The Committee on Health and the Family held its sixteenth sitting on 10 June 2009. The sitting was chaired by Dr Paja Momcilov, Committee Chairman, and attended by Ivana Misic, Assistant Minister of Health, Snezana Draskovic director of the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia and representatives of the League of Voluntary Blood Donors, Humanitarian Association of Voluntary Blood Donors and Club “Health”.

The Committee members and authorised representatives exchanged opinions on the Transfusion Draft Law. The Committee concluded that the Transfusion Draft Law has not taken into consideration voluntary blood donation as a socially beneficial activity and organisations of voluntary blood donors, which have not been mentioned in the text at all. Also, the Committee believes that the law regulating the matter should be more specific than the text of the Transfusion Draft Law and should follow the Strategy for provision of adequate amounts of safe blood and blood components in the Republic of Serbia.

The Committee members went on to elect Committee representatives to participate in the Working Group drafting the proposal of the declaration against violence against women and children.