Seven years after the start of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence, a central data record has not yet been established, nor is there a publicly available report that integrates data from different sources. The Autonomous Women's Center has been collecting data and preparing reports since the beginning of the implementation of the Law. In 2023, 28,413 incidents of domestic violence were registered, the most in the period 2018-2022. Men were the most frequent perpetrators of domestic violence (82.8%), and among the victims, women were dominantly represented (71.8%).
The key data on the implementation of the Law on the Protection of Domestic Violence in 2022, was reviewed compared to 2018 and 2019 (before the pandemic), compared to 2020, the year marked by the state of emergency and the emergency situation due to COVID-19, as well as compared to 2021. It indicates the trends of discontinuing the increase in reporting domestic violence events, along with the increase in the number of risky events compared to the number of reported events of violence. The number of police orders also increased, for individual measures and for both measures imposed together, as well as the number of perpetrators of violence. Proposals for extension and decisions on extended emergency protection measures are in high percentage accordance with the number of police orders. The number of reviewed domestic violence cases at meetings of groups for coordination and cooperation approached that of 2019.
The increase in the number of reports of domestic violence events stopped, and the number of events in which the police assessed the risk decreased. The number of police orders was quite similar to the previous year, but there was a significant decrease in the issuance of both emergency measures and significantly fewer temporary eviction measures, probably as a result of fewer risk assessments.
Autonomous Women’s Center conducted a research on actions of Misdemeanor Courts in Serbia regarding misdemeanor charges filled in accrodance with par. 1 of the article 36 of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence because of the breach of the issued and prolonged emergency measures. The reseacrch was conducted through requesting data from the Misdemeanor Court of Appeal and anonimized judgements of the Misdemeanor Courts in Serbia, as well through the analysis of data from selected misdemeanor decisions based on following criteria: 1) female perpetrators sentenced to prison terms ; 2) perpetrators of both sexes who were fined and 3) perpetrators of both sexes who were acquitted.
For the ninth time, the Autonomous Women's Center presents a report on independent monitoring of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence in Serbia for the period January-December 2020, which also contains comparative data from the previous year. There are still no consolidated, publicly available, official reports on the application of the Law, and the lack of a central electronic record on the application of the Law makes it difficult to monitor it comprehensively and fosters inconsistent and incomparable data from different sources. The ninth independent report was prepared by Tanja Ignjatović.
Autonomous Women’s Center continued to independently monitor the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence. The eighth report covers the activities of the police and prosecutor’s offices in 2019, based on data obtained monthly from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, this report includes data from the annual reports on the work of centers for social work in Serbia (for 2018, since the report for 2019 is not yet publicly available). Moreover, although it is 2020, the data are provided on the actions of state bodies in the period March-May, i.e. during the SARS-CoV 2 epidemic and the state of emergency.
AWC’s independent monitoring of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence for the period July-December 2018, has confirmed earlier statements concerning the stabilization of procedures of responsible institutions in this field. On average, 1572 of restraining orders and 689 eviction orders are issued monthly, while 663 persons receive both measures. The sex of persons against whom these measures are issued confirm well-known data – men receive them in 85% and women in 15% of cases. Data on the sex of persons who receive both urgent measures is also expected – men in 90% of cases and women in 10% of cases, which indirectly indicates that men commit more aggravated acts of domestic violence.
The Sixth Independent Report of Autonomous Women’s Center (in further text: AWC) on monitoring implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence encompasses data review for the three-month period from April to June 2018, and an overview of the main annual findings and conclusions, as June 1, 2018 marks the first year of implementation of the Law. The analysis of the available data and the made recommendations tend to demonstrate whether a comprehensive and appropriate protection of victims of domestic violence has been established, especially of women and children as the most exposed to this type of violence, in line with their rights and needs, as well as with the international standards accepted by the Republic of Serbia.
Key recommendations after monitoring the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence for the period January-March 2018 conducted by the Autonomous Women's Center relate to the necessity of ensuring the conditions for the participation of victims of violence at meetings of the Groups for Coordination and Cooperation, providing not only sufficient competent police employees, but also organizational solutions that free them from other tasks, as well as instructions and expert support for the implementation of the Law based on the depth analysis of data.
After the first three independent monthly reports, the fourth independent report of the Autonomous Women's Center on the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence relates to the three-month period from September to November 2017.
