November 25^th

The International Day OF Fighting against Violence against Women was celebrated today, and the president of the Gender Equality Coordination Body, Zorana Mihajlovic said she was proud that Serbia joined in the campaign “16 Days of Activism in the Fight against Violence against Women” and appealed to all to report perpetrators. In Nis, the celebration of this day was organized by the City of Nis and the Safe House and this was the opportunity for the women who are accommodated at Safe House and the activists for the protection of women’s rights outlined to speak about how unacceptable any violence against a more gentle gender is. Tijana Djordjević Ilic, Nis City Council Member for Social Care, also joined the campaign, and together with the activist distributed promotional materials to passers-by about the importance of combating family and other forms of violence against women. The International Day against Violence against Women is celebrated in memory of Mirabel from the Dominican Republic, who was brutally killed the dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960.

November 25^th

“Violence against women is a big problem in the whole country, and it is not enough to deal with this issue only as the part of the campaign of” 16 days of Activism in the Fight against Violence against Women.  Continuous work is required, continuous education of society, changing cultural patterns of behavior and inclusion of different social systems in order to discover, stop and prevent this phenomenon. We cannot live in a situation where violence occurs in every other household. We need to encourage and empower as many women as possible to report violence because domestic violence is not only a matter of internal family and family relations, but of society as a whole. I believe that the adoption of the new Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence will certainly help, because violence against women in the family does not only affect a direct victim. It is important for us as a local self-government to make life better for both women and men, because everything that is good for one is good for others. We will try to act in different ways to raise the awareness of people about this phenomenon, but the contribution to the fight against violence against women must be given by the whole public. “