To further the work of coordination and cooperation groups which had been formed pursuant to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, the Ministry of Justice has recommended that the groups’ meetings take place on-line. To that end, the use of a suitable platform – application Zoom − has been facilitated in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
User accounts for the application Zoom have been created for 20 deputy public prosecutors in 8 basic public prosecutor’s offices, so that they may conduct the meetings more easily, more speedily and more efficiently. The 8 prosecutor’s offices that had agreed to take part in this pilot program are the ones which, earlier in March, had had over 100 reviewed cases of domestic violence. They are the Second Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade and the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pančevo, Vrbas, Novi Sad, Aranđelovac, Smederevo, Niš, and Užice, respectively.
Moving the meetings on-line allows for a faster exchange and a greater accessibility of data, and other participants to join the meetings more easily. That includes representatives of health institutions, the National Employment Bureau and other national services as well as a higher number of victims of domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Prevention Act, which entered into force in mid-2017, stipulates that a coordination and cooperation group is to be formed for every territory under the jurisdiction of a basic public prosecutor’s office. Each group is a) to review every case of domestic violence which has not been concluded by a final court decision in a civil or a criminal proceeding, as well as cases when protection and support to victims of domestic violence is required, b) to prepare individual plans of protection and support to victims of domestic violence, and c) to motion measures for termination of court proceedings to the competent public prosecutor’s office.