Complaints about the availability of health services and actions to protect the rights of different vulnerable groups have largely marked the work of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality since the beginning of the Covid crisis. Although these problems were most pronounced during the state of emergency, the same types of complaints remained the most numerous in the past year, that is 2021, said Commissioner Brankica Janković at the first constitutive session of the Committee on Health and Social Policy of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities.

Through various measures, recommendations, opinions and initiatives, the Commissioner pointed out numerous problems and proposed solutions to the authorities during the state of emergency and later – starting with the problem of childcare faced by working parents, through the inability to provide the services of personal assistants and caregivers, as well as palliative services at home, due to restrictions on movement, up to access to clean water in Roma settlements. In relation to the restrictions on movement, the Institution also protected the rights of parents of children with autism, the elderly over 65 years of age and victims of partner and domestic violence, Janković reminded.

The state of emergency and the crisis have shown that our fellow citizens, who are already in a more vulnerable position, need additional support. The role of the SCTM Committee on Health and Social Policy is important because it conveys firsthand experiences and needs directly from the local level and can contribute to public policies and measures not being discriminatory or unfavorable for particularly endangered categories of the population, the Commissioner concluded.