On Wednesday, 22 November 2023, the TPO Foundation and the University Gender Resource Center (UNIGeRC) opened this year’s 16 Days of Activism Campaign as part of the UNIGEM project, which will focus on the fight against femicide.
On the occasion of the start of the campaign, which will last from 25 November to 10 December 2023, a panel on violence prevention was held. Panelists were Dr. Alma Kratina, a member of the Federal Parliament of BiH, Prof. Dr Amila Ždralović, from the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo, and Prof. Dr Mirza Smajić, from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo. The panel was moderated by journalist Arijana Saračević-Helać.
The focus of this year’s campaign will be on the prevention of femicide, and that was the topic that panelists talked about. The conclusions reached on this occasion regarded issues of security, which generally in today’s society raise many questions to which we await answers. In the meantime, we must all work together to prevent and sensitize all actors in the chain of a multisectoral approach in solving this serious problem.
Prof. Dr. Smajić emphasized the importance of education and said that ‘we have been living in a constant crisis for 30 years, we know what has to be done, we strive to build a democratic society, however, this democratic transformation is not going very well for us, because, after all, we do not want to leave our conservative views… So, the only thing we can do is – in public appearances, college lectures and public lectures and at workshops, as well as in working with police officers – to explain day in, day out, what and how to do, because if the fight against corruption does not start from each and every individual, there will not be any improvements.’
Representative in the Federal Parliament Alma Kratina emphasized that ‘there is one thing, one word that is the solution, the key to everything we are talking about – it is responsibility,’ adding that ‘as a person who follows active politics, I want to see the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions implemented here, in BiH’. Also, Dr. Kratina pointed out that ‘being informed is very important. The Law on Protection from Violence, which is in accordance with the Istanbul Convention, introduced the institution of a person of trust for a person who is a victim of violence. So, the victim is not alone, when he or she is submitting a report on violence. The victim goes through the entire system together with a trusted person. The victim cannot be limited to choose who that person will be. It can be her mother, sister, her lawyer. The victim must have a trusted person of his or her own choosing, who will go through the entire traumatic process with her or him. Also, it is very important that through the systems we first educate those who are in the decision-making positions, and also, it is important to allocate funds from the budgets of the ministries, e.g. the Ministry of Health or of Labor and Social Policy, for making media promotions in order to have people better informed’.
More about the held panel available via:
https://federalna.ba/pocela-regionalna-kampanja-16-dana-aktivizma-oyzgg
