“This year, 30 cases of domestic violence resulted in death; the death of 23 women and 7 men. From 1 June 2017 to 30 June 2018, 44,728 cases of domestic violence were reported”, it was stated at today’s media conference held in the Serbian Government building. Following the second session of the Domestic Violence Prevention Council in which the results of the one-year enforcement of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act were discussed, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović said that despite the number of reported cases being high, it meant that the victims had been encouraged to report violence.

She added that, in 16,185 cases recommendations were given for the order of measures at the moment of reporting, with the courts having upheld the extension of urgent measures to 30 days in 15,617 cases and with 10,503 individual victim’s protection plan having had been prepared. Those – Kuburović explained – showed that the coordination groups formed had reviewed individual cases. “As individuals, we have an obligation to report violence. Only three of the 30 death cases in 2018 were reported“, Kuburović said, emphasising that violence was a private matter.

According to her, the total of 44,728 reported cases proved that people were no longer silent about domestic violence. She explained that efforts were made to educate institutions across Serbia on the subject and to establish cooperation with them, announcing that the results of those efforts would be submitted to the Government of Serbia in a form of a report. “We remain prepared to revise the statute and continue to tackle this social problem”, Kuburović stated.

Minister of Interior Nebojša Stefanović said that in the single year, the police had ordered a total of 28,026 measures of which 8,751 had been temporary removals of the abuser from the household and 19,275 had been measures temporarily prohibiting the abuser from contacting and approaching the victim, with the courts having had further extended the measures in 15,373 cases. Discussing sanctions, Stefanović said that in many instances of urgent measures the police officers were facing abusers and victims of domestic violence for the first time [in their careers], thus predominantly issuing victim protection measures. “We have noticed certain weaknesses; we have identified a need for having more trained police officers and prosecutors, not only those specialising in domestic violence cases, but also all other police officers who may encounter these cases”, Stefanović noted.

He explained that cooperation with non-governmental institutions dealing in the matter was very important, as was inter-sectoral cooperation with all the relevant organisations starting from the health and the social protection sectors, the prosecution and the police, to all others wishing to get involved in providing support to victims of violence. “The support of the society is very important. It is essential for the victims to know that they are supported, that they are not alone in their struggles and that they may count on the society to stand by them by not only preventing serious physical and emotional harm from ever again happening to them, but also supporting them in moving on with their lives”, the Minister stressed.

He then moved on to discussing the significance of prevention of violence, noting that a cycle of lessons on, among others, fighting violence in primary schools had started the year before. “We are not able to state that we are entirely satisfied, because we are always striving to not having a single victim. Nonetheless, great progress has been achieved. I believe we are at the end of the cause of the problem and that we have completed the first phase – which began with an escalation of domestic violence. Now, we will move to adding pressure on stopping domestic violence to then be able to move towards eliminating it entirely”, Stefanović explained. He noted that the task was not easy and explained that, although the possibility of tightening the penalties existed, the support of the entire society was far needed and that no one could possibly argue that the problem was not theirs.

Minister of Labour, Employment, Social and Veteran Affairs Zoran Đorđević stated that the State was determined to eliminate the problem, explaining that, in addition to the already mentioned institutions, the Ministries of Health, Culture and Education were also involved. “We are all in this together because the issue is a burning one in the society”, Đorđević said. He added that, following the two murders in the social protection centres, it had been decided to reform those centres in four stages, with the first stage having been completed.

The Minister said that social protection centres ought to be more active seen as people went to them because they had issues, not on a whim. “In the second half of this year, we will start working on the amendments to a series of statutes which directly or indirectly address the problem of domestic violence, which should result in a reduction of violence; violence being something to fight against together”, Đorđević concluded.