EMPOWERED WOMEN
INTERVIEW
BRANKICA JANKOVIĆ, FORMER COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY
We Must Change CULTURAL PATTERNS We've managed to present the topic of gender equality in public as being very important, which resulted in changing the attitude towards this issue. There are now no serious actors on either the left or the right of the political spectrum who haven't included this issue on their agenda. Of course, much remains to be done in practise to make women and men more equal.
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he position of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality has been vacant since May of this year. The damage this causes has been pointed out by numerous experts and non-governmental organisations dealing with the topic of discrimination. While we await the government’s appointment of a new Commissioner, we spoke with Brankica Janković, who headed this institution for the last four years. She says that the amount of damage done by not naming a new Commissioner depends on the perspective. “I wouldn’t be so bold as to give such an assessment, because only the citizens can assess how much this has created problems for them,” says Janković. “In a situation in which we face a risk of enormous proportions and great unknowns, it is difficult to assess anything realistically. I can only say with certainty that this institutions always provided citizens with timely and effective protection against unequal treatment in any form and area, and it operated especially effectively during the pandemic, when no one in the institution was spared and we did everything in our power to help those who need it, and to do so in the shortest possible time, because the legal deadline of 90 days and procedures are not
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useful in a sate of emergency, when people’s health is endangered or daily functioning is hampered. In addition to my regular job, I also volunteered continuously for the Serbian Red Cross.” Do you consider that the issue of amending the law to prevent this problem from recurring to be among the priorities of the government? - Perhaps not at this moment, when public health and the preservation of citizens’ lives should be the top priority, of course along with the preserving of our healthcare system, but I believe that such a will still exists and that this issue will be resolved in the period ahead. Since the establishment of this institution and during your mandate, to what extent has it managed to change the situation when it comes to discrimination against women? - My assessment is to a large extent based on arguments that I can confirm - a large number of successfully resolved complaints of citizens, and success implies that the Commissioner’s recommendations for the elimination of violations of rights have
