25/6/2015, Belgrade: Minister Stefanovic has responded to the Autonomous Women’s Center regarding the AWC proposal to introduce emergency barring orders in the Draft Law on police. AWC has proposed, among others, two amendments to the draft Law on the police – one for the changes of Art 53 in relation to police powers; and the other, a new article (after Art. 82) – “Measure of temporary vacation from the residence and a temporary ban on contacting certain people”.

The minister’s explanation is that conduct of police officers in the preliminary investigation procedure is not independent, respectively that this procedure is managed by the public prosecutor, and that police would not be able to apply the proposed measures independently. However, it is stated that the Minister will have additional consultations on the AWC’s proposal with the Ministry of Justice and the Republic Public Prosecutor (an official letter is attached).

AWC has submitted a response to the Minister, stating arguments that existing law solutions do not provide the protection of victims in a way that emergency barring orders would provide, as defined in Art. 52 of the Council of Europe Convention on the prevention of violence against women and domestic violence (an official letter is attached).