Photo: Kragujevac, 1 October, the International day of Older Persons

“Improving access to human rights of older people in the Republic of Serbia” is a project that the Red Cross of Serbia successfully completed in partnership with HelpAge International from the UK and financially supported by the European Union delegation in Serbia. The project was implemented in several segments over the period of two years, between 1 December 2013 and 29 November 2015.

Reasons that the project focused on access to human rights are myriad. First and foremost, the ratio of older people in the global population is increasing at unprecedented speed and Serbia is one of the demographically eldest countries in the world with 17.4% of older people according to the 2011 census. In addition, age discrimination and prejudice against older people are by and large tolerated in Serbian society which is one of the reasons older people are at a higher risk of abuse and exclusion. There is more evidence that shows older people are often encountering abuse and violence and that their safety is endangered. Older people are often discussed in terms of charity rather than human rights that they are granted and that have to be respected. There are vast gaps in the applicable standards of human rights in relation to older people. This means that many countries fail to address discrimination that targets older people.

Respecting human rights is a net benefit for the whole society because older people make key contributions to the society through their experience, knowledge and wisdom. Better protection and access to human rights of older people will enable the society to better sue older people’s potential. Also not to be forgotten is the fact that demographic ageing means that a larger percentage of voters are older people and that policy makers need to be aware of this when discussing access to human rights of older people.

The project was comprised of several segments:

  • Developing self-help groups and their regular activities and exchange of experience
  • Educating older people on human rights
  • Research on human rights: Legal framework for protection of human rights and recommendations to improve the status of older people
  • Guidebook for human rights of older people in the Republice of Serbia
  • Conferences and meetings
  • Campaigns “Age Demands Action”
  • Global activities

Self-help groups are comprised of 10 to 15 members and they have been meeting two times per month at a minimum but most of them met once per week. Their main feature was flexibility that allowed each of the groups to have its own dynamic and decide what their goals are, in harmony with the local community’s needs. These groups are a good model for activism and social inclusion of older people because they allow them to expand their social contacts and become active members of their communities. The groups also support solidarity because their members assist and support each other and some of them work on intergenerational solidarity by investing efforts in improving the status of younger persons in their local communities. In some of the municipalities, these self-help groups acted as advocacy groups working on behalf of everyone in the community. The project envisioned developing 50 self-help groups in 25 municipalities with 500 active older persons as members. Thanks to the high level of motivation as well as recognizing the value of this model of work by some local governments, the project ended up having 54 groups and 572 older members.

During the two years of the implementation of project, the self-help groups’ members have helped or assisted persons in their local communities to access their legally granted rights:

  • Assistance with accessing human rights related to health protection was provided to 997 older persons through members of self-help groups (assistance with validation of health insurance cards, assistance with gathering documentation needed to obtain a health insurance card, assistance with exemption from medical participation, assistance with procuring medication or utensils, assisting with reaching the Protector of Patients’ Rights…)
  • Assistance with accessing human rights related to social protection was provided to 221 older persons through members of self-help groups (assistance to accessing the disability-related financial support, assistance with obtaining one-time financial support, assistance with accommodation in assisted living institutions…)
  • Assistance with accessing the rights related to pension and disability insurance was provided to 87 older persons
  • Advocacy was one of the crucial activities of self-help groups and here are some of the notable actions: petition for re-establishing a library, petition to erect a soundproofing railway fence, fixing the pavements, fixing the public drinking fountain, installation of a speed bump… The members of self-help groups, older persons made their requests to local governments in most cases but in some cases they addressed even the ministries.

Educations on human rights were another part of the project. These educations were designed as training of trainers: the older people, Members of self-help groups who attended the training sessions were subsequently tasked with educating older people in their communities on the same topic, to encourage older people to recognize when their human rights are not accessible to access the institutions of the system and ensure free exercise of their rights. All 572 members of self-help groups were covered with this training and with another 89 young Red Cross of Serbia volunteers also attending the training sessions, the total number of directly educated persons is 661. These educated trainers then organized 96 local level education sessions and reached 1992 older persons.

The publication “Introduction to ageing and human rights of older people, a pilot study of financial elder abuse” has two parts. The first part contains general demographic data on characteristics and consequences of demographic ageing, data on the efforts made by the international community to better protect the human rights of older people, data on the legislative framework itself at global, European and national level. The second part contains the results of a survey that the Red Cross of Serbia did in partnership with Serbian Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Prof. dr. Nevena Petrušić. The survey was focusing on shining light on one of the most frequent forms of elder abuse: financial abuse. The theses were: financial elder abuse is a form of gender abuse as it targets those powerless to protect themselves; financial elder abuse is a form of age-based discrimination; financial elder abuse is simultaneously the basis for and consequence of other forms of abuse; financial elder abuse happens in the family context as well as the public context; it is invisible, obscured by other forms of abuse, especially economic abuse perpetrated by family members; it goes unrecognized by both victims and professionals. The research was exploratory and provided us with initial and basic knowledge about economic abuse and the risk of economic abuse. We had a sample of 140 randomly chosen interviewees from 10 cities/ municipalities across Serbia. In the results we also included the results of a case study, a case of deprivation of legal capacity and a case of a termination of a lifelong care agreement initiated by an older person.

Recommendations for improvement of the status of older persons and protection from financial abuse:

  • Establish an efficient system of free legal help to ensure that every socially vulnerable older person can be assisted free of charge in exercising hers or his personal, property and other rights in court or in communication with other public institutions.
  • Improve legislation related to processes of legal inheritance so that older people participating in process can get all necessary information and clarifications, following the principles of open justice.
  • Full deprivation of one’s legal capacity is unacceptable from the human rights point of view – partial deprivation in certain areas may be acceptable
  • Instead of a representative making a decision it is necessary to provide support in making and announcing decisions when requested by the person in question
  • The right of the older person to participate in selecting a person to assist her or him in exercising hers or his legal capacity must be upheld at all times
  • New National Strategy on Ageing with an action plan must be created and adopted
  • National campaign to suppress stereotypes and prejudice against older people as well as to build positive image of older people, increase public awareness on their capacities, needs and rights and promote them as active members of the society
  • Organised programme of informing older people n their human rights.
  • Support to self-organisation of older people (increasing the level of self-esteem and assertiveness, decreasing self-neglect and self-immolation).
  • Programme of prevention of economic abuse, especially of women
  • Providing appropriate financial support to families providing care to dependent older members
  • Establishing shelters for older homeless persons and expansion of foster services
  • Education of professionals

During the project’s run we organised ten big national meetings/ conferences focusing on access to the human rights of older people with 620 participants in total. On two of these conferences we partnered with the Team of the Government of Serbia for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction and the Commissioner for Protection of Equality. We also had as participants the representatives of: Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Office for Human and Minority Rights, Ombudsman, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Institute of Public Health, National Institute for Social protection, Team of the Government of Serbia for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction. We also had participants from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Health Organisation, Belgrade office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN, as well as the Team for Implementation of Antidiscrimination Policies in the republic of Serbia.

We also had international experts: Viviane Brunne (UNECE); Khalid Hassine from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva; Bridget Penhale, University of East Anglia, Richard Powley, Age UK and other experts from HelpAge International.

The Red Cross of Serbia representatives also took part In different domestic and international conferences, presenting the work of self-help groups and promoting the initiative to protect human rights of older people. Working with different media was also of importance as it helped promote positive image of older people in the society as well as present their contributions to the society as this is an important segment of combating discrimination and ageism. At the invitation of UNDESA head, Daniele Bass, dr Milutin Vračević of the Red Cross of Serbia participated in the panel on the fifth meeting of the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing in the UN. The meeting took place in New York between 30 July and 1 August 2014 and dr Vračević talked about financial elder abuse and presented the results of our research.

At the invitation of the Secretary General of the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse, Susan Simmers, Nataša Todorović of the Red Cross of Serbia participated at the VIII European Geriatrists and Gerontologists Congress organised between 23 and 26 April 2015 in Dublin, Ireland. Ms. Todorović presented the experiences of European countries on prevention of elder abuse as well as the results of the “Improving access to human rights of older people in the Republic of Serbia” project.

The project also focused on the traditional activities in the Age Demands Action campaign, done following the HelpAge International initiative. These are global activities and they aim to have older people meet decision makers and have a dialogue develop so that older people can articulate the problems they encounter in their daily lives and suggest potential solutions to those in power. This campaign takes place in more than 60 countries (on 7 April, 15 June and 1 October) and Serbia has some of the most successful actions. Thanks to a project implemented with EU support, the delegation of older people organised by the Red Cross of Serbia managed to visit three Serbian ministers (the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić twice and the Minister for Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, Aleksandar Vulin once and the Minister for Youth and Sports Vanja Udovičić during the Third Age Olympic Games) as well as two Deputy Ministers (Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs and Ministry of Health).

Older people, members of self-help groups have participated in several global surveys too: Global Aliance’ for Human Rights survey on discrimination against older persons and the survey of UN on ageing and emergencies. In addition, the Red Cross of Serbia filled the questionnaire on MIPAA implementation provided by the Independent Expert on Human Rights to governments and civil sector. In partnership with HelpAge International we participated in consultative work to ensure visibility of ageing in Sustainable Development Goals.

The conclusion is that older people need to know that their rights are protected and accessible in practice: the right to safety and minimal guaranteed income, the right to manage own property, the right to information and access to judicial system, the right to work, the lifelong learning and health… All these rights are granted by law and other conventions but are often out of their reach in practice. To conclude on a positive note by quoting one of the older self-help groups members: “I can grow old but I can not grow stale”. We have a lot of work ahead of us if we are to ensure improved status for older people in Serbia, especially in informing them and motivating them to be active because this is the only way to achieve full equality and access to human rights for everyone.