Belgrade, 7/11/2014: Autonomous Women's Center organized an international conference „Implementation of Council of Europe Convention on violence against women – one year anniversary from its ratification in the Republic of Serbia“ on 7th November 2014 in Belgrade. The conference was dedicated to activities on harmonization of the laws and regulations of the Republic of Serbia with the provisions of the Convention (Chapter V – Substantive law and VI - Investigation, prosecution, procedural law and protective measures).
Participants of the conference were greeted with introductory speeches by Ms. Tanja Ignjatović, the regional project coordinator in Autonomous Women's Center, Mr. Meho Omerović, Chairman of the Committee for Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Ms. Nadia Ćuk, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade and Ms. Iliana Balabanova, Member of the Observatory on Violence against Women within European Women’s Lobby.
As a part of the second thematic part of the Conference, two panels were organized. The first panel was dedicated to current and future activities of Serbian bodies/institutions to harmonize legislation with the standards of the Convention, in relation to two selected chapters.*Speeches were delivered by Mr.Dragan Vulević from the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Ms. Slavica Radovanović, Member of the working group for monitoring and coordinating the work of the police in cases of domestic violence within the Ministry of Interior, Ms.Elvira Kovács, Member of the Parliament and Member of the Delegation of the National Assembly of the RS in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Ms. Gordana Stevanović, Deputy Ombudsperson and Ms. Vanja Macanović, Lawyer in Autonomous Women's Center.
Within the second panel, panelists from the region's countries spoke about good practice examples on harmonization of laws and standards with the Council of Europe Convention in their countries, including a short overview of issues related to the content of two selected chapters of the Convention which are necessary (urgent) to be changed. Speeches were given by Ms.Barbara Stelmaszek from the WAVE Network (Austria), Ms. Špela Veselič from the Association SOS helpline (Slovenia), Ms. Nada Golubović form the Foundation United Women (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ms. Nataša Dimitrovska from the National Council for Gender Equality (Macedonia) and Ms. Adriana Bego from the Center for Women War Victims – ROSA (Croatia).
