On December, 12, 2023. the final panel was held, concluding the “16 Days of Activism” campaign. As part of the UNIGEM project, the TPO Foundation and the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology (SSST) organized a panel through which the panelists reflected on what has been done since last year’s campaign until today, and what challenges victims’ support providers face. violence, how femicide is treated within the legal framework and many other issues.

The panel was moderated by SSST representative Emina Ganić, and the panelists were:

prof. Zilka Spahić Šiljak, director of the TPO Foundation, Mubera Hodžić Lemeš, director of the Safe House in Sarajevo, Emina Bošnjak, director of the Sarajevo Open Center, prof.  Jasminka Hasić Telalović from SSST, psychologist and psychotherapist Maja Misira Rašić, SSST Gymnasium and doctor of legal sciences, Nermin Šehović.

Given that the TPO Foundation focused this year’s campaign on femicide, criminal law specialist Dr. Šehović explained that femicide emphasizes the motive of murder, that is, murder based on gender. “The issue of femicide, from the point of view of criminal procedural investigation, is mostly viewed from the point of view of motive. Why exactly did the perpetrator kill the woman? However, what do we have if we don’t define some things properly? … Given that the criminal legislation did not include, at least as a motive for femicide, we actually got nothing. We’ve been waiting for that for twelve years,” explains Šehović.

One of the conclusions of the panel is the insufficient engagement of young people, which was noticed by female experts in the fields of formal and informal education. It is necessary to nurture and encourage feminist activism and encourage young people to report and not remain silent about the occurrence of gender-based violence.

The entire panel is available at the linku

Photographies: SSST.