The reporting period, which lasted from November 2021 to April 2022, was marked by the referendum on constitutional amendments and the general elections with accompanying campaigns and a series of regulations that once again underwent last minute changes. Due to the lack of real dialogue in institutions and the media, in late 2021 citizens took to the streets in mass protests throughout Serbia. A significant initial step towards strengthening the independence of the judiciary was made by amending the Constitution, although the space for the influence of politics on this branch of government has not been completely eliminated.
The Autonomous Women's Center (AWC), together with partner organizations, announces a call for an external evaluator of the project ''Institutionalizing Quality Rehabilitation and Integration Services for Violence Survivors” funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds of Austrian Development Cooperation.
Education about reproductive and sexual health and rights has not been organized systemically, shows the latest study of the Autonomous Women's Center "Systemic education postponed until further notice", which analyzes how much the Republic of Serbia respects international standards, domestic laws and policies regarding the education of children and young people about sexual and reproductive health within the framework of the formal education system.
As part of the discussion regarding the development of the Policy Action Plan for youth in AP Vojvodina 2022-2025, and at the initiative of the European Youth Center of Vojvodina, the AWC sent its comments in the field of digital violence towards and among young people.
Kosova Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT), Autonomous Women Centre (AWC) and Women in Black (WIB) jointly organized a Workshop with Women’s Civil Society Organizations working in Kosovo and Serbia during which we addressed the rights and needs of survivors of sexual violence and in particular sexual violence during the wartime.
The prEUgovor coalition has drawn up proposals for key reforms that the future executive and legislature should work on after the elections on April 3. In addition to the general principles for improving the existing state of the rule of law and democracy in Serbia, the members of the coalition highlight, each in their own field of expertise, what the key problems are in the field of combating corruption and organized crime, anti-discrimination policy, migration and asylum and human trafficking, as well as regional relations.
In its new annual Reform Agenda the prEUgovor coalition provides a short overview and recommendations in regard to key issues to be addressed in 2022 in the EU accession process of Serbia.
The consortium of three non-governmental organisations from Serbia – the Autonomous Women’s Centre (AWC), Women in Black (WIB) and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) have sent an open letter to the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the Western Balkans, sir Stuart Peach. “What we, as peace and women’s rights organisations, find especially important is the task of working on the advancement of gender equality and implementation the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) that is specified as part of your portfolio” – states the letter.
On January 17th regional activists and members of more than 40 non-governmental organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro called on institutions which are responsible for preventing and combating all forms of violence against women and girls to, starting in 2022, do their jobs responsibly and conscientiously, protect survivors, react urgently, and adequately punish the perpetrators because EVERY MINUTE COUNTS!
Gender-based violence, as you call it in the given opinion, is a recent term - and women's organizations, revealing the problem, talked about men's violence against women. The imbalance of physical, political, social and economic power between the sexes was the focus of this term. We believe that you will agree with the fact that the equalization of power between the sexes has not (yet) occurred, but that the term was first replaced by the term "gender-based violence against women" (the term used in the Council of Europe Convention), and then "gender-based violence". Women, who are predominantly victims of male violence and make up over 50% of the population, have become invisible through this terminological reduction, which takes us back many decades, to the very beginning of the feminist struggle for the visibility of male violence against women - the most widespread form of discrimination against women in society.
