An 8-of-March initiative

The violence against women has to be prevented with a special law

This year, the Women’s Day, 8 March, was marked at the Council of Macedonian Women Organizations with a conference that was held in Skopje called “A little differently on 8 March” and by starting the campaign called “Zero tolerance for the violence against women”. The Conference was organized by the National Council of Women in the Republic of Macedonia, in cooperation with the Department for Promoting Gender Equality at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, The Ministry of Justice, The Ministry of Interior and the NGO “For a happy childhood”.

The above-mentioned campaign will lat for a year and the emphasis will be placed on the violator’s treatment in the family. The opening of new intervention centers is planned, that will have special programmes for working with the violators. Part of the campaign will be the initiation of passing a law on family violence to prevent any kind of physical and mental maltreatment of women, concerning the fact that, so far, the only articles that regulate these acts are contained in the Law on Family and the Criminal Code, which are very scant. A project for educating the police officers and social workers treating the victims of family violence and for learning the ways of offering help and advising the victims, is to be realized in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They also announce a preparation of a unique database on this problem, since, so far, every civil society organization or an institution treating the problem of family violence has its own data. Within the campaign, team of experts, consisting of a doctor, a social worker, a psychologist and a police officer is to be established. They will work out on the field for every registered complaint for family violence. Part of the campaign is the cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy where they are preparing the national plan for gender equality, which has a special part that treats the violence against women.

“The respect, the protection and the fulfillment of the human rights of all its citizens, and in that direction, maintaining the women’s right no to be subject to any kind of violence, is a priority and responsibility of Macedonian’s national policy”, said the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Branko Crvenkovski at the opening of the conference.

 

S.N.