17/11/2011, Belgrade: On November 17th 2011 at the Palace of Serbia AWC held the conference: "Monitoring the effects of policies and measures on combating violence against women”. The aim of this conference was to present the newly established Observatory on violence against women, an independent expert body tasked to monitor and assess the effects of policies and measures on combating violence against women. On this occasion, recently adopted state documents in the field of combating violence against women, with special emphasis on the implementation of planned measures followed, the results of the Strategy implementation strategies for protection against domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence in Vojvodina, as well as actions establishing cooperation in the community services that were implemented in 15 cities/municipalities in Serbia were presented. The conference was opened by Ivan Sekulović, from the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration. He expressed support for the establishment and operation of the Observatory.
State Secretary from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy Snezana Lakićević, in her speech, said that the Protocol on the procedure of the relevant institutions in cases of violence against women should be adopted by the government on that same day. This protocol will oblige the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Justice, Labor, Social Affairs and Health to how to react in cases of domestic violence.
Chef of Operations III form the EC Delegation in Serbia, Andrew Headey, said that the situation in Serbia is not satisfactory, despite government efforts to combat violence against women. Pointing out that one-third of women in Serbia are victims of domestic violence, he said that many women do not report violence because of the psychological, social, economic and cultural factors, but also because they do not trust the police, judiciary, social services and health care. He said that women in Serbia are faced with greater difficulties than men in finding jobs and employment declines among women.
Anita Beretić from the Provincial Secretariat for Labor, Employment and Gender Equality, Dr. Marsha Scott, representative of the European Women's Lobby, Lidija Kuzmanov who presented the Autonomous Women's Center publication, "How much does it cost us the violence," and representatives of local communities with their views of the situation when it comes to cooperation between institutions in the protection against domestic violence, from Nis, Vlasotince, Vranje, Knjazevac, Pirot and Gadzin Hana also addressed the participants.
