accordance with the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from Concluding observations on the Initial Report on the Republic of Serbia. 92 During 2019 the practice of regular meetings of the Council of the Protector of Citizens for the rights of persons with disabilities was continued. At sessions discussions were held about current issues of the exercise and protection of rights of persons with disabilities, especially with regards to the actions of the Protector of Citizens related to the use of facsimile in legal activities by persons with disabilities, improvement of information of persons with disabilities and the elderly in the exercise of rights from the field of social protection and pension and disability insurance, employment and employability of persons with disabilities and availability and accessibility of polling places and modality of the application of Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which regulates the topics of the mechanisms of independent monitoring of the application of this international agreement at the signatory state by which this function would be performed by the Protector of Citizens. The representative of the Protector of Citizens in 2019 participated at the meeting of the ENNHRI Working Group for the application of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ENNHRI CRPD WG) and presented some of the activities of the Protector of Citizens assumed with the aim of the improvement of the position of persons with disabilities in the Republic of Serbia in the previous period. Representatives of the Secretariat of the Protector of Citizens presented the competence and work of the Protector of Citizens on the improvement and protection of rights of persons with disabilities as well as the manner in which persons with disabilities may contact this body at the Annual Conference of the Association of Blind Persons of Serbia titled “Support systems through professional information and cooperation”, tribune of the Municipal Organization of Blind Persons of Palilula titled “Empowerment of Blind and Visually Impaired Women in Fight against Discrimination, Violence and for the Equal Position in Society” and presentation organized by the City Organization of Deaf Persons of Belgrade. Rights of the elderly The most frequent problems which the elderly face are poverty and violence and neglect within families, including the disposal with property without their consent, dissatisfaction with the exercise of the right to material support when they find themselves in the situation of difficult material and life situation due to the lack of income or insufficient amount of income, and when they are of poor health, the exercise of the right to the assistance and care of another person is aggravated. The Protector of Citizens reached the information on the problems in the exercise of the right to benefits for energetically protected customers, predominantly in rural areas, given the fact that, in compliance with valid legal provisions, this right cannot be exercised by a great number of the elderly who live in single-member rural elderly households if they meet all the conditions, but they live in a residential facility of more than 30m2 (square meters) of surface93, which is very frequent in rural households. Available at: https://ljudskaprava.gov.rs/sites/default/files/dokument_file/zakljucna_zapazanja_komiteta_za_prava_osoba _sa_invaliditetom_srb.pdf 93 Article 4 Paragraph 5 of the Regulation on Energetically Endangered Customer (“Official Gazette of RS“, no. 113/15, 48/16 – state rulebook, 88/16 - state rulebook, 49/17 - state rulebook, 104/17 - state rulebook, 36/18 - state rulebook, 59/18, 88/18 - state rulebook and 34/19 - state rulebook). Article 18 Paragraph 1 of the Regulation on 92 - 57 -