Opening the sitting, Committee Chairman Meho Omerovic said that 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, launched a 16-day activism campaign to this end. He reminded of the Committee’s tireless efforts against domestic violence, and of the alarming fact that in 2015, 36 women had fallen victim to domestic violence which should be a warning to all the institutions engaged in fighting violence against women. The Zrenjanin Model of fighting against domestic violence connects the four key institutions in this fight – social welfare centres, police, prosecution and the judiciary, which can be a guideline for others of how institutions should operate, concluded Omerovic.

The Zrenjanin Model of fighting against domestic violence was presented by Slobodan Josimovic, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad, and Mladen Vujin, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zrenjanin.

The sitting began with a minute of silence for the last victim of domestic violence in Zrenjanin, which happened on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and for all the other victims of domestic violence.

The deputy prosecutors presented the normative framework for the cooperation between social welfare centres, police, prosecution and the judiciary, and the principles and model of said cooperation.

In the ensuing a dialogue the representatives of other institutions from the territory of Zrenjanin and other municipalities presented their experiences and problems they come up against in the fight against domestic violence.

Committee Chairman Meho Omerovic said that the Committee would adopt conclusions at one of its coming sitting based on what they heard today and forward them to the relevant institutions for further processing.

The sitting was attended by the Mayor of Zrenjanin Cedomir Janjic, representatives of the executive, prosecution, police, judiciary and social welfare centres on the territory of AP Vojvodina.

The sitting was held outside of the National Assembly seat, in Zrenjanin, with the support of the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Meho Omerovic.