On May 18th, the National Remembrance Day of Women Victims of Violence we look back on the fact that in 2023 15 women and two girls have been murdered in Serbia in a family-partner context. On this occasion the Autonomous Women’s Center recommends that the National Parliament hold a public hearing in the coming months, before the Board for Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, where they will discuss the conduct, that is, the wrongful courses of action taken by institutions which lead to the murder of a woman in Pirot.
AWC representative, Sanja Pavlovic, took part in an academic workshop “Struggle against Sexual Violence in Conflicts – Comparative international and national insights”, by speaking about “Feminist organization around the topic of the culture of remembering women who had survived sexual violence in war in former Yugoslavia”.
Today another woman was murdered. This murder took place in Novi Sad, she was murdered with a gun, while at her workplace. This woman had also reported the perpetrator for abuse prior to being murdered. She trusted the state and institutional representatives who have been repeatedly calling on victims to report abuse and saying that they’ll protect them. Her murderer had merely been given a restraining order (no contact, no approach), even though those working on her case in institutions knew that the perpetrator worked in a firearm store, that he is a hunter and that he would still have firearms at his disposal even after his registered firearms were taken away.
On April 11, 2023, the Autonomous Women's Center organized the presentation of the first (three-month) results of the application of the mediation model in the employment of women/victims of domestic violence in Belgrade, with the aim of expanding this practice to coordination and cooperation groups throughout Serbia.
The First Basic Court in Belgrade issued an announcement stating that the final verdict from May 15th 2018 did not in fact give full custody to the father of the underage girl from Mirijevo. After the announcement issued by the Basic Court in Pirot in the murder case of Sanja M. the Autonomous Center for Women was stunned to see the same mistakes repeated by the Basic Court in Belgrade, which they had issued with the intention of sending a message to the public as soon as possible noting how they bare no responsibility, but had in fact just basically bragged about doing nothing.
We, the undersigned, members of the Women against Violence Network are surprised by the State Prosecutorial Council’s decision made on March 17th 2023 about the list of candidates for Deputy High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade. The State Prosecutorial Council has classified deputy prosecutor Gorjana Mircic Calukovic, the coordinator for gender based violence at the High Prosecutorial Office in Belgrade who had been referred to that position from the basic public prosecutorial office, as 34th out of a total of 43 candidates.
The Basic Court in Pirot issued a public announcement in which, at the end, it stated that the murder of Sanja M. could not have been prevented, despite the fact that she repeatedly reported her ex violent partner for stalking her. This public announcement of the Basic Court in Pirot sends a defeating message to all women who are surviving similar forms of family or partner related violence – that despite reporting the abuser their lives will not be saved.
Representatives of the Autonomous Women’s Center participated in a webinar dedicated to researching violence against women and children in Southeast Europe, organized by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative – SVRI.
At the invitation of the Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Legislation of the National Assembly, AWC submitted its views expressing regret for the manner in which the Ministry of Justice rejected the proposals of the Autonomous Women's Center on the draft Law o judges and draft Law on Public Prosecutors Office that were submitted during the public debate. Ministry of Justice proposed to the National Assembly legal solutions that are in conflict with The Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence and the National Strategy for Realizing the Rights of Victims and Witnesses of Criminal Crimes in the Republic of Serbia.
On January 16th 2023 the Autonomous Women’s Center received replies from the Ombudsman and the High Prosecutorial Office in Nis in relation to AWC’s request for immediate reactions and review of the work of the Police Administration in Nis in the case of a reported rape in Nis.
