Provincial Assembly Decision on Gender Equality

("Official Journal of AP Vojvodina", no. 14/2004 and 18/2009)

I GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

By way of this Decision, the exercise of equality of women and men shall be regulated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (hereinafter: the Province), along with the enactment of regulations and undertaking of special measures to prevent direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex and establishment of equal opportunities for the exercise of rights of persons of both genders in the bodies of the Province, institutions established by the Province and public services and companies whose resources the Province is entitled to utilise (hereinafter: Provincial bodies).

Provincial bodies shall undertake to respect and ensure the equality between women and men.

Article 2

In terms of this Decision, discrimination on the grounds of gender shall refer to any legal or physical, indirect or direct differentiation, investing with privileges, exclusion or restriction on the grounds of gender, whose aim or consequence would be to hinder, violate, prevent or deny the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights to individuals in the field of policy, education, culture, economy, social-, sport-, civil-related fields and any other respect.

Discrimination may be direct and indirect.

Direct discrimination on the grounds of gender occurs when a person is unjustifiably treated less favourably than a person of the opposite sex is, would or could be treated, in the same or similar situation.

Indirect discrimination occurs when a seemingly neutral legal norm, criterion or practice that is equal for all, has an unfavourable effect on a person of one sex when compared to persons of the opposite sex:

• By an unjustifiable imposition of such obligations or conditions which are or could be imposed to a person of the opposite sex, in the manner that the discriminated person, by reason of gender, may not fulfill it or may do so with significant difficulty only;
• By an unjustifiable provision of a more favourable position or giving precedence to persons of particular gender, as opposed to the discriminated;
• By performing evidently humiliating actions towards the discriminated, exclusively or mostly on the grounds of their particular gender.

Article 3

Discrimination on the grounds of gender shall not refer to regulations, decisions, criteria or practice enacted or undertaken for the purpose of eliminating the inequality between women and men, achieving the full equality of persons of both genders and eliminating the actual inequality of women.

Regulations and decisions enacted for the purpose of achieving the full equality between women and men, as well as the elimination of inequality and discrimination on the grounds of particular gender shall be considered neither a breach of the principle of equal rights and duties nor discrimination.

Article 4

All terms used in this Decision in their male form shall denote their female counterparts.

In terms of this Decision, the following shall be considered:

Gender: socially established role of women and men in the public and private life, indicating the relevance, within the society, assigned to biological sex;

Sex: person’s biological belonging to one sex;

Different treatment: acting so as to unjustifiably give precedence to one gender as opposed to the other;

Equal opportunities: observance and enforcement of human rights of women and men;

Violence on the grounds of gender: any action which causes physical, psychological or sexual suffering or economic loss, as well as any threat by such actions which significantly obstruct a person’s enjoyment of rights and freedoms, in line with the principle of gender equality, in a public or private sphere of life;

Harassment: behaviour related to gender whose aim and result is to harm a person’s dignity and reputation or cause a frightening, threatening or similar situation;

Sexual harassment: any behaviour whose words, actions or mental effects of sexual character is aimed at and result in harming a persons reputation or causing a frightening, humiliating, threatening or similar situation, which is motivated by a person’s belonging to different sex or different sexual orientation and represents a physical, verbal, suggestive or other similar behaviour to the injured party.

II EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Article 5

Education and scientific institutions established by the Province, shall be obliged to exclude gender-based discrimination in their decisions, acts and procedures, in particular pertaining to the following:

• Requirements and refusal of admission into the institution;
• Exclusion from the process of education, scientific work or professional development;
• Manner of providing services and benefits;
• Provision of information;
• Assessment of knowledge and evaluation of the results achieved;
• Requirements for election or acquiring of professional title, professional orientation, professional development or acquiring of diplomas;
• Requirements for faster promotion.

Article 6

The provincial administrative body responsible for education shall consult the provincial administrative body responsible for the exercise of gender equality in the procedure of giving opinion of the curricula for primary and secondary education.

Article 7

In the appointment procedure for members of steering and supervisory committees in scientific and cultural institutions established by the Province, the proposer shall undertake to ensure that the appointed members include at least 30% of representatives of the less represented gender.

Article 8

Funds established by the Province shall not discriminate on the grounds of gender regarding the following:

• Enactment of acts on job classification;
• Election of bodies and methods of governance;
• Establishment of scope and priorities of users of resources;
• Method of using the resources.

III LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

Article 9

The provincial body employing and hiring the persons of different gender shall be obliged to provide all persons with equal treatment at work and in relations pertaining to work, in line with this Decision, other regulations of the Republic of Serbia and generally accepted international standards regulating the gender equality.

The following shall not be considered discrimination:

• Specific measures for protection of women during pregnancy, pertaining to birth-giving, breast feeding and raising children until the age of 7;
• Specific conditions and forms of protection at work concerning women due to their biological features;
• Regulation of certain jobs to be performed by persons of specific gender only, when required by the nature of that job or activity (for biological or physiological reasons, reasons of decency or privacy, due to the nature or location of job and other objective reasons);
• Specific measures focused on increasing the employment of women, their participation in professional development and establishment of equal opportunities for promotion.

Article 10

At the end of every third year, the provincial administrative body responsible for gender equality shall submit the Report on Gender Equality in Provincial Bodies to the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (hereinafter: the Executive Council).

The Report in Gender Equality shall contain the information covering the last three years, on the following:

• gender structure of labour force;
• gender structure of employees according to their qualification;
• gender structure in particular departments;
• gender representation of employees at managing positions and in bodies with employers;
• level of income according to gender within particular degrees of qualification;
• participation in professional education and training according to gender;
• number of employees according to gender structure who have been made redundant;
• number of newly employed according to gender;
• number of people, according to gender, who have been employed at better paid and less paid jobs;

The Report on Gender Equality shall also contain the analysis of gender representation, along with the plan of concrete measures aimed at eliminating or diminishing the unbalanced gender representation.

Article 11

A woman and man employed in provincial bodies shall be entitled to equal income for the equal nature and equal importance of the work performed.

It shall be considered a work of equal importance if the employees have equal professional qualifications, perform duties of equal kind, scope, difficulty and responsibility and work in equal or comparable conditions.

Article 12

The head responsible for management of a provincial body shall see to adjustment of conditions in the workplace to the gender of the employee, if necessary, in order to ensure a permanently safe performance of duties.

Article 13

The head responsible for management of a provincial body shall see to protection of employees at work and pertaining to work, from all forms of sexual harassment perpetrated by other employees and all other persons present at the work premises or participating in the work, in any other way.

Article 14

Every three years, the provincial administrative body responsible for gender equality shall adopt the Programme for Promotion of Employment and Self-Employment of Women.

A self-employed woman, in terms of this Article, shall be a woman who is the founder of a shop, enterprise or other legal entity carrying out a profit activity.

The Programme under Paragraph 1 of this Article shall contain the measures and activities required for stimulation of employment and self-employment of women who have been unemployed for more than two years, single parents, mothers with children until the age of three and women who have been made redundant.

IV SOCIAL AND HEALTH PROTECTION

Article 15

For the purpose of protecting a single parent with children until the age of three, the provincial body may envisage special funds aimed at improvement of their material status.

Social work centres in the territory of the Province shall establish telephone lines to assist the women victims of intimate partner and domestic violence, as well as shelter centres for women victims of domestic violence.

Article 16

A special health protection for particular categories of population and/or types of diseases typical of the Province, may be used to regulate the implementation of health protection of women, which shall, in particular, refer to heath advisory services pertaining to the family planning, contraception, pregnancy and motherhood, as well as prevention and treatment of diseases specifically affecting women.

V POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE

Article 17

Women and men shall have equal right to a free access to all services and positions in provincial bodies, as well as equal right to discharge all political and public functions.

The provincial body shall undertake, within the scope of its competences, to adopt special programmes and plans for the purpose of improving the equal representation of women and men. Specific measures for provision of equal representation of women and men in provincial bodies shall constitute an integral part of these programmes.

Article 18

Women and men shall have equal right to elect and be elected the Assembly deputies, without any discrimination.

The regulation on election of the Assembly deputies shall be used to regulate, in more detail, the manner of exercising the right under Paragraph 1 of this Article, as well as the provision of at least 30% of deputy seats for the less represented gender.

Article 19

Women and men shall have the right to represent the Province, equally and indiscriminately, in international cooperation developed within the provincial scope of competences and be represented and participate in the activities of international organisations and institutions whose membership includes the Province.

Women and men shall be equally represented when establishing the composition, election and appointment of delegations that represent the Province in international cooperation, international organisations and institutions.

The composition of delegations shall include at least 30% of persons belonging to the less represented gender.

Article 20

Upon the proposal by a provincial administrative body responsible for gender equality, the Executive Council, in cooperation with other provincial bodies responsible for the implementation of this Decision, shall submit the following to the Assembly for consideration:

• decisions and specific measures aimed at achieving the equality between women and men;
• Provincial Action Plan for the Exercise of Equality between Women and Men;
• report on the exercise of equality between women and men in the Province and, as required, amend the Provincial Action Plan for the Exercise of Equality between Women and Men;
• Report on the Exercise of Equality between Women and Men, establish its proposals regarding the plan and submit them to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia;
• Action Plan for the Exercise of Equality between Women and Men, establish its proposals regarding the plan and submit them to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

Article 21

The provincial administrative body responsible for gender equality shall monitor the enforcement and exercise supervision over the enforcement of this Decision.

VI PENAL PROVISIONS

Article 22

The fine in the amount from 5.000 to 80.000 RSD shall be imposed as penalty for any violation committed by an institution or fund established by the Province, in case they perpetrated discrimination on the grounds of gender, specified under Article 5 and 8 of this Decision.

The fine in the amount from 500 to 20.000 RSD shall be imposed to the responsible person at the institution or fund, for the violation under Paragraph 1 of this Article.

VII TRANSITIONAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 23

Funds required to finance the activities under this Decision shall be provided from donations, sponsorships and other sources.

Article 24

Provincial bodies shall undertake to harmonise their acts with the provisions of this Decision within one year from the date of its entering into force.

Article 25

This Decision shall come into force on the eighth day since the date of its publication in the "Official Journal of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina".

Note: This Decision shall be enforced as a Provincial Assembly Decision as of 14 December 2009, pursuant to the Provincial Assembly Decision on the Enforcement of the Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ("Official Journal of the AP Vojvodina", no. 18/2009).