UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report Annex:
The program for professional development of police officers for 2017 continues the implementation of the instructional unit which content consists of the following topics: manifestation forms of domestic violence; family members under the Criminal Code; general principles for protection of women victims of domestic and intimate partnership violence; reporting domestic and intimate partnership violence against women by telephone; sending and arrival of police officers to the place of domestic and intimate partnership violence against women; the most common risks; documenting events; statements of support for victims of domestic and intimate partnership violence against women; cooperation with other institutions and institutions dealing with domestic and intimate partnership violence against women.
For the purpose of standardization and uniform implementation of this thematic area, the Department for Vocational Training - the Training Implementation Unit developed a manual and presentation that are fully compatible with the instruction content of the topic.
The Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence provides for two urgent measures: the urgent measure of removing the perpetrator of the violence from the apartment and the urgent measure of forbidding the perpetrator to contact and approach the victim. Urgent measures are imposed by a police officer for prevention of domestic violence and can last for 48 hours, and can be imposed cumulatively. The public prosecutor, in case of establishing the existence of a direct threat of domestic violence, is obliged to submit a motion to extend the emergency measure. The court evaluates the risk assessment of the competent police officer, the risk assessment made by the basic public prosecutor and assesses the evidence and claims submitted by the public prosecutor. Urgent measures can be extended by court decision for another 30 days. On the proposal of the basic public prosecutor, the basic court shall decide within 24 hours of receiving the submission and without holding a hearing. The law contains penal provisions that prescribe violations and greater effectiveness of urgent measures and measures of protection against domestic violence is achieved.
At the level of the Government, the Council for Suppression of Domestic Violence has been established, which is tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Law and improving the coordination of competent state bodies, institutions and other entities, and the effectiveness of preventing domestic violence and protection against domestic violence.
Activities aimed at implementing the recommendation are being continuously implemented.

UN Compilation:
Para 56) The UN country team noted that girls and women in Serbia were still frequently exposed to gender-based violence, such as violence in family and partner relationships, sexual harassment and rape.
Para 57) The UN country team noted the adoption in 2016 of a law on the prevention of domestic violence, as well as amendments to provisions of the Criminal Code on rape and related non-consensual sex, stalking, sexual harassment, forced marriage and genital mutilation.
Para 58) CEDAW remained concerned about the increasing number of women murdered by their husbands, ex-husbands or partners and the significant disparity among the number of police interventions, the number of criminal charges filed and the number of persons convicted of domestic violence against women.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 8) POC stated that the protection of women against violence was not efficient enough.
Para 58) JS4 underscored the high number of women murdered in the context of domestic and intimate partner violence. It asserted that the State had no system for monitoring and analysing this phenomenon, a new National Strategy to prevent all forms of violence against women 2016-2020 had not been adopted, and a systematic approach to combatting stereotypes and discrimination of women, promotion of gender equality and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls in the education system, had not been established.

National Report Annex:
Within MoESTD there is a group for protection against violence and discrimination, which in December 2013 conducted a survey to explore the incidence of gender-based violence in primary and secondary schools in RS. The authors of this research are, in addition to MoESTD, Centre for Gender Studies of the Faculty of Political Sciences, UNICEF and the Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy.
The survey was conducted as part of two programs: the United Nations Joint Project "Integrated Response to Violence against Women" in cooperation with UNICEF, UNDP and UN Women. The other program is "School without Violence", which is implemented by the MoESTD with the professional and financial support of UNICEF. The results showed that a total of 69% of primary school students and as many as 74% of secondary school students at least once experienced at least one form of gender-based violence. The Group for protection against violence and discrimination, in cooperation with civil society, implemented the National Study on the Social Problem of Sexual Abuse of Children in the RS with the aim of assessing the degree of sexual violence against children.
The "School without Violence" program included 274 schools (253 primary and 24 secondary schools), 17,000 teachers who passed training for prevention of violence and 229,000 students. An interactive website "School without Violence" was created, www.sbn.rs, which provides the necessary information in the field of violence prevention. The capacity was strengthened with 60 mentors for work in the field of prevention of violence on the topic of prevention of digital violence, gender-based violence - domestic and sexual violence, as well as 88 advisors for work on the MoESTD SOS telephone line for reporting violence in schools. 0800200201, free line with on-call duty every working day, from 7.30-15.30.
An instrument for assessing the safety of the school environment, gender-based and digital violence and the Safety Assessment Manual for the school environment has been developed in the framework of assessing the fulfilment of quality standards of educational institutions and strengthening the capacity of schools and educational advisers to monitor the security of the school environment.
Amendments to the Criminal Code of 23 November 2016 introduced a criminal offense of forced marriage (Article 187a).
The Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma Men and Women in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2016-2025 as well as the National Strategy for Gender Equality provide for the measures related to prevention and reduction of the number of juvenile and forced marriages and juvenile pregnancies in the Roma community.
All police departments and stations in the Republic of Serbia shall apply Specific Protocol on the conduct of the police officers to protect minors from abuse and neglect; 24-hour availability of trained police officers (in the field of child rights and juvenile justice, there are currently 2,048) is provided to children, as well as their parents or guardians; equal treatment of the police with regard to the protection of the personality of the minor victim and the manner of conducting a conversation with him/her.
In order to consistently implement the General Protocol for the Protection of Children from Abuse and Neglect, or to improve intersectoral cooperation in the protection of children from all forms of violence, the new and reinforced existing intersectoral teams for the protection of children from abuse and neglect were established in Aleksinac, Svrljig, Knjaževac, Zaječar, Kraljevo, Vrnjačka Banja, Trstenik, Paraćin, Vrbas, Subotica, Novi Bečej and Sremska Mitrovica (project "Improvement of Intersectoral Cooperation in the Protection of Children from Violence").
We emphasize the fact that police officers of the Criminal Police Directorate-Service for Combating Organized Crime-Department for Combating Organized General Crime within the Action Plan for Chapter 24 which provides for one of the key goals in the field of combating organized crime, ie trafficking in human beings, implementation of activities 6.2.8 - "Improved mechanisms for suppression of all forms of trafficking in human beings, in accordance with EU standards, as an adequate response from the Republic of Serbia to the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, in line with EU standards and within the implementation of the IPA 2013 project, the Twinning Contract, following a series of joint meetings with the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings and civil society organizations "ASTRA" and "ATINA", initiated the creation of a joint Memorandum of Cooperation which includes key points on the basis of which the future cooperation in the field of fight against human trafficking will be improved and continue to strengthen enhanced multi-sectoral cooperation, with an emphasis on providing adequate support to victims of trafficking in human beings. The draft text has been agreed in the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) and in the forthcoming period it is possible to sign said agreement.
Please note that in the text of the enclosed draft proposal for the XXI Human Trafficking (… ), item four (4) has already indicated the existence of certain memoranda of cooperation signed by state bodies and civil society organizations, and footnote No. 4 has explained "RPP with Victimology Society of Serbia and organizations Astra and Atina, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development with Unitas Fund, Ministry of Youth and Sports with CSO Your Serbia etc.", which does not include the drafted proposal of the above mentioned Memorandum of Understanding, whose signing is expected to be on 18 Oct. 2017 when the World Day against Trafficking in Persons is marked.
Activities aimed at implementing the recommendation are being continuously implemented.

UN Compilation:
Para 56) The UN country team noted that girls and women in Serbia were still frequently exposed to gender-based violence, such as violence in family and partner relationships, sexual harassment and rape.
Para 57) The UN country team noted the adoption in 2016 of a law on the prevention of domestic violence, as well as amendments to provisions of the Criminal Code on rape and related non-consensual sex, stalking, sexual harassment, forced marriage and genital mutilation.
Para 58) CEDAW remained concerned about the increasing number of women murdered by their husbands, ex-husbands or partners and the significant disparity among the number of police interventions, the number of criminal charges filed and the number of persons convicted of domestic violence against women.
Para 78) The UN country team stated that Romani women and girls faced multisectoral discrimination and heightened barriers to access to services. Early, arranged marriage in some segments of the Roma communities in Serbia remained an issue of concern.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 8) POC stated that the protection of women against violence was not efficient enough.
Para 58) JS4 underscored the high number of women murdered in the context of domestic and intimate partner violence. It asserted that the State had no system for monitoring and analysing this phenomenon, a new National Strategy to prevent all forms of violence against women 2016-2020 had not been adopted, and a systematic approach to combatting stereotypes and discrimination of women, promotion of gender equality and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls in the education system, had not been established.
Para 61) KROS stated that Romani women and girls faced multi-sectoral discrimination and referred to early, arranged marriage and its social consequences, as well as to the exclusion of Roma girls from the education system, resulting in their exclusion from the labour market.

National Report:
Para 74) Prevention, combating trafficking in human beings and assistance and protection of victims in RS are achieved at the strategic and operational level through the National Mechanism for coordination and development of the anti-human trafficking policy and National Mechanism for identification, referral, assistance and protection of victims of trafficking in human beings.

Para 75) The Agreement on cooperation between the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Education in the field of fight against trafficking in human beings was signed on 12 November 2009. The signatories assumed an obligation to establish a special and direct cooperation in developing the National Mechanism for identification, assistance and protection of victims of trafficking in human beings in accordance with the Strategy for the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings in RS.

Para 76) Specific results of the Agreement are that the Law on Health Care and Law on Health Insurance envisage better and more comprehensive protection of victims of trafficking in human beings, both domestic and international. The Law on Social Protection envisages that victims of trafficking in human beings fall into a category that enjoys special social protection.

Para 77) In August 2009, the Law on Amendments and Addenda to the Criminal Code amended provisions of Article 388 - Trafficking in Human Beings, by increasing the legal minimum and maximum, in terms of the basic form of an offense, whereas envisaged sentence of imprisonment for the basic form ranges "from three to twelve years of imprisonment", without a possibility of pronouncing sentence below the legal minimum. Also, it is envisaged that users of human trafficking services shall be punished with imprisonment. Amendments and addenda to Article 389 have also been adopted, which now reads "Trafficking in Juvenile for Adoption", and which has increased the age limit and juveniles are protected from all forms of exploitation and trafficking.

Para 78) For the purposes of operationalisation of the National Action Plan Against Trafficking in Human Beings for the period 2009-2011 (2009), on 1 June 2010 was initiated the Joint Program for Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings "UN GIFT Serbia" implemented by UN agencies (UNHCR, IOM and UNODC) in cooperation with the Government.

Para 79) Activities of the Joint Program include: establishment of the Center for Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings which will incorporate the Service for Coordination of Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings; establishment of the first national Shelter for urgent accommodation of victims of trafficking in human beings; establishment of the Direct Aid Fund; establishment of Legal Clinics for fight against trafficking in human beings at three faculties of law (Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis).

Para 80) The Ministry of Interior commenced with the development of a new strategy under a working title "National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting Victims in RS", which shall supersede the previous Strategy for Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings from 2006.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 6) ECPAT noted that Serbia had no specific child protection law and that most provisions protecting children against sexual exploitation were included in the Criminal Code ...