AWC’s independent monitoring of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence for the period July-December 2018, has confirmed earlier statements concerning the stabilization of procedures of responsible institutions in this field.  On average, 1572 of restraining orders and 689 eviction orders are issued monthly, while 663 persons receive both measures. The sex of persons against whom these measures are issued confirm well-known data – men receive them in 85% and women in 15% of cases. Data on the sex of persons who receive both urgent measures is also expected – men in 90% of cases and women in 10% of cases, which indirectly indicates that men commit more aggravated acts of domestic violence.

Additionally, it can be concluded that short-term preventive protection is still not followed by an appropriate number of proceedings initiated ex officio for measures of protection from domestic violence (based on the Family Law), although an increase in their number is evident.

At the same time, there is still an inconsistency in the number of issued urgent measures, which should be an issue of concern for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not only for determining whether all police officers and their supervisors implement the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the same way (whether they recognize and react to each reported cases of domestic violence and direct danger of it happening or repeating), but also for determining other possible reasons for the significant differences in the numbers.

The number of developed individual protection and support plans for victims is still significantly lower than the number of newly reported cases considered. For those that exist, it is impossible to determine their content. Despite the possibility defined by the law, victims still only very rarely participate in meetings of coordination and cooperation groups.

Within the reporting period, there was an important local initiative concerning the monitoring of the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, a report prepared by the “Sandglass” (Serbian:Pescanik) Women’s Association from the City of Krusevac, focusing on the work of coordination and cooperation groups in the Rasina, Sumadija and Podunavlje districts.

Among other things, this report shows that cities where there is better cooperation of coordination groups and women’s organizations, have a higher percentage of adopted proposals for extension of urgent measures. For example, in Kragujevac this is 97%, where in Krusevac, where such cooperation does not exist, the rate is 70%. This report also confirms that the number of individual protection plans are disproportionately low compared to the number of considered cases. For example, in Krusevac this is only 12,5%, and there is a similar situation in Kragujevac, only 20,7%. Only on very rare occasions are victims of violence or women’s groups invited to meetings of coordination and cooperation groups.

Please see the following link for further data and conclusions.