The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and partner organizations from the Western Balkans conducted the 2024 Advocacy Week in Brussels from November 11 to 15.
The new European Commission report, published at the end of October, shows that Serbia is still making very slow progress with the implementation of reforms in the accession process. This pace is in increasing contrast to the intensified EU enlargement policy following the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
After the Republic of Serbia submitted its First Thematic Evaluation Report on the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence, titled Building Trust by Providing Support, Protection, and Justice, the Autonomous Women's Center submitted its shadow report.
The reporting period, from May to October 2024, coincides with the first six months of work of the new Government of Serbia. The continuation of the reform process has not yet gained momentum. The exposé of the new prime minister interprets the priorities differently and aligns them with traditional values.
The Autonomous Women's Center submitted comments on the Draft Law on Amendments of the Criminal Procedure Code. Concern was expressed about most of the proposed amendments which will ruin the concept of prosecutorial investigation and prosecution as a prosecuting authority, as well as the undermining of the achieved victim’s rights and particularly the right of especially vulnerable witnesses.
The Autonomous Women's Center submitted comments on the Draft Law on Amendments of the Criminal Code. It was pointed out that it was disappointing that, despite the recommendations of the GREVIO Committee, the amendments did not propose an amendment regarding the change of the definition of rape, nor aligned definition of sexual harassment with the Grevio recommendation. It was particularly disappointing that the amendments to the Criminal Code did not envisage the introduction of a new criminal offense - Unauthorized sharing and misuse of a video of intimate content, and thus failed to comply with Chapter 2 of Directive 2024/1385/EU on the fight against violence against women and domestic violence.
The prEUgovor coalition commented on the Reform Agenda – a plan of measures that the Government of Serbia will undertake in the period from 2024-2027 in order to achieve access to the funds of the European Union Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The Reform Agenda was adopted at the Government session on October 3, 2024. In addition to the fact that the process of developing the Reform Agenda was not sufficiently transparent and inclusive, the areas included are important and well chosen, but the proposed solutions do not correspond to the scale of the problem.
After the proposal of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Financial Support for Families with Children, following an accelerated procedure, was put on the agenda of the second extraordinary session of the National Assembly, the Autonomous Women's Center appealed to all MPs to adopt a new article of the law that would provide for child allowance for children whose mothers are victims of femicide.
During the public hearing on the Action Plan Proposal for the period 2024-2026 for the implementation of the Strategy for the creation of a stimulating environment for the development of the civil sector in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2022-2030, on behalf of women's organizations, the Network of Women Against Violence sent an Open Letter to the Minister, to the Sector for Cooperation with Civil Society and to the Council for the Creation of an Encouraging Environment for the Development of Civil Society. The immediate reason for this is serious security threats to women from organizations in the south of Serbia.
Seven years after the start of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, a central data record has not yet been established, nor is there a publicly available report that integrates data from different sources. The Autonomous Women's Center has been collecting data and preparing reports since the beginning of the implementation of the Law. In 2023, 28,413 incidents of domestic violence were registered, the most in the period 2018-2022. Men were the most frequent perpetrators of domestic violence (82.8%), and among the victims, women were dominantly represented (71.8%).
The period covered by this Report – from November 2023 to April 2024 – was marked by the extraordinary parliamentary and local elections, which caused the Government to spend this entire time in a technical mandate. As Serbia had three parliamentary elections in the last five years, such a situation didn’t seem unusual.
