N1BOS — broadcast
20260807 180000 UTC
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[00:00:24] Good evening, this is another red line, I am Marina Fratucan, about 20
[00:00:28] women are killed annually in each of the countries in the region, and about
[00:00:32] 15 more have been subjected to attempted murder. In only
[00:00:35] 6% of cases, the perpetrator is unknown. However, murders
[00:00:39] have not been prevented. Is femicide predictable? Is there a typical
[00:00:42] profile of an abusive killer? Do you recognize, does the
[00:00:46] system recognize the risk to the victim, or is femicide a systemic failure?
[00:00:49] Will femicide become a separate criminal offense in Serbia and Republika
[00:00:53] Srpska, as it has been since 2024 in
[00:00:55] Croatia and last year in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or are amendments
[00:00:59] to... the law on domestic violence sufficient? Why did the Croatian Parliament
[00:01:03] reject the formation of a parliamentary investigative commission for femicide? Would
[00:01:07] continuous joint action by the police, social work centers,
[00:01:11] and citizens reduce the number of murdered women in the countries of the region, but
[00:01:14] what is the role of the media and publicly spoken words in preventing
[00:01:18] femicide? Tonight, Vesna of the region on the red line. Good evening everyone, good
[00:01:22] in the Republic of Croatia,
[00:01:25] Azra Husarić Omerović from the Women's
[00:01:35] the reason, the infamous figure,
[00:01:38] and reminds us of is increasing, one would say, every month, unfortunately, in the countries of the region, another
[00:01:42] woman has been killed, the last femicide was recorded
[00:01:45] last weekend in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
[00:01:49] uh, and what we could hear, actually,
[00:01:52] it's about a female journalist, according to all parameters, it somehow
[00:01:56] seems that the murder could have been prevented, at least theoretically.
[00:02:00] According to institutions, a restraining order was in place, violence was reported, a history
[00:02:03] of violence exists for the perpetrator of violence against his mother and
[00:02:07] brother from 10 years ago, yet there was a permit
[00:02:10] for carrying a weapon, he was a security guard and so on,
[00:02:14] uh, so, Mrs. Huserić Omerović, what
[00:02:17] would you say, who actually failed here? For a week now,
[00:02:21] in the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in the region, we can
[00:02:24] read articles, watch reports about
[00:02:28] femicide, who failed here? The system, how do you
[00:02:31] see this
[00:02:35] in a large number, women, and situation? Somewhere it seems to me that I am repeating myself by saying that the
[00:02:39] system failed, but yes, the system failed in this case of the last
[00:02:43] femicide in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo where our colleague
[00:02:46] Elma, a journalist colleague, was killed. It failed
[00:02:49] because it did not provide a response to all those calls for
[00:02:53] help that she made, and which she used in accordance with
[00:02:56] the law. Last year, we really had amendments to the Criminal
[00:03:00] Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[00:03:02] mm the adoption of the Law on the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence against
[00:03:06] Children mm which was praised by
[00:03:08] civil society organizations and the media
[00:03:12] sector because these changes really brought
[00:03:15] more urgent protection measures and a better support system for women
[00:03:19] victims of violence, as well as stricter penalties and greater mechanisms
[00:03:22] of protection and support for police officers. However,
[00:03:25] what we pointed out after the adoption of the law, that was
[00:03:29] in... in August last year, is that
[00:03:32] the law will remain a dead letter on paper if institutions do
[00:03:36] not implement it in practice. This was
[00:03:39] actually the greatest fear of organizations that spoke about it,
[00:03:42] which were somewhat involved in the adoption of the provisions
[00:03:45] of the law, and which was seen actually in several
[00:03:48] cases that the law actually failed because
[00:03:52] those institutional actors who were supposed to implement it did not
[00:03:56] implement it. In the last case, as you mentioned at the beginning, uhm...
[00:04:00] the victim of the murder actually took all the steps that a victim
[00:04:04] can take, but the system did not respond. Here we have
[00:04:06] a multiple perpetrator of violence, or a repeat offender of violence,
[00:04:10] whom the system did not remove from the victim in some way.
[00:04:13] Again, as a society, we have failed because we have
[00:04:17] shifted the responsibility and burden to the victim, because we have allowed
[00:04:21] the media and society to once again look for
[00:04:24] the culprit and the role of that violence in the victim,
[00:04:27] and that is why the informal group
[00:04:31] of journalists issued a public reaction in an effort to
[00:04:34] prevent and warn that such mechanisms can prevent
[00:04:37] and disable other victims of violence who
[00:04:40] are currently experiencing some form of violence from
[00:04:44] seeking help or doing anything, because as
[00:04:46] a society, we are condemning victims again, in a way, we are giving the system
[00:04:50] a free hand and saying it's okay that you didn't do anything.
[00:04:54] The Women's Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that
[00:04:57] unsupervised restraining orders do not protect women from femicide.
[00:05:00] Yes, supervision in what sense, in what specific
[00:05:02] way?
[00:05:05] The restraining order issued in this case did not yield
[00:05:09] results for protection. He violated the restraining order.
[00:05:12] And the police, that is, the police officers did not
[00:05:16] issue him a penalty for that, that is, the competent court did not issue
[00:05:19] a penalty, although it could have issued a detention measure or an electronic
[00:05:23] ankle bracelet, which was really praised last year
[00:05:26] when the law was adopted and started to be implemented
[00:05:30] in the procedure, and which would in some way prevent him from
[00:05:34] approaching the victim, because it would notify the nearest
[00:05:37] police station that he is violating that restraining order and the
[00:05:41] murder would not have happened. That is, he would not have been able to commit any form
[00:05:44] of violence against that victim. Protection measures
[00:05:47] failed because all those mechanisms that could have led to that protection measure
[00:05:51] uh resulting in in practice.
[00:05:55] protection for the woman were not fully implemented
[00:05:58] When it comes to Serbia, uh Vanja
[00:06:01] the law still does not recognize in the Republic
[00:06:05] of Serbia femicide as a separate criminal offense in the criminal code,
[00:06:08] we have this law on the prevention of violence in the family, it is quite rigorous and here...
[00:06:12] we heard that these measures are quite
[00:06:15] strong, how can I say, and that's why I asked the question in the introduction whether it is necessary for
[00:06:19] it to be recognized, we know it is, but let's explain, uh therefore
[00:06:23] we have this law on the prevention of violence in the family where these institutions should
[00:06:27] react promptly, uh and the police
[00:06:29] and the prosecutor's office and so on, a restraining order which immediately includes
[00:06:33] isolating the victim, however now it's
[00:06:36] the end or beginning of May, we have four victims of femicide in
[00:06:40] Serbia and we don't have... femicide as a separate criminal
[00:06:43] offense and what is interesting to me is that we actually don't even have any kind of
[00:06:47] serious debate about it, it's only sporadically
[00:06:51] mentioned and I would say that we haven't yet reached the level where
[00:06:54] we actually hear really valid arguments for
[00:06:58] and against, it's somehow always a topic when either a
[00:07:02] femicide occurs or when it's the day of remembrance for victims
[00:07:05] of partner violence, which is otherwise soon, May 18th, if
[00:07:08] I'm not mistaken, then it's a topic and of course it's...
[00:07:12] that question is raised by organizations that deal with
[00:07:15] this problem, mainly the Autonomous Women's Center, Fenplac and
[00:07:19] so on, and uh, I think that
[00:07:22] the problem there is primarily also with us in the media, that we don't raise that
[00:07:26] question in such a way that
[00:07:38] what, for example, organizations that
[00:07:41] deal with this insist on is the formation of a body for monitoring
[00:07:45] femicide, and I think that somewhere that would be perhaps a good step, that
[00:07:49] femicide watch, but we don't even have a central
[00:07:52] register, so we're entering mid-
[00:07:56] 2026. Last year, for example,
[00:07:59] the strategy expired, so it was extended,
[00:08:02] and despite the fact that the law
[00:08:06] that you mentioned actually foresees certain
[00:08:09] measures and despite the fact that, for example, all those organizations have
[00:08:13] collaborated and are still working with prosecutors, social
[00:08:17] work centers, everyone who somehow participates in that
[00:08:20] chain of help and prevention, still
[00:08:23] we ultimately come to the conclusion that everything depends on a case-by-case basis, that is,
[00:08:27] it depends on how
[00:08:30] each of them was involved, how much they participated, to what
[00:08:34] extent they simply did it
[00:08:37] in education, to what extent, for example, the police,
[00:08:40] prosecutors, social work centers invested in
[00:08:44] being sensitized to these issues, to properly
[00:08:47] recognize, for example, if it happens that the risk
[00:08:51] assessment was not done well, then consequently the
[00:08:55] measure that will be imposed on someone who has been reported for violence
[00:08:58] may not be adequate, and consequently we come to the conclusion that
[00:09:02] the victim is in greater danger, that there is a threat
[00:09:06] that in the end, perhaps, she will be killed. The Movement of Free Citizens recently
[00:09:10] submitted again to parliamentary procedure this request for femicide
[00:09:13] to be included in the criminal code as a separate criminal
[00:09:16] offense. Here you also said that there is no public
[00:09:19] debate. Do you expect it to be on the agenda soon
[00:09:23] or not? What are your findings, so
[00:09:27] to speak, since you deal with this topic both from a journalistic angle and
[00:09:30] as an activist? Yes, I am also a member of the group
[00:09:34] Journalists Against Violence Against Women, as well as colleagues from Bosnia,
[00:09:37] that is, guests from Bosnia, and recently we had a joint meeting
[00:09:41] here in Belgrade, where we discussed how we, as
[00:09:45] journalists, and there were activists, there were women working
[00:09:48] in social work centers, how we can all
[00:09:52] contribute to changing that picture both in the media and
[00:09:56] simply that work on the prevention of partner
[00:09:59] violence and femicide. I would
[00:10:02] say, simply knowing the current social circumstances in Serbia, that this
[00:10:06] will not be a topic for us anytime soon, because we simply see that
[00:10:09] the focus is now on election laws, so-called
[00:10:13] judicial laws, that's simply
[00:10:16] the current climate in Serbia. This topic, despite the fact that, for example,
[00:10:20] there are parliamentary parties that will
[00:10:23] support it. There will be those who will support it and bring that
[00:10:27] topic into focus, we still somewhat expect it
[00:10:31] to happen soon, because simply this spring session is also ending
[00:10:34] soon, and everything will go towards finishing with these laws that
[00:10:38] are important to us because of some upcoming elections. Yes, uh,
[00:10:42] Ms. Ljubičić, let's now get to, I intentionally left Croatia, uh, as the last
[00:10:46] of these three countries, uh, is Croatia in the European Union where the
[00:10:50] law was changed in 2024, it is
[00:10:53] a separate criminal offense, right? So femicide has been included
[00:10:57] in the criminal code. Here we heard what Serbia
[00:11:00] insists on, uh, that special body that would monitor
[00:11:04] femicide. Uh, in the Parliament, there was a very heated
[00:11:08] debate. The Možemo! party demanded, uh, that a
[00:11:11] parliamentary investigative commission for femicide be
[00:11:15] established. This was rejected, right? The law, I say,
[00:11:18] exists. Uh, and it was
[00:11:21] heated, uh, in this...
[00:11:25] how can I say, confrontation of those who want it and those who don't,
[00:11:28] what is your position, because would this
[00:11:32] uh body be able to help prevent it?
[00:11:36] You presented the latest research, not at all, so to
[00:11:40] speak, optimistic when it comes to Croatia, despite the fact that
[00:11:43] uh, as I said, femicide has been included as a separate criminal
[00:11:46] offense. You have asked many questions for
[00:11:50] a start, well, here in 2024,
[00:11:54] uh. The Republic of Croatia has introduced a special criminal offense that
[00:11:57] is not, however, called femicide, it is called uh aggravated
[00:12:01] murder of a female person, but what we achieved
[00:12:04] by introducing that criminal offense is that we
[00:12:07] managed to introduce the definition of gender- based violence from the
[00:12:10] Istanbul Convention into the conceptual
[00:12:14] criminal law. In this way, we actually
[00:12:17] described what kind of crime it is, what kind of
[00:12:20] criminal offense it is, meaning the murder
[00:12:24] of a female person, which is conditioned, which is the result of gender-
[00:12:27] based violence. We previously had
[00:12:30] the murder of a person
[00:12:33] as an aggravating circumstance if it was a close person, if it was
[00:12:37] committed out of hatred, and so on. However, since
[00:12:41] 2016, 2017,
[00:12:43] in the public and professional sphere, there has been a lot of
[00:12:47] talk about the murders of female
[00:12:50] persons, about femicide, and what that actually means,
[00:12:53] in what way. Uh, it affects
[00:12:57] exclusively,
[00:13:00] in what way we as a society, as institutions, can act
[00:13:04] to close that circle of violence and recognize all risks
[00:13:08] and risk factors, led to the inclusion of a special criminal
[00:13:12] offense in 2024. However, what happened
[00:13:15] to us in 2024?
[00:13:17] Well, now we have already finished the first quarter of 2026.
[00:13:21] We have 11 initiated proceedings related to the criminal
[00:13:26] offense of femicide. Five judgments have been passed,
[00:13:30] two are final, three are not yet final,
[00:13:33] and we
[00:13:36] see that there is not enough
[00:13:39] gender-sensitive approach,
[00:13:42] gender sensitivity towards
[00:13:46] perpetrators of such acts.
[00:13:49] In general, when we talk about gender- based violence, about
[00:13:52] all the intensity of
[00:13:55] violence that occurs, so I'm talking about all forms of gender-based
[00:13:59] violence, whether it's sexual violence or
[00:14:01] other forms
[00:14:04] of violence, we see that we lack sufficient
[00:14:08] information exchange, sufficient networking of all
[00:14:11] institutions, gender-sensitive
[00:14:14] approach, frequent violations, as
[00:14:18] Mrs. Vanja said and
[00:14:21] Azra from Tuzla. So, violation of protective
[00:14:25] measures, violation of precautionary
[00:14:28] measures that lead
[00:14:32] to a situation when a harmful
[00:14:35] uh harmful act occurs, so
[00:14:38] femicide. When we talk, therefore, what
[00:14:41] we are witnessing now is that we have an extremely
[00:14:44] good national framework, a well-established
[00:14:48] criminal legal system, however,
[00:14:52] problems always arise in implementation.
[00:14:55] The implementation of such a legal framework,
[00:14:58] uh, in the education of all those
[00:15:01] stakeholders who participate in
[00:15:05] prosecuting, from law enforcement agencies to expert
[00:15:08] psychological assistance, and then to judicial bodies
[00:15:11] that uh uh
[00:15:14] process such cases. So, one might say,
[00:15:18] excuse me for interrupting, that despite the adoption of the law, the circumstances and
[00:15:21] context in which the crime occurs are actually very
[00:15:25] similar in the three countries, although here the law
[00:15:28] exists. The law exists, but always, at
[00:15:31] the beginning, in the very announcement, you rightly mentioned, there are
[00:15:34] several factors besides that legal regulation.
[00:15:38] Public awareness, social awareness, the role of the media,
[00:15:41] neo-conservative currents, messages from public figures,
[00:15:45] public personalities, politicians, female politicians who
[00:15:48] speak out about this kind of violence, gender-based violence.
[00:15:52] When we talk about the investigative commission that
[00:15:55] was proposed by the opposition, about which
[00:15:58] we recently had a thematic session and a heated
[00:16:01] parliamentary debate, our position is
[00:16:05] that all proposals that go
[00:16:08] towards resolving or improving
[00:16:11] the resolution of
[00:16:15] reducing gender-based violence, that is, reducing the number
[00:16:18] of femicide cases, are welcome. However,
[00:16:22] if situations arise when a certain topic is
[00:16:26] used as a political weapon, it is not good.
[00:16:29] We believe that today,
[00:16:33] human rights are uh
[00:16:36] something that we, as egalitarian, organized
[00:16:40] societies, have taken on and committed to since
[00:16:43] 2000, when we, uh,
[00:16:46] incorporated the constitutional principle of gender equality into our constitution.
[00:16:51] Many other fundamental values are something
[00:16:54] that we need to constantly improve, both through
[00:16:58] judicial practice and through international European systems, and so on.
[00:17:01] This parliamentary investigative commission, excuse me, this
[00:17:05] commission that was proposed. So,
[00:17:08] I would mention that it would
[00:17:12] probably be about parallel systems,
[00:17:15] because, precisely as an institution, in 2017,
[00:17:18] we established a multidisciplinary body
[00:17:21] that includes judges, criminal lawyers,
[00:17:24] and judges from the High Misdemeanor Court,
[00:17:28] the academic community, the Faculty of Law, the Ministry of
[00:17:31] Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the relevant Ministry of
[00:17:35] Social Affairs, organizations of civil society dealing with
[00:17:39] sexual violence, so and other
[00:17:43] independent experts, or female experts, where
[00:17:46] for the last nine years we have been analyzing all cases
[00:17:49] of femicide that have occurred, and through our
[00:17:52] report on about
[00:17:56] twenty pages, we explain,
[00:17:59] we analyze to what omissions occurred in each of
[00:18:03] those cases. So you think that something similar already exists, so there's no need
[00:18:07] to duplicate it,
[00:18:15] the data in the second part of the show, we will talk a bit about the data, and you have
[00:18:19] the latest uh uh data from 2024,
[00:18:23] uh, Vanja also participated in the media analysis, which is very
[00:18:26] important, in what way actually uh in the
[00:18:29] media sector forms
[00:18:33] uh and cases of femicide are recorded, but let's go back to why we started
[00:18:37] this show, this latest reason in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo. So, violence
[00:18:41] reported, restraining order in force on paper, record
[00:18:44] of violent behavior towards the closest family members, yet
[00:18:47] a weapon permit, the possibility for the ex-wife to be killed
[00:18:51] in front of their minor child. In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, femicide
[00:18:55] is recognized as a separate criminal offense, and there is a procedure for handling
[00:18:59] penalties for perpetrators. The crime still happened, who failed? Will
[00:19:02] anyone besides the killer be held accountable? How was the victim
[00:19:05] of violence treated in the media? How sensitized are we as a society to
[00:19:08] femicide? Do we actually know what it means? Many more questions, as
[00:19:12] every time femicide happens in this region,
[00:19:15] even three times more than in the European
[00:19:18] Union. In the Sarajevo neighborhood of Dobrinja, where Elma
[00:19:22] unsuccessfully tried to find her peace and a new beginning,
[00:19:25] today there is shock and silence. Horrible,
[00:19:29] there's no more protection here some, no, no,
[00:19:33] there's no organized state first, this is impossible.
[00:19:36] What's happening, we're not safe on the street, at home, or anywhere
[00:19:39] else, not for our child, not for ourselves, I was really
[00:19:43] surprised yesterday when I heard,
[00:19:46] I'm so sorry, but you see what the
[00:19:49] situation is like here,
[00:19:51] they can't protect a woman, a woman,
[00:19:55] she even reported it, as far as I read, she had
[00:19:59] he had a restraining order and everything,
[00:20:02] but that means nothing, horrible.
[00:20:05] So, the key question now
[00:20:08] is, how could someone after two
[00:20:11] reports for a restraining order against the victim,
[00:20:14] after a divorce situation which is itself
[00:20:18] a risk factor, after the appearance of a man who works, so in
[00:20:22] an agency that deals with protection, has
[00:20:26] access to weapons, has access to monitoring mechanisms,
[00:20:29] simply has a different insight into the victim's situation,
[00:20:32] so how could anyone allow
[00:20:35] him to simply go through with a measure on paper?
[00:20:39] The protective measure again failed to protect
[00:20:42] the victim. Last year, amendments to the law
[00:20:46] on protection against violence against women were triumphantly announced, which were then adopted in the Parliament
[00:20:49] of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was emphasized
[00:20:53] that from now on, perpetrators would wear electronic ankle bracelets
[00:20:56] when restraining orders were issued against them. In practice, this is still
[00:21:00] not happening. The specific problem with the police,
[00:21:03] as far as we know, is that they are absolutely not
[00:21:06] up to date with the law, because on the day the
[00:21:10] law came into force, they should have had equipment, they should have had a mechanism, they should
[00:21:14] have had absolutely everything, or within a short period of time that the
[00:21:17] law would allow, to provide all
[00:21:21] that. Since that didn't happen, we essentially have a void in
[00:21:24] practice again compared to what is written on paper.
[00:21:28] Experts explain that most killers were previously reported
[00:21:31] for domestic violence, which further highlights the importance
[00:21:35] of timely reaction. It is clear that the pattern repeats due to the
[00:21:38] slowness of the system. According to the law, police bodies, prosecutor's
[00:21:42] offices, courts, guardianship authorities, health and educational
[00:21:45] institutions, and institutes for free
[00:21:48] legal aid are obliged to provide assistance and support to victims of violence.
[00:21:52] What have the security agencies done? They say they can't do anything until it happens, so now that she's killed, now they can
[00:21:56] measure something, right? This and that, how much was the entrance to the building,
[00:21:59] and so on, they blocked half of Dobrinja yesterday, measuring something, what are they
[00:22:03] measuring now, what are they measuring now, remove
[00:22:06] these people, every neighborhood has one potential killer,
[00:22:10] right? He just walks around and says he doesn't know what to do with him,
[00:22:13] you don't know what to do with him. Tragedies could be prevented
[00:22:17] if the courts were much more agile in ordering detention measures.
[00:22:21] The absence of that in this case proved fatal.
[00:22:24] The Deputy Minister for Human Rights, Duška Jurišić, emphasizes that the Ministry of Internal Affairs
[00:22:28] and the prosecutor's office are obliged to explain why detention was not requested, because,
[00:22:32] according to certain information, Elma reported violations of the
[00:22:35] restraining order. These are measures prescribed by the new law
[00:22:39] on protection against domestic violence and violence against women in the Federation of Bosnia
[00:22:43] and Herzegovina, including a penalty of up to three years in prison
[00:22:46] in case of violation of measures prohibiting approaching
[00:22:50] the victim. If there were systemic failures,
[00:22:53] individuals must be held accountable. In reality,
[00:22:56] it has been shown again that psychological violence is just one step before
[00:23:00] femicide. At the same time, the electronic ankle bracelet, provided by law,
[00:23:04] is practically blocked in the labyrinths of slow bureaucracy, between
[00:23:08] the federal and cantonal levels. Horrifying statistics about murders
[00:23:11] do not alarm them that everything implemented so far, Elma would have received
[00:23:15] a timely warning to hide, and the nearest police
[00:23:18] would have been alarmed to proceed with education. Instead of such a preventive
[00:23:22] reaction, another child was left without a mother. Azur
[00:23:26] Delić, N1.
[00:23:29] Uh, Mrs. Mirović, what will be the procedure now?
[00:23:33] Of course, you cannot condemn the criminal, of course, but you are dealing with
[00:23:36] this topic, what kind of pressure can follow
[00:23:40] now, uh, do you really think that any of these
[00:23:43] institutions and representatives of institutions will also be held accountable, as
[00:23:46] I asked the question in the announcement. Uh,
[00:23:50] we saw that there were systemic failures,
[00:23:54] bureaucracy, where this supervision did not come to life and so on, we heard everything in
[00:23:58] the report, so I won't repeat it. And what
[00:24:00] can anyone who is watching and listening expect, who is in
[00:24:04] some potential risk from
[00:24:07] an abuser who is somewhere nearby
[00:24:09] or further away?
[00:24:11] Yes, I believe that the abuser, that is, in this case, the perpetrator
[00:24:15] of the murder, will be tried under the strictest law, that is, the amendment to the criminal
[00:24:19] law for... aggravated murder, gender-based aggravated
[00:24:22] murder, in that way, a higher penalty will be imposed than was previously
[00:24:26] possible. However, we must talk about other
[00:24:28] aspects of responsibility, namely, members of the system
[00:24:32] who might have been able to prevent this murder, which
[00:24:35] includes the mentioned measures. protection, for example, from the contribution of
[00:24:39] colleague Azor Delić, in the case of specifically in this
[00:24:43] case of murder in Sarajevo, he had
[00:24:46] received restraining orders, he had a previous conviction for
[00:24:49] domestic violence. However, the problem that remained somewhat invisible, which
[00:24:53] colleagues from the detector announced today, is that
[00:24:56] he submitted a certificate of no criminal record to the agency
[00:24:59] he worked for, which is why he was actually able to access that weapon
[00:25:03] and commit, in a way, this murder. So,
[00:25:07] it's a systemic problem how he could get a certificate of no criminal record for a previous
[00:25:11] conviction for domestic violence. Also, how he violated
[00:25:14] restraining orders twice, he wasn't given a detention order, and he wasn't fitted
[00:25:18] with an electronic ankle bracelet. That case must be
[00:25:22] resolved completely. What I must remind you of, in
[00:25:25] the case of Inela Selimović, the murder of Inela Selimović from
[00:25:28] Kalesija, which was also processed under
[00:25:31] the new amendments to the criminal law, in that case there
[00:25:35] was a situation where she reported domestic violence,
[00:25:38] police officers went to the scene and she then said
[00:25:42] that she was withdrawing, withdrawing the report because he had actually
[00:25:46] left that apartment when she called the police. The police
[00:25:50] did not record that report and they are now being tried because they were
[00:25:53] obliged to act on that report and help
[00:25:57] the victim protect herself. So, somewhere I must point out that there are
[00:26:00] good steps forward. In the case of Inela
[00:26:04] Selimović, the police must be held accountable for
[00:26:07] their inaction, as they were obliged to act.
[00:26:11] I hope that in this case, the murder of colleague Elima in Sarajevo will also
[00:26:15] follow, because the system must take responsibility
[00:26:19] for missed steps and we all must
[00:26:22] put pressure on this case, because by
[00:26:25] putting pressure on the case of Inela Selimović in
[00:26:28] Kalesija, because the media then exerted the greatest pressure on the police's
[00:26:32] accountability because it was learned that she had reported it through
[00:26:36] her family, and actually the procedure started,
[00:26:39] pardon me, the procedure started, so in this case, the whole society has
[00:26:43] a responsibility to put pressure on institutions, because institutions have
[00:26:46] mechanisms to protect victims, they just have to start
[00:26:49] applying them. When it comes to Serbia, Vanja, women for change in
[00:26:53] Novi Sad have held, well, there have been several such actions to
[00:26:56] raise public awareness about the fourth
[00:26:59] femicide since the beginning of the year in Serbia. How
[00:27:03] much do you think that kind of pressure, we talked about concrete
[00:27:06] pressures to do something, we see progress, my colleague said
[00:27:10] in Bosnia and Herzegovina that there are, uh,
[00:27:13] I don't know about similar cases for Serbia, I mean,
[00:27:16] correct me if I'm wrong, uh, but
[00:27:19] as I said, activists are coming out, addressing
[00:27:22] citizens, demanding
[00:27:24] action,
[00:27:26] well, actually, it's very commendable that every time Women for Change from
[00:27:30] Novi Sad, that activist group comes out and simply
[00:27:34] points out that another femicide has occurred, they generally react like that,
[00:27:38] so after it happens
[00:27:41] how big of a problem it is that we simply have to talk about it publicly,
[00:27:44] however, the fact is that a very small number of people
[00:27:48] always join them and those gatherings are not large and it
[00:27:52] somehow seems to me that we, regardless of the fact that, for example, we are very
[00:27:55] connected, I mean these post-Yugoslav societies,
[00:27:58] we have similar problems, similar
[00:28:02] contexts, there are still some, I would call them
[00:28:05] cultural differences, it seems to me that we here in Serbia are not
[00:28:09] perhaps as sensitive to the loss
[00:28:12] of a woman's life as is the case in Bosnia, or
[00:28:15] simply we can look at it in a way
[00:28:18] that there are such clear system failures
[00:28:22] that then the whole society and the media react to it, and
[00:28:25] for me, for example, in this case that we saw from Sarajevo,
[00:28:29] the case of the murder of a journalist,
[00:28:32] it's somehow still commendable that we saw these people in
[00:28:36] the report who point out, who clearly see that there is a system failure and
[00:28:39] blame the system. Somehow, when the report started, I thought,
[00:28:43] oh, why did the colleague ask the neighbors for their opinion, because that's exactly
[00:28:47] something we don't advise, it's not ethical, but it's very good that he didn't
[00:28:51] ask them for their opinion on the perpetrator, who doesn't
[00:28:54] romanticize the whole story, but people clearly say that they no longer
[00:28:58] feel safe in their homes or on the street, and how the state
[00:29:02] is doing. So, it's very good that they addressed, that they recognized the problem,
[00:29:05] it seems to me that we still don't
[00:29:08] have that level of awareness and we somehow don't
[00:29:12] deal with it in that way, and
[00:29:15] when I look at the media, again, it's interesting to me that
[00:29:19] we have still made some progress there and I would like to
[00:29:22] mention one more thing that the guest from
[00:29:26] Croatia mentioned, and that is
[00:29:28] that it is simply everyone's concern, that there are several factors
[00:29:32] that influence this, that we must look at it from
[00:29:35] several different angles, so I would say that
[00:29:39] I would add that we must look at it as something that
[00:29:43] concerns all of us, so when we talk about partner violence, domestic violence,
[00:29:46] it is not a private matter, although it is very often seen that way here,
[00:29:50] we have not moved on from that here in Serbia, we still
[00:29:54] see it that way, and it would be very important to understand that it is
[00:29:57] a public matter, that it concerns all of us, that when we hear or when we see,
[00:30:01] when we know of some... case, that we report it, yes, here for Bosnia and
[00:30:05] Herzegovina it is quite clear where the failures were pointed out, these four
[00:30:07] victims, women killed in Serbia, we don't have data,
[00:30:11] as far as I've seen, uh, that the cases were reported
[00:30:14] earlier, these are isolated cases, well, I might be
[00:30:18] wrong, but according to what I've read, there's no such clear
[00:30:22] institutional violation,
[00:30:26] so in that sense we can't now determine who else
[00:30:29] should be held accountable, in any case,
[00:30:32] that is not a relief or a mitigating circumstance,
[00:30:35] uh, it is not a mitigating circumstance, of course,
[00:30:39] it's just about the fact that somehow that cultural problem you mentioned,
[00:30:42] where, yes, exactly, it's as if something very big, very terrible, has to happen to us
[00:30:46] to shake us up so that we react then, until then we
[00:30:50] don't recognize it as a problem at all, even though there were cases in Serbia earlier,
[00:30:53] it wasn't perhaps so clear where all the failures were made,
[00:30:57] for example.