Gender violence

Gender-based violence is a pervasive issue in the Balkans; in Kosovo alone, a 2018 survey found that 68 per cent of women had experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, with 60 per cent of respondents saying they had experienced violence just in the past year.

Police, prosecutors, courts and social services in North Macedonia are still failing to recognise the various ways in which gender-based violence can occur, often leaving victims with nowhere to turn.

Rape is being used in conflict as a deliberate military strategy, and is feared most by women and girls when the shooting starts.

They are right to be afraid. It is vital to highlight just how shockingly common rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence have become in humanitarian settings worldwide.

Panelists Marija Arnautovic, from Radio Free Europe, Martina Mlinarevic, a writer and freelance journalist, Dalija Hasanbegovic Konakonvic, from Al Jazeera Balkans, and Biljana Radulovic, an attorney, tackled some of the biggest problems facing women journalists in the country in their daily work.

Several hundreds persons on Saturday participated in Bucharest in a march of solidarity with women victims of violence.

It will be a long time before survivors of wartime rape in Kosovo find lasting closure or healing, Mirlinda Sada says.

The government should take preventive measures with amendments to the Penal Code to prevent violence against women and children. This is one of the demands that hundreds of citizens made at protest against gender-based violence at Eagles Bridge in Sofia.

A peaceful demonstration in support of the ratification of the so-called Istanbul Convention is being held on Thursday from 11 am to 2 pm before the National Assembly.