The Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Dr Nevena Petrusic presented the Report to the Committee members stressing that LGBT and HIV positive people experienced the biggest social distance in 2012, the most pronounced ethnic distance was exhibited toward Albanians, Croats, Roma and Bosniaks, while the Roma were was the most discriminated group.
Petrusic said that 18% of Serbian citizens are discrimination-prone while the key problems in achieving equality are discrimination against women, national origin discrimination, discrimination against persons with disabilities and discrimination against the LGBT population. In the Special Report on the discrimination of disabled persons in Serbia, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality outlined the key problems such as inaccessibility of courthouses and public administration buildings, insufficient number of court interpreters for sign language and problems related to certification and use of facsimiles.
In the ensuing debate, the Committee members had additional questions about the causes of discrimination and emphasised education as the most important tool in the fight against discrimination.
The Committee will formulate a proposal of conclusions on the Report of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality at the next sitting.

The sitting was chaired by Milica Dronjak, Committee Chairperson.