Today’s seminar and workshop on Divčibare marked the end of the training course „Recognition and Reaction to Discrimination“ for police officers, organized by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality and OSCE Mission in Serbia.

Training sessions were held in eight different municipalities throughout Serbia, namely in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Vršac, Niš, Novi Sad, Subotica, Novi Pazar and Divčibare, with almost 170 participants from criminal and traffic police who attended this string of lectures.

Detecting discrimination and appropriate response are of outmost importance in everyday work of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular for those officers who have daily contact with citizens, said the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković and added that evaluation of this training cycle revealed great improvements and progress, mostly because of good cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, trainees who expressed interest and demonstrated awareness on the significance of improving the  respect for human rights in our society.

“The police have once again proven to be reliable partners in our fight against discrimination and we will definitely continue cooperation through education and training of officers employed with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in other cities as well,“ said Commissioner Janković.

All the participants of this seminar had an opportunity to learn more about the scope of work and mandate of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, international standards in the field of protection against discrimination and were informed about results of research on police’s take on discrimination, implemented internally in the Ministry of Interior. In addition, lecturers shared communication aspects of police mandate and pointed to specific areas of police work where there is an increased risk of discrimination, like domestic violence, work with minors, persons with disability, members of LBGT community… Seminar included workshops “Notion and forms of discrimination” where attendants were trained for field work through practical examples and interaction.