“In the first six months since the enforcement of the new Domestic Violence Prevention Act, over 20,000 cases of domestic violence were reviewed, over 7,000 urgent orders issued and over 4,000 individual domestic violence victims’ protection plans made”, State Secretary to the Ministry of Justice Radomir Ilić has stated at the “Domestic Violence Prevention Act Application- Effects and Challenges in Practice” conference organised by the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

At the conference, Ilić noted that the Act was being applied effectively in all its components, from the pronouncements of urgent measures to the holding of meetings by coordination groups which review each reported domestic violence case. ”Seated at this table today are state organs and non-governmental organisations, the police, offices of the prosecutors, courts and social work centres and representatives of the health and the education sectors, united in achieving the vision of a successful application of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. This is the main message of this gathering“, Ilić stated.

He thanked UNDP and the British Council for their support in the application of the Act, especially the training of around 2,000 judges, prosecutors and police officers held at the Judicial Academy. Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Serbia, Ms. Steliana Neder congratulated the Ministry of Justice and other ministries on the results of the application of the Act, explaining that it was precisely the all-round approach that was needed for the solution to the problem of domestic violence to be effective. “I am pleased to see such willingness to have the problem of domestic violence resolved. The UN will support the elimination of this problem in a sustainable manner”, Neder said.

The “EU Support to the Judicial Academy” Project Leader in the British Council, Mr. Juan Carlos da Silva, identified domestic violence as a problem of the entire society and, as such, necessitated an all-round approach to its resolving. He also stressed the importance of prosecutors, judges and police officers having undergone training which had been funded by the British Council.

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