Women's organizations from Serbia expressed their expectation that the Government of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality, the Ministry of Justice, Family Care, Social Protection and Foreign Affairs, will carefully consider the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls. , its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem - Custody, violence against women and violence against children (A/HRC/53/36), which presents a detailed analysis of decisions related to custody of minor children in the context of domestic violence, which will be discussed at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Committee.

The report and recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur clearly indicate the discriminatory and harmful conduct of institutions towards women and children when expert assessments and court decisions do not take domestic violence into account. They also indicate the gravity of the damage caused by misusing the pseudo-scientific concept of "parental alienation" and related concepts in court proceedings worldwide, which, according to our knowledge, is also present in Serbia.

Bearing in mind the recommendations to Serbia by the GREVIO expert group that monitors the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in connection with Art. 31 - Custody and visitation rights (paragraph 166-171), along with urgent recommendations for improvement (paragraph 172), as well as the fact that the Republic of Serbia has not implemented any of the recommendations in the past three years, as clearly evidenced by the report submitted to the Committee of the Parties of the Council of Europe, a signatory to the Convention, it is necessary for the Government to ensure that the competent ministries carefully consider the Conclusions on the implementation of the recommendations made by the Committee of the Parties (June 1, 2023), and especially the recommendations  5 and 6, which refer to Art. 31 and minor children in the context of violence against their mothers and domestic violence.

The letter sent to the competent state bodies ends with a statement of unreserved support for the UN Special Rapporteur's Report, as well as a request for the full implementation of her recommendations, along with the development and publication of a concrete plan for their implementation.

The only reply came from the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality, and you can see it HERE.