The Law on Prohibition of Discrimination marked a turning point towards building a fairer and more inclusive society. With the introduction of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality as a specialized, independent state body, an effective, free for citizens, mechanism for combating discrimination was created. Although there are still numerous challenges, the engagement of civil society organizations, the media, and public institutions in promoting tolerance and diversity shows that we are on the right track, said Commissioner Brankica Janković at the opening of the conference “15 years of implementation of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination – Practice and Challenges” which was organized by Yucom.

The Commissioner stated that many positive changes had been made during the past years. For example, girls can now enroll in military schools, female entrepreneurs giving birth are equal to other working mothers in terms of the right to benefits, insurance is equal for women and men, banking services and travel health insurance are available to the elderly, many facilities are accessible to people with disabilities, notary tariffs are fairer for people with disabilities, Roma settlements were saved from forced displacement, while thousands of individual applications for discrimination were resolved.

Janković assessed that the implementation of this law encouraged social dialogue on inclusion and equality but that there is still a lot of work ahead of us in this field.

At the conference, in addition to the Commissioner, prominent experts in the field of protection against discrimination, Dr. Katarina Golubović, President of Yucom, Dr. Vladimir Sekić and Danilo Inđin, lawyer, and Dr. Mario Reljanović also spoke.