At the initiative of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, the Autonomous Women's Center submitted a proposal at the end of June 2022 for the Republic Health Insurance Fund (RHIF) to increase the number of oral contraceptives on the A list (issued at the expense of health insurance), which is in line with the recommendations CEDAW Committee to the Republic of Serbia from 2019. At the beginning of September, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality submitted an initiative to amend the Rulebook on the list of medicines that are prescribed and issued at the expense of compulsory health insurance funds. We have to wait for the reaction of RHIF.
The Swedish Foundation Kvinna till Kvinna, which provides financial support for the activities of the Autonomous Women's Center, organized a week of meetings and advocacy for women's rights in Berlin, in which women's organizations from six countries of the Western Balkan region participated, including the Autonomous Women's Center.
As usual, public debates on important laws and strategic documents are opened during the summer, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports "kept us busy" us by commenting on the new Strategy Proposal for Youth in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2023 to 2030. The Autonomous Women's Center submitted 19 proposals for amendments and supplements to goals and measures, the largest number in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights and one number in the area of gender-based violence. A third of the proposals were accepted (12 out of 19), and only one was rejected.
The data show that women who have experienced violence are still more likely to contact the SOS telephone numbers of women's non-governmental organizations (the first of which was established as far back as 1990) than the national SOS telephone number (founded in 2018 in the public sector, i.e., at the Center for the Protection of Infants, Children and Youth, by the competent Ministry for Social Protection).
On 11 July 2022, the Protector of Citizens, the Autonomous Women's Center and the Forum of Judges of Serbia presented the Special Report of the Protector of Citizens on the work of Groups for coordination and cooperation on the territory of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš.
The Autonomous Women's Center (AWC), together with partner organizations, announces a call for an external evaluator of the project ''Institutionalizing Quality Rehabilitation and Integration Services for Violence Survivors” funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds of Austrian Development Cooperation.
In a society lacking sex education, young women (and men) learn about the changes their bodies go through, their sexuality, relationships, sex and violence in relationships all on their own, with their peers, online or from magazines. Information is seemingly abundant, however, much of it is false In a myriad of Tik tok videos, Instagram posts and porn sites – which often strengthen rigid gender roles, impose unrealistic beauty standards and standards for relationships and sex, therefore normalizing violent behavior – young women are left to their own devices to discover what is true or false, and what is toxic or not.
To enhance the provision of the social protection services, informal network of women's rights organizations prepared Policy brief on Social Services for Women Who Suffered Gender-Based Violence in the Western Balkans.
The increase in the number of reports of domestic violence events stopped, and the number of events in which the police assessed the risk decreased. The number of police orders was quite similar to the previous year, but there was a significant decrease in the issuance of both emergency measures and significantly fewer temporary eviction measures, probably as a result of fewer risk assessments.
Autonomous Women’s Center conducted a research on actions of Misdemeanor Courts in Serbia regarding misdemeanor charges filled in accrodance with par. 1 of the article 36 of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence because of the breach of the issued and prolonged emergency measures. The reseacrch was conducted through requesting data from the Misdemeanor Court of Appeal and anonimized judgements of the Misdemeanor Courts in Serbia, as well through the analysis of data from selected misdemeanor decisions based on following criteria: 1) female perpetrators sentenced to prison terms ; 2) perpetrators of both sexes who were fined and 3) perpetrators of both sexes who were acquitted.
