Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

On July 14, the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlović, and the Autonomous Women’s Center reached an agreement on the recommendations that need to be implemented in order to make the fight against violence against women more effective.

It is necessary to systematically work on improving the competence of employees who perform assessments of violence and make decisions about the placement of children in order to avoid missteps in risk assessment and to prevent outcomes with tragic consequences. The Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ Affairs and Social Affairs needs to conduct supervision of all social work centers and establish binding instructions on the actions of social workers and other persons employed at these centers.

One of the measures that urgently needs to be introduced is electronic records, as contemplated by the new Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, because only inspecting the electronic registry can provide information about the status of every single case from the jurisdiction of the prosecutor’s office, the police, or the social work center.

It is necessary to ensure an effective investigation of cases of violence against women and in the family, as well as the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of such acts by sanctions that are proportionate to the gravity of the committed act.

The introduction of the national hotline must be one of the most urgent priorities, since in this way experts can provide victims of violence with appropriate information and psychological and social support, as well as the ability to together develop a safety plan for women and children.

The drafting of a national strategy to combat violence against women is the state’s obligation under the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).

The recommendation of the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality and the Autonomous Women’s Center to the relevant institutions is that the focus should be on thorough alignment of regulations with the European standards when it comes to the rights of victims of crimes.

These institutions emphasize that it is necessary to define minimum standards for the victims, which includes also defining the steps for encounters with the perpetrator of crime, seeing children, and more.

Source: www.srbija.gov.rs