At a press conference, held at the Media Center on October 31st, the PrEUgovor Coalition presented their independent report on advancements made by Serbia in implementing judicial and human rights policies (Chapter 23) and justice, freedom and security policies (Chapter 24).
During the press conference held on 17th of October in Media Center in Belgrade, Autonomous Women's Center and Women Against Violence Network officially started collecting signatures in support of a petition to designate May 18 - Day of Remembrance of the murdered women victims of violence. This date was chosen because in 2015, within a period of 72 hours, on the 16th, 17th and 18th of May, seven women were killed in domestic-partnership context. The first signatures of support were given by members of the families of women victims of femicide, and during the conference there were collected more than 80 signatures.
There are no statistics in Serbia, or even simple assessments, about the number of women who were raped during war. One of the first organizations that women could turn to for support at the time was the Autonomous Women’s Center against Sexual Violence which was established in 1993 in the aim of providing this much needed support. “The Autonomous Women’s Center against Sexual Violence was established so as to help provide emotional support to women who have survived sexual violence on war torn territories in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later on in Kosovo. Many of these women remained in Serbia. From our experiences of working with women, we know that there are women who were raped by men of all nationalities”, noted Lepa Mladenovic.
Berlin, Germany: During the “Support and protection of child witnesses of domestic violence, particularly in relation to custody and visitation rights” panel, at the 18th WAVE conference, Tanja Ignjatovic and Vanja Macanovic from the Autonomous Women’s Center held a presentation titled “Visitation rights as a mechanism for mistreatment of children and abuse of women – how institutions respond to manipulation by perpetrators of violence”.
“Even when women who have survived violence perceive the media as being supportive, the media must still be even more sensitive and aware of their responsibility when reporting about violence against women and domestic violence”, Tanja Ignjatovic, from the Autonomous Women’s Center said on the “How Media Covers Domestic Violence” panel, organized at the UNS Press Center by the weekly magazine “Vreme”.
The Autonomous Women’s Center is honored to call on youth who support human rights to participate and compete for an award for best youth video in raising consciousness about violence against women. The Autonomous Women’s Center encourages young people between 18 and 25 years old, youth organizations, (film and arts) schools and university departments focused on media, as well as all other interested young people, to participate in this call. The main goal of this call is to raise awareness about violence against women and to encourage women and young women who are surviving violence to seek help and support.
"There is no apology to the victims and families, no compensation, no personal nor professional responsibility", said the representative of the Autonomous Women's Center, Tanja Ignjatović, during the press conference organized by the Ombudsperson on the occasion of the presentation of failures found in the work of relevant institutions in 12 out of 14 cases of killings of women in Serbia. According to the Special report of the Ombudsperson, in these 12 cases, including mass murder in Zitiste, it was found that the institutions had knowledge of the existence of violence against women in the family, but they did not not react properly or didn't act at all.
After a meeting of ministers and Prime Minister within the technical government, the systemic measures were announced against different types of violence faced by Serbian society – domestic violence, sexual offences, peer violence, hooliganism, etc. Although it is difficult to imagine that the “one package” of measures can solve all types of violence, which may have the same resources and similar manifestations, but make a specific problem, PM announced changes of the penal legislation and its harmonization with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the increase in the minimum penalties for offences of sexual violence, the new Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (i.e. organizational), the adoption of the Law on Free Legal Aid, specialization of experts and their better mutual cooperation.
Television news magazine "Victim has a female face" (Žrtva ima žensko lice), which was broadcast on Serbian public national television RTS, presents professional and responsible media reporting on violence against women and current situation in this field in Serbia.
Women's Platform for the Development of Serbia 2014-2020 organized a meeting with female MPs, representatives of the Women's Parliamentary Network, in order to monitor and assess the progress in implementing the measures to achieve the rule of law and non-discrimination.
