Women’s Parliamentary Network coordinator Marija Obradovic underlined the importance of discussing the problem of domestic violence against women at the National Assembly considering that this is a significant issue both in Serbia and the entire world.
Representative of the Serbian Government’s Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team Milana Lazic stressed the global importance of combating violence against women which is one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. She also pointed out the need to improve the systemic responses to violence against women in Serbia.
President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence Sonja Licht pointed out that combating violence against women requires a complex response from all social factors, representatives of the education and healthcare system, social welfare centres, local self-governments, civil society organisations, the police, public prosecution, courts. Sonja Licht highlighted the role of the Parliament in combating violence against women, passing laws and making sure they are conducted efficiently, and underlined the importance of the Women’s Parliamentary Network.
Representative of the Autonomous Women’s Centre Tanja Ignjatovic presented the results of the research on the effectiveness of the mechanisms for combating violence against women at the national and local level conducted by the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team and the Autonomous Women’s Centre. The research outlines the problems and challenges in the functioning of the existing mechanisms with a special focus on the lack of coordination and exchange of information and data between the institutions which are part of the systemic combat against violence against women.
The participants of the meeting also discussed the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women (Istanbul Convention) and the Parliament’s role in it.
They also discussed potential recommendations on how to achieve a more efficient and better coordinated approach to supporting women and children, victims of violence.