The consortium of three non-governmental organisations from Serbia – the Autonomous Women’s Centre (AWC), Women in Black (WIB) and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) have sent an open letter to the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the Western Balkans, sir Stuart Peach. “What we, as peace and women’s rights organisations, find especially important is the task of working on the advancement of gender equality and implementation the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) that is specified as part of your portfolio” – states the letter.

In addition to legal obstacles, the consortium also reminded Sir Peach to the fact that Serbia is the only country in the region that still has not conducted extensive research on the prevalence of women and men living in Serbia who have survived wartime sexual violence, their demographics and needs.

“For us this is the issue of great importance for which we would be grateful if you could consider addressing it during your mandate”, states the closing paragraph of the letter.

The whole document can be found on this link.