World Elder Abuse Awareness Day: announcement
On June 15, 2021, the Red Cross of Serbia is organizing the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition "Open Your Eyes" in Knez Mihailova Street, on the occasion of marking the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The event starts at 11:00 and is part of the project "Empowering older women: preventing violence by challenging social norms in Serbia and Austria (EmPreV)", which is implemented in partnership with the Austrian Red Cross and the Austrian Institute for Conflict Research and supported by the European Union. Austrian Development Agency and the Austrian Red Cross.
The participants will include Ljubomir Miladinovic, Secretary General of the Red Cross of Serbia, Ms. Brankica Jankovic, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, representatives of the Delegation of the European Union, UNFPA, the Austrian Embassy and the Australian Embassy.
The event is organised to launch a ten day open-air exhibition of photographs of older persons that will feature images and quotes aiming to raise awareness on elder abuse and violence targeting older persons and older women – a difficult and often avoided topic in our society. The Red Cross of Serbia has through this project worked on empowering older women to know their rights and know where to turn to for help in case of abuse, increasing knowledge and awareness of care and social professionals about violence against older women and reporting processes through training, and challenging social norms and behaviour of the general public towards elder abuse through awareness raising. The Red Cross of Serbia also conducted the first large-scale survey dealing with violence against older women, and on May 15 began educating 200 older women and 200 gerontocarers on violence against older persons.
This event is a part of the larger public campaign of the Red Cross of Serbia – started on 15th May – that also includes branding public transportation vehicles in five Serbian cities and a special video broadcasted through post offices.
On the same day, June 15, starting at 3 pm, a global webinar "Access to Justice" will be held, where the Red Cross of Serbia is a co-organizer, together with the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), various United Nations agencies, including the World Health Organization, to discuss the global issue of access to justice for older persons and the need for a New United Nations Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. The webinar can be followed live on the Facebook page of the Red Cross of Serbia: https://www.facebook.com/redcrossofserbia/