We are inviting you to a round table panel discussion to mark the 15 June, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, organised by the Red Cross of Serbia and Commissioner for Protection of Equality.  With UNFPA support. The round table discussion “Don’t close your eyes: Stop Elder Abuse” will be organised in the Red Cross of Serbia headquarters starting at 10:30. The list of speakers will feature Aleksandar Vulin, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Vesna Milenović, Red Cross of Serbia Secretary General, Brankica Janković, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, dr. Elisabeth Pittermann, Health Expert of the Austrian Association of Pensioners, Marija Raković, UNFPA, Nataša Todorović, Red Cross of Serbia and dr Slavica Golubović, Gerontological Centre Belgrade.

The panel is going to focus on sensitising the public and professionals on the topic of discrimination and elder abuse. The main emphasis will again be on advocating for the new UN convention on the human rights of older people. The existing UN conventions do not adequately serve the specific needs of older people which may lead to violations of their human rights, discrimination, domestic abuse, as well as the abuse in their communities or institutions they turn to for services and support.

The new convention would oblige world’s governments to pay more attention to older people and come up with new measures and public policies to improve systems for protection of older people from abuse and discrimination. In practice, the convention would ensure better protection of equality before the law, equal rights to property management, to information, social security, health and social protection, to labour and lifelong learning – all the rights already protected by other conventions but frequently out of older people’s reach in real life.

It is well known that one in three persons in this world has experienced some form of abuse but in spite of this, only one third of the UN member states have strategies to combat and prevent elder abuse while only 26% have campaigns to educate professionals on how to recognise abuse indicators in older persons. Elder abuse is one of the last social taboos, it is not sufficiently recognised by the public and this also influences the silence among the professionals: even the developed countries have precious little data and research dedicated to this phenomenon.

The last research in Serbia was done by the Red Cross of Serbia and Commissioner for Protection of Equality, supported by UNFPA in 2015. It showed that 19.8% of all older people experienced some form of abuse in their older age and 11% have had this experience in the last year. Multiple instances of abuse or a combination of several forms of abuse was experienced by 5.5% of older people in Serbia.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was first observed in 2006, initiated by the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA). In Serbia, marking started in 2007. Following the initiative of the Red Cross of Serbia and HumanaS network. Since then, it has been observed each year through close cooperation of civil and public sector.

At the UN General Assembly session held on 19 December 2011 in New York, the adopted resolution 66/127 officially recognised elder abuse as a public health and social problem that endangers older people’s health and violates their rights. It is a problem that demands reactions of the international community and this is why 15 June was chosen to become a staple in the UN calendar.

For more information, please call the Red Cross of Serbia numbers 0113032125 or 0628801531 (Nataša Todorović).