Ivana Zelic, coordinator of the SOS service of the Organization …IZ KRUGA – VOJVODINA, participated in the online meeting Prevention and eradication of femicide in Serbia. The organizer of the meeting is FemPlatz, and the meeting was held on March 29, 2021. from 11:30 a.m. to 15:00 p.m.
The results of the new research on the characteristics of femicide and the attempt of femicide in Serbia for the period 2015-2019 were presented at the meeting. The research was realized by the Women’s Research Center for Education and Communication, FemPlatz and the House of Gender Knowledge and Policy.
The meeting was opened and moderated by Kosana Beker in front of FemPlatz, who greeted the present participants and introduced them to the subject of the research. Lecturers at the meeting were: prof. dr Nevena Petrusic, doc. Dr. Natalija Zunic, Dr. Kosana Beker and Dr. Vida Vilic.
Natalija Zunic defined the term femicide, spoke about the types and distribution of femicide and presented statistical data of murdered women for the period from 2014. to 2020.
Nevena Petrusic spoke about the subject, goals and phases of the research, legal qualification, places and means of committing the crime, the profile and sanity of the executor of the femicide, but also the profile of the victim and criminal sanctions.
Vida Vilic presented recommendations for the prevention and suppression of femicide and gave guidelines on what needs to be done in the field of social action, changes in criminal legislation and the manner of processing femicide.
After the presented results, the participants were invited to a joint discussion on the necessary steps to improve the prevention of femicide in Serbia.
During the discussion, Ivana Zelic emphasized the importance of the media when reporting in cases of femicide.
– Reporting is usually sensationalist and cases of violence are romanticized, where it is pointed out that the murder was out of passion, that it was a matter of great love and strong emotions. On the other hand, sensationalist media headlines overemphasize stereotypes about violence against women with disabilities and violence or femicide is explicitly justified, due to the condition in which is a woman found, or a bully of life circumstances psychical couldn’t stand. It is often about murder a woman with a disability, or a woman with a chronic illness speaks of a murder out of compassion, because in that way family suffering is alleviated – says Ivana Zelic.
