The Autonomous Women's Center (AWC) participated in the public consultation on the Draft Decision amending the Gender Equality Strategy 2021–2030 and its accompanying Action Plan for 2026–2027. Our analysis shows that the proposed amendments do not strengthen the existing strategic framework. Instead, they lower the level of ambition, weaken institutional accountability, and move further away from the objective of achieving substantive progress in gender equality in Serbia.
Of particular concern is the proposal to significantly lower the target value of the Gender Equality Index, the Strategy's main impact indicator. Instead of encouraging faster progress, the proposed amendments envisage an increase of only two points by 2030, representing a much slower pace of progress than Serbia achieved in previous years (despite changes in the methodology and Serbia's discontinuation of regular biennial reporting on the Gender Equality Index). Such a projection effectively accepts stagnation rather than progress and sends the message that gender equality is no longer considered a national development priority.
AWC also finds it unacceptable that references to the Gender Equality Act have been removed from selected measures of the Strategy. The Constitutional Court's temporary suspension of the implementation of the Gender Equality Act does not justify its selective removal from this strategic document, particularly since the Act remains part of Serbia's legal framework and continues to be referenced by the Government in other strategic documents and within the EU accession process, including the Reform Agenda adopted under the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The explanatory memorandum provides no convincing justification for this approach.
The proposed amendments also fail to reflect key recommendations issued by international monitoring bodies on women's rights. In particular, they omit recommendations concerning the revision of standards for specialised support service providers assisting women survivors of gender-based violence, strengthening criminal investigations and prosecutions so that they do not depend solely on victims' testimony, and improving the effectiveness of criminal sanctions for all forms of violence against women.
Another major concern is the methodology used to revise the Strategy. Rather than being based on an assessment of the actual results and impact achieved during the previous implementation period, the revision relies primarily on the views of a limited number of consultation participants. At the same time, those very assessments identify low levels of achieved outcomes, insufficient financial resources, weak inter-institutional coordination, and unmet needs of beneficiaries. However, these findings have not been reflected in the proposed amendments.
The proposed Action Plan further highlights these shortcomings. It does not provide complete baseline and target values for performance indicators, many tables remain incomplete, and estimated financial allocations are largely missing, including funding for activities planned for 2026. At the same time, implementation of numerous activities depends on uncertain donor funding. In its current form, the Action Plan cannot be objectively monitored, nor is it possible to assess whether realistic conditions exist for achieving its planned objectives, measures and activities.
The Autonomous Women's Center believes that both the Draft Decision and the accompanying Action Plan require substantial revision to ensure that they set ambitious, measurable and achievable objectives, based on evidence from the implementation of the current Strategy, the recommendations of international monitoring bodies, and the actual needs of women in Serbia. Without such revisions, there is a serious risk that the Strategy will become merely a formal policy document, fulfilling procedural obligations without making a meaningful contribution to advancing gender equality and improving the status of women.
You can see the document with AWC comments and suggestions HERE.
