At the session of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, held on June 5, 2019 in Belgrade, Autonomous Women’s Center representative Tanja Ignjatovic participated in the session titled “Violence against women: progress and challenges in Serbia”.
Within the public discussion on the Draft Law on Rights of Veterans, Army Disabled Veterans and Civilian Disabled Persons of War and Members of Their Families, the Autonomous Women’s Center and Women in Black submitted comments to the competent Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Issues, requesting the recognition of survivors of sexual violence in war as civilian victims of war.
The Autonomous Women’s Center held a meeting with representatives of women’s organizations from the Women against Violence Network, titled Rights of women and marginalized groups in the process of the European integration of Serbia – perspectives and strategies of women’s organizations. At a meeting in Belgrade, on June 7-8, 2019, organized in cooperation with the prEUgovor coalition, and with the support of Kvinna till Kvinna and the EU, the representatives of women’s organizations had the opportunity to learn about the current situation concerning three negation chapters relevant for women’s rights and the functioning of women’s organizations.
Media report that this morning in Novi Sad, M.J. (32) has been murdered by her husband G.J. (36), who has also murdered her mother N.P. (57) and her father B.P. (57), and that the police is searching for the suspect. Based on media reports, the murders were preceded two weeks ago by a report for domestic violence resulting in the urgent measure of a restraining order and bringing criminal charges for domestic violence. It has also been reported (without a clear time reference) that the suspect had been reported for illegal weapon possession.
Considering the announcement of legalization of surrogacy, proposed in the new Pre-draft of The Civil Code, Autonomous Women’s Centre warns the public, state institutions and members of the group working on the document, that the legalisation of surrogacy represents legalisation of serious form of exploitation of women and trafficking in children.
The Autonomous Women’s Center, ASTRA and Women in Black, in cooperation with BeFem, have started a campaign to promote the concluding observations of the UN CEDAW Committee. To point out the inappropriate approach of the state toward women’s rights, especially toward the CEDAW Committee’s concluding observations concerning the elimination of all forms of discrimination of women and ensuring the enjoyment of rights, we have prepared a series of video clips and visuals with relevant data. You can check the weather forecast for the lives of women in Serbia in the following days and weeks at our FB page or our Youtube channel. ?⛈?
The Autonomous Women’s Center marked May 18 – Day of Remembrance for Women Victims of Violence with a campaign titled “Hatred creates violence“ on social networks and with a press conference organized in cooperation with other women’s organizations.
The Autonomous Women’s Center has prepared its comments on the initial version of the National Social Protection Strategy for the period 2019-2025, and submitted them to the Republic Institute for Social Protection. Besides a list of concrete comments, including those that commend new measures of support for specific beneficiary groups, several inconsistencies were identified between the Draft Law on Social Protection (in the process of public discussion in August 2018) and the Draft Strategy.
Marking the national Day of Remembrance for Women Victims of Violence, the Autonomous Women’s Center appeals to women and men members of parliament not to adopt the draft amendments of the Criminal Code envisaging the prison sentence of 30 to 40 years to be replaced with life in prison.
The Autonomous Women’s Center is publishing its comments and proposals, which it submitted to the Ministry of Justice on April 15, 2019, as a working group member. The Ministry of Justice has, unfortunately, not accepted any of the proposals made by the Autonomous Women’s Center, in the Draft of April 22,2019. These primarily refer to the prevention of perpetrators of these criminal acts, so that when they perpetrate the crime for the first time or they commit a milder form of the act, they are put under longer and stricter control of state bodies, in order to prevent the committing of the most severe forms of the criminal acts of murder and rape.
