Izvor: N1 televizija, 31.Avg.2018, 10:11   (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)

Serbia SOS line for women victims of violence unavailable

Nine months after it has been created, the SOS line for women who are victims of domestic violence in Serbia still doesn’t work, N1 reported.

The free line was established in an agreement with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Issues, the City of Belgrade and the “Telekom Srbija”, a major telecommunication operator in the country nine months ago, but the callers still can reach anyone >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << at 0800 222 003.

Vanja Macanovic from the Autonomous Women Centre told N1 that the Ministry did not provide any information about the issue and that the Centre had no any contact with it in over a year.

She said that the SOS line should be a part of social services which could help the victims immediately, and not like a call centre which women would dial just to be redirected to some other services.

Macanovic said that between June 1, 2017, and May 31 this year, 44,728 cases of violence against women were reported. That is, she believes, good news, but the bad one is that the prosecutors dismissed the two-thirds of the reports.

She has added that the judicial system in Serbia does not recognise the high-risk cases, and the prosecutors sometimes let the reports wait for a year or two.

“Some prosecutors do their job well, but two-thirds of them do not. They issue an urgent measure, and that’s all right, but nothing further is done to protect the victim,” Macanovic said.

Since the beginning of 2018, 25 women were killed in domestic violence cases in Serbia, and Macanovic said that a large number of them never reported any mistreatment. “Later,” she added, “media reports say the family new, neighbours knew and no one ever reported.”

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