It is the duty of all citizens to report violence, because violence is a crime, but also to report officials who demean the victim in any way by their unprofessional behaviour. This was said at the discussion “It’s my right to be protected” held last night at Aquarius Private Cultural Centre, organized by NGO “Women’s Right” in Mitrovica North, Radio kontakt plus reports.
This topic was discussed from the viewpoint of nongovernmental sector, since they are the ones most actively engaged in this social problem. It was said that the victim was never guilty and pointed out that even when the victim cannot recognize the violence and to characterize it as such, the victim was not guilty even then.
Stefan Veljkovic, executive director of YEC “Sinergija”, believes that young people are not sufficiently familiar with this issue and that they cannot recognize violence in all its forms. Therefore, their organization seeks to educate young people about this problem and to point out that nobody deserves violence and that it should be reported without exceptions.
Tijana Simic, on behalf of “Women’s Right” said that violence against women was a global social anomaly and that it was present everywhere in the world, so this area was no exception either.
“Violence against women and domestic violence is widespread, it is also present in more developed countries, with rates ranging between 20 and 25 percent in these countries, and the rate is much higher in this region, especially when it comes to domestic violence,” she noted.
There are alarming figures that speak about the violence against women in Kosovo and a survey of Kosovo Women’s Network shows that 68 percent of Kosovo women experienced at least one form of violence.
Large number of victims do not report violence, but keep quiet and suffer, and on the other hand, the competent institutions do not approach this problem in an adequate way. Laws are good, but in practice they are not fully implemented. Very often, the officers and employees of these institutions do not act professionally towards the victims of violence, which leads to a lack of trust in the institutional protection system.
The event was organized within the project “16 days of activism” under the slogan “It’s my right to be protected”, with the support of the European Union Office in Kosovo, UN Women and the local government office in Mitrovica North.
