no. 011-00-5/2021-02 date: March 8, 2021

Acting within the legally prescribed competence[1], the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, gives the following

OPINION

on the Draft Law on Museum Activities

By letter No. 011-00-1/2021-02 of March 2, 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Information submitted to the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality the Draft Law on Museum Activities with an explanation (hereinafter: the Draft Law), for the purpose of giving an opinion.

Acting on this letter, we give an opinion on the Draft Law, from the aspect of the scope of work of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality.

First of all, we point out that Article 21 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia^[2] prohibits any discrimination, direct or indirect, on any grounds, especially on the grounds of race, sex, nationality, social origin, birth, religion, political or other beliefs, property, culture, language, age and mental or physical disability.

Also, the Law on Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities[3], in its Article 30, Participation in Cultural Life, Recreation, Leisure and Sports Activities, stipulates the obligation of a signatory State to recognize the right of persons with disabilities to participate equally in cultural life, and to take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have, inter alia, access to cultural materials in forms accessible to them and have access to venues for performances or provision of cultural services, such as theatres, museums, cinemas, libraries, travel agencies and, if possible, access to monuments and landmarks of national cultural significance.

Also, the constitutional prohibition of discrimination is further elaborated in Article 2, paragraph 1, item 1 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, while the provisions prescribed in Article 26, paragraph 1 of this Law stipulate that discrimination exists if the principle of respect for equal rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities is violated in political, economic, cultural and other aspects of public, professional, private and family life.

Bearing in mind the obligations undertaken by the Republic of Serbia by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to enable them to participate on an equal footing with others in cultural life and to take all appropriate measures to ensure that they have access to cultural content accessible to them, the Commissioner proposes to amend Article 72 of the Draft Law which prescribes the accessibility and presentation of museum material, with a new paragraph that would refer to the obligation of museums to make museum material accessible to persons with disabilities. Namely, the Commissioner proposes that a special paragraph prescribes that the museum is obliged to take appropriate measures and to make the museum material, whenever possible, accessible to persons with disabilities in appropriate forms.

[1] Law on Prohibition of Discrimination (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 22/09), Article 1 and Article 33, paragraph 1, item 7

[2] Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 98/06), Article 21.

[3] Law on Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“Official Gazette of RS-International Agreements”, No. 42/09)

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY 

Brankica Jankovic