Development of legislative framework for the protection of women victims of violence in Serbia
Authors: Copic Sanja 
Published: January 2020

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of advocacy of the civil
society in Serbia for legal reforms for better protection of women from
violence and the development of the legislative framework for the protection
of women victims of violence. Advocacy for legal protection of women against
violence in Serbia began already in 1980s, primarily due to the activities
of women?s groups and feminist researchers. Advocacy activities intensified
during the 1990s. In 1994, the Group for Women?s Rights of the European
Movement in Serbia prepared a first draft of amendments to the laws related
to domestic violence and marital rape. Although not successful, this
advocacy was very important in terms of raising awareness of state officials
and general public about violence against women. First legal reforms and
establishment of normative framework for the protection of women against
violence, especially domestic violence, sexual violence and human
trafficking, occurred only after political changes in 2000. They were
initiated and largely based on drafts written by the experts of the
Victimology Society of Serbia. The basis for these changes was the proposal
of a harmonized reform of several laws in order to ensure criminal, civil
and misdemeanour protection of women against various forms of gender- based
violence developed in 1998 and further improved after 2000. Advocacy that
followed resulted in first instruments of legal protection of women victims
of violence: domestic violence was foreseen as a standalone criminal
offense, restraining orders have been introduced, legal protection against
sexual violence has been improved, and human trafficking was criminalized.
Since the acceptance of Serbia?s EU candidacy and the start of the EU
integration process, a strategic framework for the protection of women
against violence has been developed; the protocols for dealing with domestic
and intimate partner violence and other implementation instruments have been
adopted, which set up a basis for more efficient implementation of legal
norms in practice. Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on
preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence and
opening negotiations for the EU accession set a new framework for advocacy
and contributed to further improvement of legal protection of women against
violence. Stalking, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation and forced
marriage have been incriminated. The Law on the Prevention of Domestic
Violence was adopted, which aims to ensure effective prevention from
domestic violence and urgent, adequate and effective protection and support
to victims through improvement of coordination and cooperation between
competent services. This should ensure integrated, multi-sector and human
rights-based approach to prevention, prosecution and protection of women
victims of violence. Normative framework for the protection of women against
violence is to a large extent in compliance with relevant international
standards and the European law. However, it still needs to be fully
harmonized with the Istanbul Convention and other ratified international
treaties. On the other hand, it remains to monitor application of
legislation in practice in order to assess its consistency, effectiveness
and continue evidence-based advocacy for further improvement of protection
of women victims of violence.