Organized by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, in the presence of representatives of other competent Ministries, as well as a large number of civil society organizations and other relevant actors, a social dialogue on the social protection system was realized, in which the Autonomous Women's Center participated.
At the 41st Meeting of Social Workers – an academic-expert meeting with international participation, organized by the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, entitled "Solidarity in a changing world: perspectives and challenges for social work and social policy", held (online) on June 4th 2021, representatives of the Autonomous Women's Center also gave presentations.
The Autonomous Women's Center, ASTRA and Group 484, as members of the prEUgovor Coalition, submitted to the National Assembly, and before that to the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, as well as to the Committee on European Integration, amendments to the disputable solutions contained in Draft Law on Gender Equality and to the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, which appeared after the public debate. Both laws were adopted without amending the bill in the way the Coalition prEUgovor suggested.
At the presentation of the newly adopted Strategy for Prevention and Combating Gender-Based Violence against Women and Domestic Violence for the Period 2021 to 2025, the Autonomous Women's Center asked whether we need this strategic document in the context in which it is being adopted.
The Commissioner for the Protection of Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection issued a decision (number 071-01-4864 / 2019-03 of 2 April 2021) confirming that the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth rejected unduly the request of the Autonomous Women's Center to access data on the work of the national SOS hotline for support of women with the experience of violence, i.e., that the request of the AWC is in accordance with Art. 5, Art. 8, para. 1 and 2, as well as Art. 15. Nevertheless, the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth rejected the new request of the AWC - with meaningless explanations
There have been no improvements in the area of sexual and reproductive health and women's rights, according to the latest study by the Autonomous Women's Center "Three years since the adoption of the Program - without expected results."
The Autonomous Women's Center, Women in Black and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights are announcing a call for feminist expert who, together with representatives of organizations, will work on development and editing of educational program on sexual violence in wartime - perspective from Kosova.
The period from November 2020 to April 2021 was marked by the accelerated activity of the newly formed Government and Parliament to compensate for a year that Serbia lost on its path to European integration. However, monitoring that was conducted by the prEUgovor coalition in the past six months infers that these renewed efforts are rather a continuation of the former checking-the-box approach, which so far has failed to achieve convincing results in monitored areas, namely political criteria and Chapters 23 and 24. Although the declarative commitment to Serbia’s EU path remains unchanged (albeit now and then interrupted by outbursts of anti-EU rhetoric), the coalition is still not convinced that there is in fact political will to bring about substantial reforms.
Women's organizations, members of the Women Against Violence Network, are addressing you with this appeal to stop all activities that you have started in connection with the establishment of a body that would be in charge of monitoring femicide at the state level, the so-called Femicide Watch, until the Coordination Body for Gender Equality conducts a broader consultation process with all interested stakeholders - representatives of relevant ministries and state bodies, independent institutions and women's organizations.
BeFem Talks "Istanbul Convention: the view of activists from the region" is the introduction to the new campaign "Equality from the drawer: For policies of non-violence!", bringing together again women's rights defenders from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia, which have been to this day the bravest part of our societies.
