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CONFERENCE ON THE OCCASION OF THE INITIATIVE FOR RATIFICATION OF THE CONVENTION C 183 I OF ILO’s RECOMMENDATION R 191 ON MATERNITY PROTECTION OF 2000.

CHILD BIRTH – RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOCIETY




Belgrade, April 5, 2007
In accordance with the Recommendation of the ICAU and ILO, and after the Conference which took place in Tirana, on the topic of Maternity protection in South-East Europe, the Women's Section of UBU ''Nezavisnost'' and the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions gave the initiative that the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia should ratify the Convention on maternity protection – C183, with Recommendation R191. On the occasion of that initiative a ''Round Table'' discussion was organized in Tanjug's Press Centre on March 30, 2007. The purpose of this initiative is the ratification of this Convention with a clear political objective that child birth is the society's and not only mother's responsibility.

A Declaration on maternity protection in the countries of South-East Europe was forwarded from the Conference in Tirana, with the Recommendation for ratification of this Convention in all of these countries. The Convention contains several important chapters, such as: health care, maternity leave, leave of absence in case of sickness and complications, allowances, monetary cooperatives, employees' protection and discrimination of mother - wet nurse and their rights, and many other very important issues relating to an employed woman during family planning and, in general, maternity protection.

This Conference, which took place in Belgrade on April 3, 2007, is the first within the campaign for organizing five ''Round Table'' discussions throughout Serbia, with the view of promoting the maternity protection issue. Besides the representative of the organizer, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Mr. Frank Hantke, who delivered a welcome speech, the participants in the Conference were Dobrila Ilicic, President of Women's Section of UBU ''Nezavisnost'' and Slobodanka Brankovic, Women's Section of Serbian Trade Union Confederation, as well as Snezana Bogdanovic, Head of Labor Department within the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy, with the topic on Maternity protection in the Republic of Serbia; Leposava Zivanovic, lawyer in the Women's Section of UBU ''Nezavisnost'', with the subject on the Procedure of ratification of the Convention C183, with Recommendation R191 on maternity protection; Predrag Petrovic, Head of Department for Affairs of Population policy and family financial support, of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy, with the introduction to the Law on Family Financial Support and presentation of the Draft Strategy for stimulating child birth, of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. Dr Mirjana Rasevic, director of the Social Sciences Institute, had an exposé on the topic ''Phenomenon of insufficient child birth''.

After these presentations, there was a very ''lively discussion'', with the participation of a large number of ''NVO'' representatives in Serbia: Zorana Sijacki, President of the Provincial Institute for Equality of the Sexes, had a few remarks on previous presentations, Dragana Petrovic, President of the Council for Equality of the Sexes, of the Government of the Republic of Serbia; Jelica Rajacic-Capakovic, member of Women’s Government and former Secretary of the Provincial Secretariat for Labor, Social Issues and Sexual Equality; Vera Markovic, Vice-President of Women’s Forum of the Social-Democratic Union, which supported the initiative and advanced more proposals on this subject. Also, Zlata Zec, professional service representative of UBU ’’Nezavisnost’’, and Dubravka Stajic, expert and external associate of UBU ’’Nezavisnost’’, took part in the discussion. Zlata Zec insisted on enhanced participation of trade unions in preparing all national strategies. Ms. Emina Merdzanic, guest from Sarajevo and ITUC coordinator for South-East Europe for sexual equality issues, attended the ’’Round Table’’ meeting and took part in the discussion too. She stated a few examples from Bosnia & Herzegovina in the area of maternity protection.

Based on the discussion, Gordana Aleksic, national coordinator of the Women’s Section of UBU ’’Nezavisnost’’, passed a joint resolution, as a moderator of the ’’Round Table’’, by which the initiative for ratification of the Convention C183 with ILO’s Recommendation R191 was accepted, but that one should bear in mind in all the initiatives for maternity protection and national legislation not to diminish the existing rights in the area of maternity protection and retain the current legislative level including the duration of maternity leave. To that end, one should insist on developing social dialogue on all levels and in all institutions and bodies, especially in preparing the current and future draft strategies; lobby in the political circles and in the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia for the ratification of the Convention C183 with ILO’s Recommendation R191. A common position is that child birth is the society’s and not only mother’s and family’s responsibility. The whole campaign was organized and financially supported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

 
     
 
 
 
 
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