The Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic attended the Conference on Implementation of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence against Women named “Support and Empowerment of Women – Whose responsibility is it?” organized by the Autonomous Women’s Center in the National Assembly of Serbia.

The Conference was dedicated to institutional framework, the role of the executive branch of the Government and specialized services for support and empowerment of women that were subjected to violence, as well as the role of the representatives of the legislative branch in attaining the standards of the Convention and monitoring of its implementation.

The president of GREVIO work group and member of CEDAW Committee Prof. Dr. Feride Acar spoke about the necessity of modification of The Istanbul Convention. Prof. Dr. Acar emphasized the importance of inclusion of men and boys, cooperation with civil society, opening safe houses in all countries and opening free SOS telephone lines, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As a response to the Istanbul Convention, Italy brought a change to its Labor Law so that victims can receive paid leave of absence from work, Slovakia established coordination between implementation mechanisms while Great Britain acknowledged psychological abuse as a form of molestation and introduced fines and prison sentences for these acts.

Aside from Slobodanka Macanovic and Tanja Ignjatovic, who were representing the organizer of The Conference – The Autonomous Women’s Center, the participants, among others, were also Ms. Dubravka Simonovic – UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Prof. Dr. Feride Acar – The President of GREVIO work group and member of CEDAW Committee, Nada Drobnjak – The President of The Committee for gender equality of The National Assembly of Montenegro, Ismeta Dervoz – The ex-represenative of Bosnia and Hercegovina in CoE Parliamentary Assembly, Andrej Del Fabro – from The Ministry of Labor, Family, Social security and equal opportunities of Slovenia and Branka Draskovic – Special advisor of the Vice Prime minister for gender equality.