Hope has appeared in society.

In November this year, the equality commissioners Brankica Jankovic her second term ends, and she will certainly leave this position. Professional journalists they always have a slight discomfort when they need to praise someone because they have been taught that criticism is their job. However, criticism is not just pointing out the bad, but an objective evaluation of one's work.

When it comes to the way Brankica Janković has worked for the past ten years, there is really a lot of good. At a time when it is almost impossible to work honorably and not be "on the line", it is crucial not to be silent. And the institution of the Office of the Commissioner really did not remain silent whenever, in accordance with its powers, it could speak out. For example, information never reached the general public that this institution issued a warning to the kindergarten in Pećinci for of discrimination children whose parents are opposition activists. And that's just one of the examples, because Janković herself is in the media, even on Radio-television of Serbia in the past heated months, spoke openly about people being fired because of their political beliefs and initiated proceedings for illegal dismissals. This, of course, led to a frenzy, both by the tabloids and by the President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić. It was not the first time the commissioner was targeted, as in 2022 she was attacked by Patriarch Porfirio for advocating for the survival of the Law on Gender Equality.

In her country, even though she is the head of an independent institution, Brankica Janković is denounced, and recognized in the world - she recently received the Justitia Awards in the "International Leaders/Lifetime Achievement Award" category. At the same time, ten years have recently been marked since the Office of the Commissioner and the OSCE Mission in Serbia have been awarding a journalist award for the promotion of tolerance.

"WEATHER" Recently, ten years of the journalist award, which is awarded by the Office of the Commissioner together with the OSCE Mission, were marked-and in Serbia. What are your impressions after that jubilee?, How about the state of the media?, as well as the status of this award among journalists?

BRANKICA JANKOVIĆ: After meeting the alumni, I would say that the award is our joint pledge of proper understanding and respect for human rights, including a different media scene. This means that in addition to the default professional ethics, timeliness and accuracy in information, the problems of "ordinary" human beings under the pressure of daily deadlines, clickable headlines and competition with "attractive" political topics are not neglected, although, unfortunately, everything has become politics and, in many respects, even geopolitics - from sewage to tidying up schoolyards. I am aware that it is not easy in this time when the pressures on the media are different and numerous, and freedom of reporting is measured by courage. But it is not impossible because it is the basis of every democratic society.

There is an impressive number of credible journalistic names who are the winners of our award, which they say is their first and came at the right moment, giving them additional strength and confidence or acting as a reminder of why they pursue their profession in the first place. As far as we know, there are no other awards for media workers who deal with important social issues, and I see discrimination, in the broadest sense in all its forms, as the most important social issue, and of course the fight against it. If we are not equal before the law and there is no will to improve equality, it can "hit us on the head" at some point. Each of us can be denied one of our rights as soon as tomorrow, and there will be no one to stand up for us because then we are "the others", "less valuable".

Speaking of the state of the media, recently, the Institute for Media and Diversity published information that the main sources of hate speech in 102 cases in the last year were the media, which puts them in first place. This is the first time since that monitoring was done, the largest number of cases refers to the targeting of several different identities at once (fruit, sexual orientation, ethnicity...). What does that tell us about the moment we live in??

Citizens see the media as the ones that contribute the most to increasing discrimination, but also as those that can significantly influence the reduction of the atmosphere of intolerance and even hatred towards social groups towards which there is still social distance, our research confirmed. Words are important and powerful - healing or dangerous, motivating or discouraging, and they can easily produce and nurture prejudices, incite fears of the other and the different, especially of what we don't really understand. Today it is visible perhaps more than ever due to the unlimited possibilities of new communication channels in the digital sphere and with the increasing use of artificial intelligence. Anything can be said, written, and sometimes even more so those that remain silent.

The perception, for example, of Albanians, Bosniaks, Roma, women, to the LGBTI+ community to be mostly what the media made her out to be. Positive stories, but not romanticized and political stories, can greatly change the perception of minorities. After all, that was one of the reasons to establish a media award for tolerance. In the past, the Roma were only portrayed as a problem with inadmissible "information" about their alleged character. Not to mention the LGBTI+ community, they are constantly targeted. I guess some people think that there will be no such gays and lesbians in us Serbs, if only to get rid of those European postulates and misconceptions about human rights. Let the readers judge the bestiality and brutality of the attacks of certain media on people based on any of their personal characteristics, but let them also judge the motives, the inspirers, the reasons, which most often have their roots in certain political attitudes, so they will understand a lot about the mutual conditioning of public policies, social relations and holders of political power in relation to problems and phenomena of discrimination in society. I think that behind all hatred is actually a huge dissatisfaction with oneself and the need to blame others for everything. We must have more effective protection mechanisms, but also sanctions. You, the media workers, must also constantly dispel this artificial fog that obstructs our vision.

Proverbially, Women are hardest hit., and the Law on Gender Equality is under constitutional review. Would that law improve anything if it were in force??

I don't want to say that we don't need to mention the law, on the contrary... But I don't see that it would help much at the current moment because it is not crucial to read the laws in order to know how to behave in relation to other human beings. Even when it was passed, that law was presented by some political figures as an unrealistic and short-sighted magic wand that would solve all problems in a matter of days. woman in this country: from prohibited questions from employers about marital and family status to domestic violence. I will only remind you that many of the provisions of that law are contained in other laws and provide protection against discrimination and violence, but in practice many things still look different.

For 80 years, for example, we have had a law that has equalized the inheritance rights of men and women, but still every second woman renounces or considers renouncing her inheritance in favor of a brother or a male relative. The customs and culture that define us make us or should make us equal human beings. Or less equal, less equal, producing some "more equal" compared to others. We have to change that, every second, in every field. We need to discover, support and celebrate the contribution and role of women in society, as well as the creativity of women and be careful how we treat women's perspectives, mostly for the sake of the current generation of boys and girls. Help us and you from the media to change the stereotype - the image of a woman that reduces her to her reproductive function and/or sexual object, to the pages of beauty, fashion, cooking or a human being that anyone can humiliate with the obligatory "sneaking under the skirt"... However, this with the kitchen is unfair because, as Đorđe Lebović said, "it is easier to run a country than a kitchen".

You yourself have come under attack from politicians, holders of legislative and executive power. What is happening in a society where the Commissioner for Equality was attacked in this way? Who protects human rights defenders?

We should be protected by the law and our conscientious, responsible, professional and impartial adherence to the provisions of the law that regulates our work and determines our powers and responsibilities. Sometimes "remarks" are the result of ignorance - discrimination is confused with insults, stupidity and other, let's call it, incidents in our public space. Many, for example, think that being student or dean personal property, and it is not because the anti-discrimination law prescribes personal properties. There were also situations when our institution was called out for "not backing down" because there were reasons for action provided by law, or it did not react when such a legal basis did not exist, in contrast to those who, despite their significant powers, decided to "back off" until the problem passed and fell into oblivion or to rewrite what we had already done. There are also remarks of a political nature, as well as those uttered by those who, for reasons known only to them, of personal intolerance or have been told to do so, consider themselves qualified enough to evaluate and judge.

But I wouldn't talk about myself because I understand various expectations in times of crisis, as well as the fact that many people don't like what I say because that's the nature of institutions for the protection of human rights. It is more important that many others - journalists, students, professors, teachers, cultural and sports workers, human rights activists, even politicians are exposed to attacks, insults, lies, threats, harassment, intimidation, etc. Incendiary rhetoric has led to encouraging an atmosphere of fear, humiliation and impunity, unfortunately also to justifying or relativizing violence. The situation in society is such that divisions have been pushed to the limit and everyone has their own way, their own choice of methods to interpret the reality under attack. We generally lack the conceptual apparatus to describe things and phenomena in society, so we have to get together as soon as possible and take it away so that we can return to the factory settings. We must make an effort to return to a society where humanity is the most important proof of our civilization, where this civilization is shown in the fact that you do not cause people any kind of pain, neither mental nor physical. But we must also learn to forgive each other. Something may not be possible, nor should it be forgiven - so that it is not repeated to someone else someday.

You have recently spoken in public several times about discrimination in the field of work, and on the basis of political commitment. Is this currently the biggest problem in the field of equality??

photo: marija janković

Party hiring and discrimination based on political orientation are nothing new, but lately people are talking about it more and reporting discrimination on this basis, but other manifestations such as dismissal or transfer to other jobs due to political beliefs are on the rise. It seems that today party affiliation is the most important determinant of our identities, stronger than both religious and national ones, which has the greatest influence on lives both in a positive and negative sense. This has been going on for decades and is one of our biggest social problems because it undermines trust in the state and demotivates people at work and in the field of personal development. I believe that this type of discrimination, in addition to economic reasons, is one of the main reasons why young people leave the country. Giving preference in employment to members of any party or certain trade unions is prohibited by law, and we know it is ubiquitous. The problem is that many are afraid to report or give up after learning that we cannot process an anonymous report. Also, it often happens that witnesses give up their testimony during proceedings. We are currently launching a strategic lawsuit, which is one of the strongest mechanisms at our disposal, against a health institution for discrimination against an employee based on political beliefs. Suppressing this type of discrimination is actually the key to solving many other problems. We need a new social agreement in which the so-called party employment, but also any retaliation for not belonging or not supporting the party will become a thing of the past. The right to non-alignment, non-belonging, is also the basis of a healthy society. This requires sobriety, maturity and good will because, unfortunately, man has once again "become a wolf to man".

At the moment, public attention is very focused on the rights of the arrested activists, students, politicians. This is expected because they are visible and recognizable. What happens during that time where there is no public attention? Do we have an increase in the so-called discrimination?. "ordinary little people"?

Although it may sound paradoxical, there have been significant developments when we talk about improving the position of social groups that are more often exposed to discrimination. Things are not black and white. When it comes to people with disabilities or To the Roma, almost all of our recommendations are accepted. This does not mean that they now live a perfect life, but that there is progress. When it comes to national minorities, complaints are resolved to the greatest extent, I mean those from the domain of prohibition of discrimination. Women are more often discriminated against in the labor market and we always have complaints related to certain issues, but we continuously solve all those individual cases. The decision of the Supreme Court, the review judgment from our strategic litigation, is extremely important - that any unequal treatment of women during pregnancy and maternity leave is direct discrimination.

On the other hand, those who are almost invisible due to their material status have the biggest problem. Poor people hardly ever talk to us. They often do not have information about the means of protection or the awareness that they are discriminated against, and there are not enough civil society organizations that deal with their problems, even though it is the civil sector that is the "oxygen" of our fragile democracy (which is not fragile today), which raises numerous issues. That is why the solutions for their situation are often non-systemic, and even subject to abuse, as we had the opportunity to see from several reported cases and the media.

Not so long ago, just for "Time" you wrote about trust as the most expensive word. Not so many days have passed since then, How many events are there?, twists and turns. Do you still think the same??

We have other "expensive" words - justice, freedom, education, emancipation, indifference, dignity, but trust is still the most expensive. Another word appears - hope! I notice that many people today understand each other with a glance, and that's where trust is born thanks to hope, which under normal circumstances takes years. When times are really hard, that's when people show themselves, loyal first to themselves, then to their family, neighbors and country. I mentioned justice because it is perhaps the closest competitor to trust today. But I mean pure justice, devoid of personal interests and all surrogates that could serve as substitutes. To quote Adam Michnyk - we need neither mercy nor revenge, we need justice.

You are leaving the post of commissioner soon. What do you consider your legacy?, most important achievements, and what challenges await the person who comes to that place?

In these very difficult times, in which we as a society find ourselves, it is not appropriate for me to list all the positive legal, by-law and other changes that we have brought about with our opinions, recommendations and initiatives and how many thousands of individual cases of violation of the right to equality have been solved by the work of the previous commissioner, me and our team. The most important thing is that today there are no more taboo topics, we have opened most of them, some need more "unpacking", and all of them should be closed. Many followed us and accepted our ideas. Unfortunately, not always completely and not always in such a way that they are in the service of good.

I am leaving a credible institution with continuity, knowledge, capacities and elaborate mechanisms to the heir or successor - from informing citizens through initiatives, criminal reports and warnings to research and reports. It is an institution that has always been available to everyone, citizens, media, state authorities and civil society, without a single unanswered request or request.

The challenges are more complex today than ten years ago, because society has changed dramatically after covid-19 and major tragedies. Something has ruptured in our social fabric and it will have to be put back together and healed before we can live with each other. If there are good professional intentions, I will always be ready to help, because I know very well what has not been done yet, what needs to be done and what must be done in order for Serbia to find its weakened soul again, in which there is a place for all citizens without distinction and without inequality. Because human rights are indivisible - we are all "born free and equal in dignity and rights".

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