'Voices against Violence against Women and Girls" panel held

‘The Domestic Violence Prevention Act provides for mandatory cross-sectoral cooperation through coordination and cooperation groups which have examined more than 132,000 domestic violence cases so far’, said Gorjana Mirčić Čaluković of the Ministry of Justice at a panel Voices against Violence against Women and Girls. The panel was organised by the EU Info Centre on the occasion of 8 March – the International Women’s Day. The focus of the panel was on violence taking place at schools and among the youth, with a note that domestic violence often has a spillover effect on out-of-home violence.

Ms Mirčić Čaluković pointed out that involvement of representatives of educational institutions in the work of coordination and cooperation groups was of crucial importance, indicating that victim’s safety comes first and must be central to the work of all institutions in charge. ‘The groups have convened more than 7,000 times, but there is no information on how many representatives of educational institutions participated in their work. Their sporadic involvement was facilitated by the social work centre in charge; however, this should be further addressed, because work with children and young people is a form of primary prevention and a way to reduce violence’, she said and explained that it was important for children and young people to trust their professors and teachers, and that it was necessary to create a relationship of trust and to restore young people’s confidence in institutions and their work.

Online violence, which is widespread among young people, must also be responded to. In this context, it is important to teach both girls and boys about non-violent forms of communication as it is the only way to approach gender equality.

The Deputy Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to Serbia Mateja Norčič Štamcar stressed that domestic violence deserved zero tolerance. She observed that in January this year alone, there had been 1,700 cases of domestic violence, women being victims in three out of four cases. ‘This is the reason why everyone should be focused on eradicating the most extreme forms of human rights violation’, she said and concluded that it was necessary to work on that with both girls and boys.

The panel was also attended by secondary school students from Belgrade.