175 people requested help from SŽK

This year, 175 victims of domestic violence turned to the Safe Women's House (SŽK) for help, but despite numerous campaigns, citizens' willingness to report violence is at a low level, the organization said.

The program manager at SŽK, Jovana Hajduković, in a statement for the PR Center, said that last year, 450 people turned to that organization for help, and according to the data of the Police Administration, as she stated, 1.272 misdemeanor reports and 200 criminal reports were filed for Family violence.

"When we talk about the data from this year, to date, 175 people have turned to SŽK for help. Although a number of campaigns concerning the prevention of domestic violence have been implemented in recent years, we see that the number of applications is increasing year after year, but personal readiness of citizens to report violence is still at a low level", said Hajduković.

A UNDP survey from last year, as she said, showed that 40 percent of citizens would not report violence, even if they knew someone was suffering from it.

"The willingness of victims to report violence is about 20 percent, which means that only one in five victims of domestic violence would report that violence to the institutions," said Hajduković.

According to her, domestic violence is a global problem and is not something that happens only in Montenegro, but, as she explained, throughout Europe.

"Almost 62 million women in Europe suffer violence, which means that every third woman is a victim of violence. Data for Montenegro show that every second woman is a victim of domestic violence, while in recent years every fifth woman has been a victim of violence," said Hajduković.

She pointed out that the difference between legislation in European countries and in Montenegro is not great, but that it is expressed in implementation.

"In developed countries, such as Scandinavian ones, the system is much stronger, which means that the support and protection for victims of violence is much better and more thorough. This primarily refers to general and specialized support services. We still do not have shelters for victims of domestic violence in Montenegro. , and the victims do not have secure financial assistance after they leave the situation of violence", explained Hajduković.

She emphasized that it is very important that protective measures and support are available to everyone.

"We often encounter discrimination against Roma women who report violence, as well as people with disabilities. Many women find it difficult to decide to report violence, because they are discriminated against multiple times and do not have access to all services," said Hajduković.

She recalled that as part of the "Let's go together" project, a map of the support network for victims of domestic violence was drawn on the streets of the capital with arrows connecting the institutions of the support system.

"Our main goal was to invite citizens to report violence, and that's why the message of the campaign was "Speak up, we hear you". On the other hand, the goal is to invite institutions to multisectoral cooperation, because this is the only way to achieve adequate protection of victims." , Hajduković explained.

The "Let's go together" project is implemented by SŽK with the support of the Program for Support of Anti-Discrimination and Gender Equality Policies, implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, and financed by the Delegation of the European Union in Montenegro.