The Autonomous Women's Center welcomes the decision of the Ministry of Justice to respond to the appeals of a large number of organizations and citizens and to prescribe a new criminal offense in the Criminal Code, Unauthorized sharing and abuse of a video of intimate content.
The Autonomous Women's Center submitted comments on the Draft Law on Amendments of the Criminal Procedure Code. Concern was expressed about most of the proposed amendments which will ruin the concept of prosecutorial investigation and prosecution as a prosecuting authority, as well as the undermining of the achieved victim’s rights and particularly the right of especially vulnerable witnesses.
The Autonomous Women's Center submitted comments on the Draft Law on Amendments of the Criminal Code. It was pointed out that it was disappointing that, despite the recommendations of the GREVIO Committee, the amendments did not propose an amendment regarding the change of the definition of rape, nor aligned definition of sexual harassment with the Grevio recommendation. It was particularly disappointing that the amendments to the Criminal Code did not envisage the introduction of a new criminal offense - Unauthorized sharing and misuse of a video of intimate content, and thus failed to comply with Chapter 2 of Directive 2024/1385/EU on the fight against violence against women and domestic violence.
We inform the public that the Working Group of the Ministry of Justice, even after all our appeals and a petition signed by 21,731 citizens, did not propose the adoption of a new criminal offense that will make any misuse and unauthorized sharing of intimate recordings a criminal offense. There is currently a public hearing related to the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code, which lasts until Friday, November 1, 2024.
This year yet again, the representatives of the Autonomous Women's Center participated in the October Encounters on Social Protection in Niš, this time with papers that thematized the pseudo-scientific concept of "parental alienation ". The research of judicial practice and the analysis of international standards, comparative legal solutions and domestic laws in the mentioned area were presented.
The prEUgovor coalition commented on the Reform Agenda – a plan of measures that the Government of Serbia will undertake in the period from 2024-2027 in order to achieve access to the funds of the European Union Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The Reform Agenda was adopted at the Government session on October 3, 2024. In addition to the fact that the process of developing the Reform Agenda was not sufficiently transparent and inclusive, the areas included are important and well chosen, but the proposed solutions do not correspond to the scale of the problem.
This year as well, a representative of the Autonomous Women's Center participated in the conference with international participation PsihoŠpancir, which is organized in Varaždin and Čakovec, Croatia (October 11-13). Research on the resistance and refusal of the child to have contact with the parent is presented - an analysis of court proceedings for entrusting and maintaining personal contact of the child with the other parent in the context of domestic violence.
On Monday, September 30, 2024, the Autonomous Women's Center held a presentation at the Media Center in Belgrade, attended by members of the expert public and media, where they presented the findings of an overview of international standards, comparative solutions, and domestic legal framework, as well as research on judicial practices regarding the use of the concept of "parental alienation" in the context of domestic violence in custody and visitation cases involving a child and the parent they do not live with.
On September 28th and 29th, The Autonomous Women's Center (AWC) held an expert meeting named Reviewing positions of women's organizations regarding the initiative for femicide to become a criminal offense, the improvement of the way of monitoring femicide, the relationship between femicide and filicide, and the initiative to introduce child allowance for children whose mothers are victims of femicide.
After the proposal of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Financial Support for Families with Children, following an accelerated procedure, was put on the agenda of the second extraordinary session of the National Assembly, the Autonomous Women's Center appealed to all MPs to adopt a new article of the law that would provide for child allowance for children whose mothers are victims of femicide.
