Minister: Violence against Women on Rise Globally during Pandemic

Zorana Mihajlovic (BetaPhoto)

The deputy prime minister and Gender Equality Coordinating Body chairwoman, Zorana Mihajlovic, on April 21 said that Serbia had backed the Declaration of the Committee of signatories of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women on implementing the Convention during the coronavirus pandemic and thereby yet again demonstrated readiness to combat violence against women and girls.

She said that a rise of even up to 30 percent in violence against women had been reported in all countries across the world, according to a release from Mihajlovic’s office.

“What we have been insisting on, which is also stipulated in the Convention, is a strong and coordinated work or all relevant institutions, unhindered implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and punishment for perpetrators, support to the work of women’s safe houses and SOS lines, and also the inclusion of media outlets and the public, so that women could be informed timely of their rights,” Mihajlovic specified.

She again appealed to all citizens not to turn a blind eye to violence, be it under their roof or in homes of their neighbors or relatives and to report the perpetrators.