A panel titled “Revenge Porn and Abuse of Intimate Videos” was held on May 16th at the cinema hall of the Philosophy Faculty at the Novi Sad University. The following also spoke at the panel: Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Special Prosecutorial Office for High-Tech Crime, Mirjana Stajkovac, investigative journalist Andela Milivojevic, and legal expert from the Autonomous Women’s Center, Vanja Macanovic, while journalist Tamara Srijemac moderated the discussion.
The Autonomous Women’s Center invites you to a media conference in commemoration of May 18th – Remembrance Day of Women Victims of Violence - #WeDemandAnswers.
On Thursday, May 11, 2023, the Autonomous Women's Center (AWC) held an expert meeting on The concept of "parental alienation" in the context of violence in an intimate partner relationship. The meeting was held online and was attended by 24 representatives of women's organizations from Serbia and the region.
On May 18th, the National Remembrance Day of Women Victims of Violence we look back on the fact that in 2023 15 women and two girls have been murdered in Serbia in a family-partner context. On this occasion the Autonomous Women’s Center recommends that the National Parliament hold a public hearing in the coming months, before the Board for Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, where they will discuss the conduct, that is, the wrongful courses of action taken by institutions which lead to the murder of a woman in Pirot.
AWC representative, Sanja Pavlovic, took part in an academic workshop “Struggle against Sexual Violence in Conflicts – Comparative international and national insights”, by speaking about “Feminist organization around the topic of the culture of remembering women who had survived sexual violence in war in former Yugoslavia”.
Today another woman was murdered. This murder took place in Novi Sad, she was murdered with a gun, while at her workplace. This woman had also reported the perpetrator for abuse prior to being murdered. She trusted the state and institutional representatives who have been repeatedly calling on victims to report abuse and saying that they’ll protect them. Her murderer had merely been given a restraining order (no contact, no approach), even though those working on her case in institutions knew that the perpetrator worked in a firearm store, that he is a hunter and that he would still have firearms at his disposal even after his registered firearms were taken away.
On April 11, 2023, the Autonomous Women's Center organized the presentation of the first (three-month) results of the application of the mediation model in the employment of women/victims of domestic violence in Belgrade, with the aim of expanding this practice to coordination and cooperation groups throughout Serbia.
The First Basic Court in Belgrade issued an announcement stating that the final verdict from May 15th 2018 did not in fact give full custody to the father of the underage girl from Mirijevo. After the announcement issued by the Basic Court in Pirot in the murder case of Sanja M. the Autonomous Center for Women was stunned to see the same mistakes repeated by the Basic Court in Belgrade, which they had issued with the intention of sending a message to the public as soon as possible noting how they bare no responsibility, but had in fact just basically bragged about doing nothing.
We, the undersigned, members of the Women against Violence Network are surprised by the State Prosecutorial Council’s decision made on March 17th 2023 about the list of candidates for Deputy High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade. The State Prosecutorial Council has classified deputy prosecutor Gorjana Mircic Calukovic, the coordinator for gender based violence at the High Prosecutorial Office in Belgrade who had been referred to that position from the basic public prosecutorial office, as 34th out of a total of 43 candidates.
The Basic Court in Pirot issued a public announcement in which, at the end, it stated that the murder of Sanja M. could not have been prevented, despite the fact that she repeatedly reported her ex violent partner for stalking her. This public announcement of the Basic Court in Pirot sends a defeating message to all women who are surviving similar forms of family or partner related violence – that despite reporting the abuser their lives will not be saved.
