill in the blanks. She also said that, unfortunately, a great distance toward some social groups still exists in Serbia.

Debate was intended to evaluate implementation of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination and also to present the first step in meeting obligations from Action Plan for Chapter 23, that requires full harmonization of the Law with the EU acquis, international and European standards and best practices.