Regarding the latest version of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Family Law, which was publicly released after reviewing proposed solutions and comments submitted during the public consultation process, the Autonomous Women’s Center has addressed the Working Group, urging it to reconsider certain legal provisions of critical importance for protecting the best interests of the child, ensuring the safety of victims of domestic violence, and aligning the proposed provisions with Serbia’s domestic legal framework and international obligations.
In its comment on the Draft Law on Internal Affairs, the Autonomous Women’s Center recalled that the Government of the Republic of Serbia committed, through measures in the Reform Agenda, to regulate the issue of police independence from the Ministry of the Interior during the pre-investigation and investigation phases, and noted that the Draft does not do so to a sufficient extent. Although the Draft formally prescribes the operational independence of the Police, its further provisions retain broad powers for the Minister regarding the organisation of work, direction, reporting, proposing and dismissal of the Director of Police, as well as regulating certain issues relevant to the operational functioning of the Police.
The Autonomous Women’s Center agrees with most of the provisions proposed in the draft of the new Law on Weapons and Ammunition. However, AWC considers that certain provisions should be regulated more precisely or differently, in order to avoid varying interpretations and to ensure more efficient exchange of information among institutions.
The Autonomous Women’s Center submitted comments and proposals to the Ministry for Family Care and Demography regarding the Draft Law on Amendments to the Family Law. It was noted that efforts to align the amendments with the Istanbul Convention and the EU Directive 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence are not fully harmonised. This is particularly evident in relation to recognising children who witness domestic violence as victims, as well as in the implementation of Article 31 of the Istanbul Convention, highlighted in the recommendations of both GREVIO reports for Serbia (2020 and 2025).
Over the past six months, Serbia has experienced a deepening erosion of its democratic order, further distancing the country from its aspiration of European Union membership, concludes the new prEUgovor Alarm Report for the period May–October 2025. AŽC also took part in its development.
The report compiled by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation examines the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, adopted by the European Union in November 2023, as well as the accompanying national reform agendas, through a gender lens. The Autonomous Women’s Center is among the organizations that contributed to the development of this report.
The Autonomous Women's Center invited all citizens to join in sending comments and suggestions to the Ministry of Justice on the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code introducing the milder crime of Sexual intercourse without consent. The Ministry of Justice is requested to withdraw that proposal, as well as to alter the definition of the basic form of the criminal act of rape so that it should include any involuntary sexual relationship, including cases in which there was no physical resistance of the victim.
The Autonomous Women's Center submitted general comments to the Working Group for the Development of the National Strategy for Realizing the Rights of Victims and Witnesses of Criminal Crimes in the Republic of Serbia. All comments that were made during the drafting of the expiring Strategy remained the same.
The Autonomous Women's Center, in a comment submitted to the Republic Institute of Statistics, praised the general characteristics and content of the Draft Program of Official Statistics in the period from 2026 to 2030. The plan to increase the volume of activities compared to the previous period and the ambition to speed up the pace of changes, in order to harmonize the official statistics of the Republic of Serbia with international statistical standards, were especially praised.
For the eighth year in a row, the Autonomous Women's Center is preparing a review of the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence. In 2024, 27,211 incidents of domestic violence were registered, which is 4.2% less than in the previous year. This should not be interpreted as a decrease in the incidence of domestic violence in Serbia, because no such trend can be seen. Men were the most frequent perpetrators of domestic violence (82.6%), while the majority of victims were women (71.6%). Violence in a partner relationship is the most common form of domestic violence (54%).
Bearing in mind that a number of victims of human trafficking come from families experiencing domestic violence, including sexual violence, as well as the fact that the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence (the implementation of which the Autonomous Women's Center has been monitoring for eight years) in Art. 4, provides for the application of Art. 24-27 on other criminal acts as well, including human trafficking, comments in principle were submitted on the proposed text of the Draft Law on Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking and Victim Protection.
