To mark International Women’s Day – March 8th, the representative of the Autonomous Women’s Center participated in the conference on sexual violence during conflicts in Kosovo, organized in Pristina by the Jahjaga Foundation and the Embassy of Germany.
As part of the “Say NO to violence against women”, the AVON Company has awarded a donation to the Autonomous Women’s Center for the continuation of the implementation and improvement of the project “I can say no – Love is not violence”, with the aim of support to education of youth on different types of violence.
At its 72nd session, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered the Fourth periodic report of the Republic of Serbia on the implementation of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The state delegation comprised 26 representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, and two interpreters.
28.2.2019. Geneva – At the panel titled Development Education: A Resource for Human Rights, one of the speakers was Autonomous Women’s Center representative Tanja Ignjatovic, who spoke on the topic “Why and how to include the topic of gender-based violence in the activities of secondary schools”.
As was pointed out several times (during the monitoring of the implementation of activities from the AP for chapter 23), the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs added amendments to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination without a public debate, nor was the draft law available on the ministry’s website.
Within the public debate procedure, the Autonomous Women’s Center submitted comments and amendments to the draft Strategy on the Development of the System of Public Informing in the Republic of Serbia. The key comment refers to the fact that the Strategy needs to be gender sensitive and gender specific, because women comprise 51% of society and because public information should enable the achievement of gender equality in all spheres of public and private life (in accordance with international standards, domestic legislation and strategic documents in this field).
At the 72nd session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, during which the Committee will consider the Fourth periodic report of the Republic of Serbia on the implementation of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (on February 28, 2019), an informal meeting of Committee members with representatives of NGOs from Serbia, UK and Botswana, was held (February 25, 2019).
With the intent to contribute to the harmonization of the legal definition of rape as a criminal act (Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, Art 78) with the standards of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, as well as with the court proceedings of the European Court of Human Rights, Autonomous Women’s Centre initiated the expert meeting during which it was discussed about the positive obligations of the state.
Rape is a crime (criminal offense) everywhere. International standards require the punishment of any sexual act without CONSENT.
It is time for the criminal offense of Rape - Article 178 of the Criminal Code of Serbia to comply with the accepted international standards.
Therefore, support the CONSENT campaign and demand from the Ministry of Justice to modify the definition of this offense in accordance with international standards.
The Autonomous Women's Center started organizing expert meetings dedicated to the need to change the definition of the criminal offense of rape and its compliance with the standards of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.