The sitting was attended by Zoran Djordjevic, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Milos Jankovic, acting Ombudsman, and Dragan Vulevic, head of the Administrative Oversight Affairs Department at the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs.

Committee Chairperson Dr Vesna Rakonjac informed the Committee members that they would be briefed on the activities the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs has employed and is going to employ to handle the recent tragic events in the social welfare centres on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Zoran Djordjevic said that, after the tragic events in the Novi Beograd and Rakovica departments of the Belgrade City Social Work Centre, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs had done the following: the Ministry’s Commission had conducted an extraordinary inspection of the Novi Beograd and Rakovica departments of the Belgrade City Social Work Centre. On 14 July 2017 the Minister issued an order to the directors of social work centres and welfare centres for the housing of end users to report any and every behaviour considered a direct or indirect threat to security to police stations and inform the Ministry of it and the manner in which the police officers had reacted to it. He also said that, pursuant to articles 23 and 48 of the Law on State Administration (“RS Official Gazette”, no. 79/2005, 101/2007 and 95/2010) he had issued a legally-binding Direction how to conduct the social work centres’ duty as regards the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence. On 17 July 2017 the Minister met with all the directors of the social work centres in the Republic of Serbia, representatives of trade unions, Social Welfare Chamber, Association of Professional Social Welfare Workers and the Republic of Serbia Association of Social Work Centres at the Central Military Club in Belgrade to discuss issues impacting the work of welfare centres.

Listing the activities the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs is to undertake as soon as possible, the Minister said between 24 and 28 July 2017 he would be meeting with representatives of all the local self-governments to ascertain the possible improvements to the safety of social workers in the local self-governments’ purview. The Minister also said that the Ministry would draft a special manual for social work centres and the social welfare system will be employing 157 new people as per the conclusion of the Serbian Government. He said that the internal organization of expert services, norms and standards of the social work centres is being reviewed and the Ministry will, in line with its legislative duty, in September commence work on amendments and modifications to the Social Welfare Law and Family Law.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Dr Vesna Rakonjac, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Milanka Jevtovic Vukojicic, Aleksandra Maletic, Prim. Dr Vlado Babic, Bojan Torbica, Dragan Savkic, Ljupka Mihajlovska, Tomislav Zigmanov, Natasa Vuckovic, Dr Predrag Jelenkovic, Milena Corilic, Bosko Obradovic, Gorica Gajic and Jelena Vujic Obradovic.