Serbian MPs 'Not Taking Domestic Violence Seriously'

The Autonomous Women's Center said on Thursday that the MPs' refusal to support an amendment to the Police Act which would allow perpetrators of domestic violenceto be removed from the family home was symbolic of wider misogynistic attitudes in Serbia.

"The deputies not voting for the bill shows the hypocrisy and general misogynistic attitude toward women in the society. The authorities just talk, but do very little work [to tackle domestic violence]," Tanja Ignjatovic from the Autonomous Women's Center told BIRN.

Of the 170 deputies present for the vote on Tuesday, 150 did not back the amendment which would have empowered police to order the temporary removal of aggressors and to prohibit them from contacting their victims.

The extra protection measures are in line with a 2011 Council of Europe convention against violence towards women.

So far this year, 34 women have been killed in domestic violence incidents. Half of the perpetrators had already been reported to the police or prosecution for acting violently.

Aleksandra Nestorov from the Women Against Violence Network told BIRN that the statistics show that past and present Serbian governments have not done anything to tackle the issue, but have only fulfilled the bureaucratic procedures required to join the EU.

"All the governments have just been going for EU standards, forming different monitoring bodies... without caring how really people live.  As we can see, real, live women are not feeling any improvments," Nestorov said.

Last year, out of 6,000 reports of domestic violence, 1,712 indictments were raised, of which a third resulted in prison sentences.

Courts last year only ordered 70 perpetrators to be evicted, while 1,250 women with children were forced to...