The Fifth Report “Women’s Rights in the\nWestern Balkans”, like the previous years, monitors the situation with\nwomen’s rights in six countries in the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,\nKosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). The report has served as a\ntool for monitoring and advancement of women’s rights over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Priority areas covered in the report are: the\npresence of women in politics, gender-based violence, and women’s rights\nadvocates, all three of which are a priority in the work of the Kvinna till\nKvinna Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, you will read more about the situation with gender-based violence in Macedonia, the ways to protect victims and the fight against all forms of violence against women.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since December 2019, the number of specialized\nservices for victims of gender-based and domestic violence has increased in\nNorth Macedonia to a total of eight shelters and three crisis centres. Three of\nthese 11 specialized services are run by women’s CSOs, while the rest are run\nby the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy through the Centres for Social\nWork. However, the increase in the number of services did not mean improving\nthe quality of the protection offered to victims, nor allocating sufficient\nfunds for their sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the national level, most shelters are\nlocated in several major cities and are often inaccessible to rural women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three centres for sheltering rape\nvictims which are part of the gynaecology and obstetrics departments in the\nclinics in Skopje, Tetovo and Kumanovo and they are run by the Ministry of\nHealth. They offer protection and medical care for victims, as well as\ngathering evidence and preparing medical reports, so that victims are prepared\nwhen they make a report to the police. However, victims rarely report these cases\ndue to the lack of coordination between the procedures of these centres and the\npolice. The number of women who have called these centres since they were\nestablished in 2018 remains small, which clearly shows that they have no\nknowledge of their existence. This is a cause for serious concern, as victims\nof gender-based violence do not know what opportunities for help and support\nthey have at their disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n North Macedonia also has three SOS lines that\nprovide free assistance to victims of domestic violence. There is also a\nseparate line dedicated to victims of trafficking. For these lines, as Kvinna\ntill Kvinna notes in their previous report, there is no clear indication of\nwhether they operate at full capacity. One of these lines also offers limited services\nin Albanian, but there are no such lines in other community languages, such as\nRomani and Turkish. These services are not fully accessible to victims with\ndifferent types of disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Allocation of funds for combating gender-based violence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Istanbul Convention calls for relocation of\nstate resources and human resources to implement integrated policies, measures\nand programs to combat all forms of gender-based violence. Without adequate\nfunding, the recommendations of the Istanbul Convention cannot be implemented\nor monitored. This is a major obstacle to the elimination of this type of\nviolence, and the role of women’s civil society organizations in all six\ncountries covered by this report is to monitor and implement the necessary\nactivities and counteract the challenges in this field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Government of North Macedonia adopted the\nNational Action Plan for the implementation of the Istanbul Convention\n2018-2023 in October 2018, shortly after the ratification of the Convention in\nDecember 2017. The document outlines the responsibilities of each relevant\ninstitution, with no indication of whether and how much they should contribute\nfinancially to the\nfight against gender-based violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to meet the recommendations of the\nAction Plan, the Ministry of Justice drafted a Law on Compensation to Victims\nof Crime. The new Law on Free Legal Aid was adopted in May 2019, and in the\nreporting period, the process of finalizing the Criminal Code and the Law on\nCriminal Procedure began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is especially important to know that the\nfunding of the legal structures leads to improved protection of victims of\ngender-based violence. At the request of the KTK for information to the\nMinistry of Justice on allocated funds for prevention and protection against\ngender-based and domestic violence, the necessary data were not obtained, which\nindicates that the laws do not categorize victims, so the costs for their\nprotection can not to be estimated and calculated. The Ministry of Justice\nconfirmed that specific activities were also funded by donors, as a supplement\nto their budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, the MLSP allocated 5,346,000 denars\n(87,014 euros) for six civil society organizations working with victims of\nviolence. In 2020, this support was reduced to 4,000,000 denars (65,106 euros)\nfor only four organizations. The proceeds come from sale of lottery tickets and\nother games of chance. The MLSP emphasizes that they have allocated funds to\nsupport various areas of intervention, prevention, and protection from\ngender-based and domestic violence but have not provided information on the\namounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although state funding for CSOs has increased\nover the years, women’s CSOs receive about 73% less compared to other NGOs and\nthis gives a clear picture of the level of government commitment to the problem\nof prevention and protection from gender-based and domestic violence as the\nmost specialized services for help and support of women victims of violence are\nprovided by women’s CSOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Number of sanctioned cases of gender-based violence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanctions in cases of gender-based violence is\none of the key requirements of the Istanbul Convention. The countries of the\nWestern Balkans have shown visible progress in adopting legal measures against\ndomestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence. However, the\ngeneral impression is that more needs to be done on this issue in each of the\nsix countries surveyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest challenges in implementing these\nlegal measures generally relate to inappropriate reactions of police officers,\nas well as inadequate sanctioning of perpetrators. At the regional level, there\nare obvious cases of victim-blaming by the police, ignoring various forms of\nviolence and refusing to issue a restraining order against the perpetrator.\nBecause of this, victims distrust the institutions and are hesitant to make\nreports because they fear the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there is not enough data on sanctioned\ncases in these countries, it is still a clear indicator that in all Western\nBalkan countries this field is a major challenge. However, the lack of\nsanctions and reported cases does not indicate that gender-based violence is\nnot prevalent, but that victims are not always able to report it because they\nface obstacles in the process or do not feel safe enough, and that they do not\nhave sufficient trust in the police and the institutions enough. If cases were\nreported, we would get a clearer picture of the number of cases of gender-based\nand domestic violence in these countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to femicides, these countries do\nnot recognize them as a separate form of homicide. In almost all countries\ncovered by this report, women’s CSOs are the ones collecting data on homicides\nas a result of gender-based violence. North Macedonia continues to face major\nchallenges in its institutional approach to gender-based violence. In the\nperiod from January to the summer of 2020, three femicides occurred and in all\nthose cases violence was previously reported, but there was no adequate\nresponse for protection. In the reporting period in the country, according to\nthe data of the Ministry of Interior, there is a decrease in the number of\nreported cases of domestic violence, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n -In 2019, a total of 989 cases related to\ndomestic violence were reported, of which 588 with physical injuries, 23 with\nminor injuries, 366 for endangering safety and five femicides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -In 2020 (from January to March) there were 241\ncases, in 207 of which there were women victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that there are fewer reported cases in\nthe curfew and quarantine period, compared to the same months in 2019,\nindicates that many victims of domestic violence did not have the time and\nspace to report. During curfew, two women were killed by their partners. In the\nperiod from April to June 2020, the Ministry of Interior received 193 reports\nof criminal acts related to domestic violence, which is less than the 226 in\nthe same period in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, on the other hand, in 2019, the Ministry\nof Labour and Social Policy registered 1555 new cases of domestic violence, in\n1135 of which the victims were women and in 173 there were children among the\nvictims. From January 1 to May 15, 2020, there were 505 new cases of domestic\nviolence. Psychological (in 1275 cases) and physical violence (in 787 cases)\nare the most recognized forms of domestic violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full report in English is available <\/a>here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fifth Report “Women’s Rights in the Western Balkans”, like the previous years, monitors the situation with women’s rights in six countries in the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). The report has served as a tool for monitoring and advancement of women’s rights over the years. Priority areas covered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,82,4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n