Brankica Janković, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, extended the best wishes to all the citizens of Serbia on the occasion of 10th December, the International Human Rights Day stressing that in the recent years progress has been made in this area, but that many challenges still remain.

In the past period, one of the good practice examples has been the treatment of migrants which proves that we abide by international laws and foster values consistent with human and tolerant society. The organization of Pride and Trans Pride Parades without any incidents whatsoever went a long way towards promoting the rights of LGBT and trans- gender persons. Following the initiative of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, the Constitutional Court has put a temporary hold on the Law forcing women working in the public administration into early retirement. The Commissioner said that the amendments to the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Prevention of Discrimination of Persons with Disabilities which introduce the use of a seal thus making signing of documents necessary for exercising rights or accessing services by persons with disabilities, have been defined.

Despite having demonstrated that our society has evolved, much work remains to be done in the area of protection and promotion of human rights, said Commissioner Janković. At the same time the grim data suggests that this year alone 34 women were victims of domestic violence with a fatal outcome. Hence, urgent changes to the legal framework and their effective implementation is necessary, stressed the Commissioner and added that there is no excuse for the fact that in certain instances almost all institutions of the system failed to act.

The legal framework needs to be finalized which would enable a full respect of human rights of all citizens of Serbia and above all complete and consistent implementation of all regulations, stressed the Commissioner.