Closing conference, dedicated to the monitoring of the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, was held on November 3, 2016 in Belgrade. The Conference was focused on support and empowerment of women who have experienced violence, application of the standards of the Convention, development of accessible, effective, efficient and comprehensive general and specialist support services for women and their children.

Introductory speeches were delivered by Ms. Dubravka Šimonović, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences, member and ex-president of the CEDAW Committee, as well as Prof. Feride Acar, President of the GREVIO expert group of the Council of Europe, member and ex-president of the CEDAW Committee. Both of them were members of the CAHVIO Working Group that had drafted the Convention.

Discussions within the three panels were held with representatives of the legislative authorities on how to more effectively monitor the work of the Government and how to better cooperate with representatives of women's organizations; representatives of the executive power about good practices and opportunities for responsible attitude towards victims of violence; representatives of specialized women's organizations, who have decades of experience in direct work with women on the situation and the challenges they facing.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Tanja Ignjatovic pointed out that the four-year regional project, which brought together 29 women's organizations from six countries in the region, with the support of the two largest European network WAVE and EWL, contributed to the occurrence of the significant results. They are reflected in the excellent cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experiences and mutual support. A common methodology was created for analyzing the compliance of legislative and policy framework of each country with the standards of the Convention (51 articles), as well as common indicators to monitor implementation of the Convention. Annual reports on the state of implementation of the Convention are being regularly prepared, as well as contributions to the online database, which contains graphic images of the condition by year and comparisons between countries in the region.

In particular, it was highlighted the success of joint campaigns, which attracted the attention of the public and decision makers, enabling active participation of citizens, and were positively assessed by the experts. However, partial success has been achieved in advocating changes in laws, policies, and most importantly, in their practical application, because there were a large resistance of the authorities. This represents a challenge for the future activities of women's organizations in the region.

Conference agenda is available here.

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