Leskovac

The Poverty Reduction Committee commemorated the International Day of Disabled Persons by visiting the City of Nis on 3 December and the Home for Disabled Adults and the Elderly in Doljevac, and by holding a sitting outside the seat of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, in the form of a public hearing – a roundtable in Leskovac, on 4 December 2008, in the Jablanica District building.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairperson, Snezana Stojanovic Plavsic. The sitting was attended by the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Nikola Novakovic, members of the Poverty Reduction Committee, Committee on Labour, Ex-Servicemen’s and Social Issues, Committee on Health and the Family, Education Committee, Agriculture Committee, Local Self-Government Committee and Gender Equality Committee, deputies, Assistant Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Vladimir Pesic, as well as representatives of local authorities and several disabled persons’ associations.

Welcoming all present, the Committee Chairperson pointed out that, at the initiative and in the organisation of the Poverty Reduction Committee, the listed committees all participate together in the project of “Strengthening parliamentary committees’ capacities for poverty reduction in Serbia” which is being implemented by the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme and the support of the European Commission since 2006. Stojanovic Plavsic stressed that the Poverty Reduction Committee introduced public hearings into the Committee’s work, and that the topic of the third sitting’s round table is “Local mechanisms for the realisation of rights of disabled persons in the area of education, employment, services and accessibility”.

In the introductory part, those present were addressed by the Head of Jablanica Administrative District, Slobodan Kocic and Assistant Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Vladimir Pesic, who pointed out that about a hundred million dinars had been secured for the projects realised this year and the next tender for new projects will be invited in March 2009. In her address, deputy Gordana Rajkov stressed that the goal Serbian society should strive for would be to change the model of social responsibility, and apply the model of social inclusion of disabled persons. The member of the Executive Council of the Disabled Persons’ Independent Living Centre, Svetislav Marjanovic, briefed the participants on the problems of disabled persons in Leskovac where the unemployment rate among disabled persons reaches 87%. The Participants of the public hearing were also addressed by the Chairperson of the Ada Municipality Poverty Reduction Committee, Vesna Civric.

The participants went on to open a discussion pointing out the disabled persons’ problems, as well as positive experiences. Those present agreed that it is necessary to work on raising social awareness and attitudes towards disabled persons. It is also necessary to improve cooperation among various disabled persons’ organisations and local self-governments, to adapt local regulations with the existing legal regulations and draft local action plans. At the end of the meeting, the Committee Chairperson appealed for the improvement of the cooperation among inspection services and local self-government on the local level.