Brankica Janković, Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, took part at the conference “Serbs and Albanians – Which way further” organized by the Tanjug agency and the Albanian news agency ATA.
Commissioner Janković talked about Serbian-Albanian relations from the perspective of equality and protection of basic human rights. She said that these relations are burdened with the greatest enemies of equality, prejudice and stereotypes, because we are often past-oriented, blinded by revenge and divided over some issues. We have inflicted a lot of evil on each other, but our communities have shared the same sky for many years, often being targets of the same opponents, and most often they have led their battles and won them by dividing us. The Commissioner emphasized that we do not know each other enough, we are afraid of one another, we are struggling with the demanding differences, not the similarities. We should not look back into the past and turn our back on the future. We are afraid to support people who strive towards a solution, and today we have such people which actively try to find a lasting solution. We are afraid to help bring the solution to work. We also fear that we recognize that one of the major problems in Kosovo and Metohija, where Serbs and Albanians live together, is the problem of freedom of movement. We should publicly make efforts so that all of us exercise this right without distinction, to be equal with other European peoples. It is important that we do not put obstacles in front of others when the EU already puts enough barriers before us, Commissioner Janković emphasized.
She pointed out that it is encouraging for all other social actors that the two central state institutions for the promotion of equality in Serbia and Albania – the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality of Serbia and the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality of Albania cooperative extremely well and that besides the regular annual meetings this year, exchange of employees for a period of three weeks will also be realized.
