Member of the organization …IZ KRUGA – VOJODINA Ivana Zelic, participated in the webinar held on June 2, 2020 on the topic of the rights of persons with disabilities and children with disabilities in a state of emergency. The organizer of the webinar is the Provincial Protector of Citizens – Ombudsman.
The webinar of the Provincial Protector of Citizens was held in order to open the question to what extent the competent authorities managed to provide support and protection to vulnerable groups, but also to offer certain solutions to the measures that need to be taken to provide them with adequate support and protection in these and similar situations and their rights and interests are effectively protected.
The invitation to participate in the webinar was sent to the representatives of the centers for social work in AP Vojvodina, local ombudsmen, representatives of the provincial administrative bodies, non-governmental organizations and the media. The participants of the webinar agreed in the assessment that the position of persons with disabilities is very delicate even in regular circumstances and that it could worsen in a state of emergency if the measures taken by anti-epidemic policy makers were not adjusted to persons with disabilities.
The discussion lists a series of problems that people with disabilities faced during the state of emergency – financial, cultural, informational, political, administrative and technical. It was pointed out that the fight against the epidemic is successful only if people with disabilities are included, as actors of equality with everyone else.
By organizing the webinar, the Provincial Ombudsman started a series of talks that should contribute to the improvement of the position of persons with disabilities, both in regular and extraordinary circumstances.
In addition to the introductory address of the provincial ombudsman and his deputies, the meeting was attended by: Ivana Zelic, representative of the organization …IZ KRUGA – VOJVODINA, Ivanka Jovanovic, executive director of NOIS, Arpad Djere, president of the Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired from Senta, Lazar Stefanovic, Initiative for the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities, Borislava Peric Rankovic, Serbian table tennis player and Paralympian, Sonja Paripovic, coordinator of the inclusive education support network, Julijana Catalinac, president of the Center for Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities from Sombor and Violeta Strahinjevic, director of school for primary and secondary education Milan Petrovic.
