Comprehensive, coordinated policies aimed at combating violence against women have not yet been established in Montenegro, and the mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the effects of protective measures are poor, it was assessed at the public discussion of the Safe Women's House (SŽK). The public discussion "(In)efficient protection system for women victims of violence" on the occasion of the start of the "LET'S GO TOGETHER" campaign was held with the support of the Program for Support of Anti-Discrimination and Gender Equality Policies, which is implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and financed by Delegation of the European Union in Montenegro. The president of the SŽK, Ljiljana Raičević, appealed to women, abusers, the family of the abuser, the victim's family, the victim's neighbors, the police, members of parliament, the courts and the media in order to suppress violence. She said that there is no justification for violence, "because violence must be brutally sanctioned". "There is no one who failed once - he will fail every next time! There is no justification for violence. If he hit you once, he'll hit you again. It doesn't exist, it's not scary - yes, it's scary! I'm not ashamed to talk about it - You shouldn't be ashamed, a bully should be ashamed for life!", said Raičević in the PR Center. Addressing the abusers, she said that frustration of any kind is no justification for hitting a woman. "If a woman is your half, then you are beating yourself up. If you hit a woman, you are both a coward and the most ordinary wretch. When you hit a woman, think about how you would feel if someone hit your sister or daughter?! If you beat a woman, you belong in prison, not next to the woman and children!", stated Raičević. She told the family of the abuser that they must first condemn the violence, and do everything in their power to bring the abuser to justice. "It often happens that the victim's family encourages the victim of violence to remain silent for the sake of children or financial security or any other senseless reason. It is you who must be the first to support the victim in every way to report the violence and to protect her if the state does not react," Raičević pointed out. As she said, it depends on the courts whether the abuser will remain free and continue his terror or whether he will be brought to justice and go where he belongs. "There is no delay - because that is also violence". The permanent representative of UNDP in Montenegro, Fiona McLooney, recalled that UNDP, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and the EU Delegation, conducted research on violence against women, which, as she stated, showed astonishing results. "Every other woman has been a victim of violence at some point in her life. "In the last year alone, one in five women reported being a victim of violence," said McLooney. She pointed out that most of these cases remain unreported, and the main reasons for this are fear of the perpetrator and revenge, but also public condemnation and shame. According to her, the costs of this kind of violence are high due to the long-awaited response from the institutions. "We are talking about EUR 11,5 thousand per case of violence, as determined by the research. When we calculate that, it means that EUR 9,2 million from the budget is spent on cases of domestic violence," said McLuney. That loss, as she explained, is not only related to the processing of those cases, but is a double cost because the productivity of women affected by violence represents a loss to the economy in the amount of 18 million EUR. "Each EUR that is invested in prevention and effective treatment in cases of violence saves two EUR from the state budget, which can be further invested in the construction of schools, kindergartens, and health centers," said McLuney. Head of the Department for Cooperation in the Delegation of the European Union (EU), Herman Spitz, said that everyone is aware that good laws are needed to put an end to violence against women and domestic violence. The path to achieving such goals, as he assessed, must begin with changing attitudes. "It is clear that we need to build further capacities to ensure that when victims report violence to us, they have the professional support they need," said Spitz. According to him, the EU Delegation wants to encourage close cooperation with civil society organizations when it comes to improvement, but also, as he stated, to call for urgent action related to amendments to the law on the protection of domestic violence to enable appropriate punitive measures . He said that they would like to see efficient and effective multi-sector cooperation of institutions dealing with domestic violence. Spitz believes that violence against women is the cause and effect of gender inequality.
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