The Autonomous Women’s Center’s analysis “Social Housing Policies - Possibilities for women who have survived violence, and how they can realize their rights”, was presented to the public on October 8th in Belgrade, at an activist meeting attended by representatives of women’s associations from Uzice, Nis, Kragujevac, Krusevac, Novi Becej, Leskovac, Common Action for “The Roof Over Our Heads” from Novi Sad, The Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, as well as the Coordination Body for Gender Equality.
On the occasion of the tragic accident in Obrenovac in which two girls were killed and information from the media that the prosecution is investigating the criminal responsibility of the mother, уwe warn the authorities that it is extremely unacceptable and worrying that the burden of responsibility for child safety appropriate systemic support, be transferred (exclusively) to the mother of these children, who has the least power and who is in a situation to "choose between two evils" - to let her children go hungry or to leave them alone in the apartment at a time when neither the kindergarten nor the school are open, and when she must go to the factory to avoid dismissal.
The Autonomous Women's Centre addressed the Ministry of Family Care and Demography, as well as the Protector of Citizens regarding the accident in Obrenovac in which two girls died. Information available to the public indicates that the responsibility, regardless of possible systemic omissions, i.e., lack of systemic support to poor and single mothers with children of preschool and early school age, is transferred exclusively to the mother of the killed girls.
A series of investigative texts by journalist Jelena Jindra entitled The System for the Protection or Abuse of Children? published from July to September 2021 on the portal of H-Alter (Association for Independent Media Culture) from Zagreb, drew great and attention and caused a lot of controversies among the general and professional public about the scientifically unfounded notion of "parental alienation". This term, which in Croatia, but also in the whole world, is very popular among experts for the protection of children in the health, judicial and social protection system, has also been propagated in Serbia in recent years by prof. Dr Gordana Buljan Flander, through "educational sessions on alienation" which she held not only in Serbia, but also in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Representatives of the Autonomous Women's Centre participated in the 4th European Conference on Domestic Violence, 13-15 September 2021, organized online in Ljubljana (Slovenia). More than 400 presentations on a large number of relevant topics and in various working formats were presented at this conference, and more than 650 representatives of the academic community, civil society organizations and experts took part. Representatives of AWC had three announcements, and one was a member of the Scientific Committee of this conference.
During the previous weekend, another woman was killed in a family-partner context. The media reported that after the divorce and numerous unsuccessful persuasions to return to him, the perpetrator shot and killed the woman at her workplace in Bor. It was also written that the environment of the victim and the perpetrator testified that he was "of quick-tempered nature, but that it could not have been foreseen that he would kill her." Couldn't such an outcome really be expected in this case?
Autonomous Women’s Center in partnership with Kosovo Women’s Network has developed the Protocol for Psychosocial Counselling via Online Applications. Considering that the pandemic crisis has increased the rate of violence against women at regional and global level and aggravated the access to support services, the main goal of one year lasting project is to improve the accessibility of women who survived violence to the support services.
For the ninth time, the Autonomous Women's Center presents a report on independent monitoring of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence in Serbia for the period January-December 2020, which also contains comparative data from the previous year. There are still no consolidated, publicly available, official reports on the application of the Law, and the lack of a central electronic record on the application of the Law makes it difficult to monitor it comprehensively and fosters inconsistent and incomparable data from different sources. The ninth independent report was prepared by Tanja Ignjatović.
On the occasion of June 19, the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts, the Autonomous Women's Center participated in numerous activities aimed at raising awareness of the situation of victims of sexual violence in wars and fostering policies of remembrance, solidarity and responsibility.
The aim of this International Conference was to open up space for discussion on different approaches and good practices in the field of prevention and fight against digital sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as well as to encourage exchange of experiences and connecting teachers around this topic.