The Commissioner for the Protection of Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection issued a decision (number 071-01-4864 / 2019-03 of 2 April 2021) confirming that the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth rejected unduly the request of the Autonomous Women's Center to access data on the work of the national SOS hotline for support of women with the experience of violence, i.e., that the request of the AWC is in accordance with Art. 5, Art. 8, para. 1 and 2, as well as Art. 15. Nevertheless, the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth rejected the new request of the AWC - with meaningless explanations
There have been no improvements in the area of sexual and reproductive health and women's rights, according to the latest study by the Autonomous Women's Center "Three years since the adoption of the Program - without expected results."
The Autonomous Women's Center, Women in Black and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights are announcing a call for feminist expert who, together with representatives of organizations, will work on development and editing of educational program on sexual violence in wartime - perspective from Kosova.
The period from November 2020 to April 2021 was marked by the accelerated activity of the newly formed Government and Parliament to compensate for a year that Serbia lost on its path to European integration. However, monitoring that was conducted by the prEUgovor coalition in the past six months infers that these renewed efforts are rather a continuation of the former checking-the-box approach, which so far has failed to achieve convincing results in monitored areas, namely political criteria and Chapters 23 and 24. Although the declarative commitment to Serbia’s EU path remains unchanged (albeit now and then interrupted by outbursts of anti-EU rhetoric), the coalition is still not convinced that there is in fact political will to bring about substantial reforms.
Women's organizations, members of the Women Against Violence Network, are addressing you with this appeal to stop all activities that you have started in connection with the establishment of a body that would be in charge of monitoring femicide at the state level, the so-called Femicide Watch, until the Coordination Body for Gender Equality conducts a broader consultation process with all interested stakeholders - representatives of relevant ministries and state bodies, independent institutions and women's organizations.
BeFem Talks "Istanbul Convention: the view of activists from the region" is the introduction to the new campaign "Equality from the drawer: For policies of non-violence!", bringing together again women's rights defenders from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia, which have been to this day the bravest part of our societies.
According to media reports, 6 women have been killed by a partner or family member since the beginning of the year. Reading the reports on the last case of the murder in Selakovac near Novi Pazar, angry and sad, we ask ourselves again whether such an outcome could have been avoided?
The draft Law on Gender Equality submitted to the National Assembly by the Government of Serbia on April 26, 2021, privileges specialized services for perpetrators of violence, for which funding is planned from the national budget, over specialized services for victims of violence that will be financed from the budget of local governments.
On behalf of the Autonomous Women's Center Tanja Ignjatović participated in the online panel discussion "Tailor-made support", organized by the NGO IRIDA Novi Sad. The panel discussed the importance and effectiveness of training for professionals, but also the sensitization of citizens to provide the best possible support to victims of violence.
The representative of the Autonomous Women's Center, Tanja Ignjatović, was a guest at a course dealing with the modern family, at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. The issues of protection from domestic violence, parenthood and protection of the best interests of the child were discussed with the students, with an emphasis on the problems in practice in relation to the existing legal solutions and international standards.