Summary
For a long time it was believed that violence against the elderly was a private affair of each individual. Influenced by many human rights movements, intellectuals and scientists, the notion has ripened that violence against the elderly can not be a private matter of an individual and that it must be reacted to.
Towards the end of the 20th century there have been significant changes in terms of adoption of international conventions and declarations which tackled the issue of violence against the elderly and domestic violence.
However, the awareness in our society about violence against the elderly is still very low. All levels of government and the media do not address this issue in an appropriate manner. It can be noted that in Bosnia and Hercegovina there are few papers dealing with the problem of violence agaist the elderly.This issue needs to be paid more attention to by the scientific and professional community through the adoption of positive law or appropriate regulations with the aim to prevent and repress such violence.
In protecting the elderly, the legislators should in the future consider other ways which have not yet been applied in our current legislation. The register of the perpetrators of such crimes must be established which will be available to the public. Also the violence against older persons should qualify as form of domestic violence. It is necessary that Bosnia and Herzegovina respect the Convention it has ratified and bring the National Strategy for the elderly.
The police, prosecution, social workers and the scientific community should act in a coordination so as to protect the elderly from violence. We believe that lawyers and Jurists public themselves should pay more attention to the issue of violence against the elderly. This complex subject has been so far examined from a sociological, psychological and economic standpoint, while its legal aspect remained quite neglected.
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