Executive director of IZ KRUGA VOJVODINA, Svjetlana Timotic, participated on April 11, 2023, at the expert meeting titled Three-month results of the application of the mediation model in the employment of victims of domestic violence in Belgrade.
The mediation model in the employment of victims of domestic violence was propelled by the deputy public prosecutor Milica Ljubicic on the initiative of The Second Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office and, by the end of 2022, was presented to relevant institutions (prosecutor’s offices, welfare centers, national services for employment) in every of 17 Belgrade municipalities. After that, a coordinator for gender-based violence in the Higher Prosecutor’s office in Belgrade, deputy public prosecutor, Gorjana Mircic Calukovic, organized training for the representatives of every of six Basic Public Prosecutor’s Offices, and written guidelines for organizing the meetings, planning measures, monitoring of achieved results, with examples of minutes and records of employment mediation activities for women who have survived domestic violence were made.
Autonomous Women’s Center, with the support of the Avon Foundation, L’Oreal Company, and Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation organized the expert meeting for the representatives of competent ministries, The Republic Prosecutor’s Office, Higher Public Prosecution offices from the territory of Serbia, Belgrade City Welfare Center, welfare centers from Serbia, branches of the National Employment Service, women’s organizations and Women against Violence Network, and international organizations that work on preventing gender-based violence and economic empowerment of women.
The meeting was opened by Anja Zečević and she informed the participants about the launch of the new service of the Autonomous Women’s Center, Economic Empowerment and Information.
After that, Gorjana Mircic Calukovic presented the results of a three-month implementation of the mediation model in the employment of victims of domestic violence and the challenges and possibilities of the model. She stated that through the work of the group for coordination and cooperation needs of 134 victims were considered, out of which, this kind of support doesn’t suit 29 women, 90 are still in the program, and 15 are employed with mediation. These are data for the entire area of the City of Belgrade (all six basic public prosecutor’s offices, seventeen branches of The National Employment Service, and seventeen offices of Welfare Centers). Ensuing Milica Ljubicic talked about fundamental elements of the meeting for planning support for the employment of victims of domestic violence. Zeljka Zelenovic Vukovic, a representative of The National Employment Service in the Belgrade – Vozdovac branch, talked about affirmative measures of The National Employment Service for more difficult employable categories, including victims of violence and human trafficking.
Brankica Jovanovic, a commissioner for the protection of equality, talked about economic violence and discrimination against women in the labor market as an obstacle to empowering and independence of women victims of violence and the importance of institutionalized support.
The minutes from the meeting, the Guidelines for Mediation in Employment, and the recording of the expert meeting are available on the website of the Autonomous Women’s Center.
