10 November 2015 The delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and the members of the Women’s Parliamentary Network

10 November 2015 The delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and the members of the Women’s Parliamentary Network

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus Meets with Women’s Parliamentary Network Members

The members of the Women’s Parliamentary Network met today with the delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.


The chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Network Vera Paunovic welcomed the delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and presented the work and achievements of the Women’s Parliamentary Network in the three years since its establishment.

“Women MPs, 84 of them, make up one third of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, and the Women’s Parliamentary Network has managed to encourage more women to take part in Serbia’s political and economic life”, stressed Vera Paunovic.

“I have to mention the support we receive from the civil sector and the Government of the Republic of Serbia who had set up the National Strategy and the five-year Action Plan for the improvement of the status of women and the promotion of gender equality starting from 2010, which has greatly helped us in our work. Since its establishment the Women’s Parliamentary Network had organised three national and one regional conference, attended by women members of parliament from 10 countries in the region”, said Vera Paunovic.

Women’s Parliamentary Network member Stefana Miladinovic was eager to inform the guests in more detail about the informal group’s work.

“We are always striving to boost the numbers of women we cooperate with from the region, an effort which this meeting has helped promote. The Women’s Parliamentary Network was formed spontaneously after the 84 women MPs entered the Parliament, only few of whom had any political experience. This led to the formation of the Women’s Parliamentary Network, which is an informal group, and helped define its goals”, said Stefana Miladinovic.

Women’s Parliamentary Network member Ljiljana Malusic said that, though the Network members come from different parliamentary groups, they all work together to improve the legislation and status of women and children both at the local and regional level.

Elena Shamal, Deputy Chairperson of the Standing Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Health, Physical Culture, Family and Youth Policy, said that in the past two years Belarus has pursued intense campaigns against domestic violence which has resulted in better legislation, also adding that the Social Protection Centre has 106 offices that women victims of violence can address for help. However, women in Belarus are still not ready to talk about their problems and defend themselves from psychological, physical and economic violence.

Irina Petkun, member of the Council of the Republic of Belarus and Director of Rechitsa District Grammar School, said that so far Belarus has three offices dealing with perpetrators of violence, which is beneficial all around as it will result in guidelines for anti-violence strategies.

The Belarusian delegation said that, in Belarus, 36 social groups deal with the issues of social protection, combating violence against women and its prevention, and the development of female entrepreneurship. The Belarusian Parliament comprises 30% women although Belarus has no law regulating that number.

The officials agreed that Serbia and Belarus pursue social protection campaigns and anti-violence policies in a similar manner, and the members of the Women’s Parliamentary Network invited the delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus to take part in the next regional conference of European women parliamentarians.

The delegation of the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus comprised Elena Shamal, Deputy Chairperson of the Standing Commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Health, Physical Culture, Family and Youth Policy, and Irina Petkun, member of the Council of the Republic of Belarus and Director of Rechitsa District Grammar School.



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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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