Femicide Watch Not Yet Formed in Serbia, No Official Data Available 

Brankica Jankovic (Beta/GIZ)

Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic on Oct. 22 said that a national femicide monitoring mechanism had not been set up yet, although it had been announced back in 2018, adding that data had still been collected from media reports as no adequate official statistics was in place on gender-related killings of women and girls. 

Speaking at the Regional forum focusing on femicide in Belgrade, Jankovic said that such national body had been envisaged in the government’s 2021-20258 strategy for combating gender-based violence and domestic violence, adding “hope remains that this goal could be fulfilled within the set deadline.” 

She also said that “femicide watch” would be monitoring the spread of violence and analyze cases of violence in order to potentially furnish suggestions for how to build better protection mechanisms. Femicide watch had been formed in Croatia, and could serve as a role model, she added. 

Data suggest, Jankovic said, that 406 women had been murdered in Serbia from 2011 to 2023, noting that the reported cases had not received adequate response of relevant bodies. Education systems, according to her, is crucial as all prejudices about gender roles have to be removed. 

Milana Rikanovic, the head of the UN Women Office in Serbia, said it was crucial to have precise figures about femicide for to be able to identify violence against women in different regions and social groups, and ensure that violence was recognized in the particular surrounding and also to identify the vulnerable groups. Rikanovic also mentioned insufficient financing of non-governmental organizations dealing with women, saying that they had been mainly financed from donations.   

Visnja Ljubicic, Croatia’s Ombudsperson for gender equality, said that Croatia had set up a multidisciplinary body for collecting data about femicide, comprising representatives of all bodies involved in those activities.