The Conference was opened by National Assembly Speaker Dr Nebojsa Stefanovic who said that the Conference aims to urge the women of Serbia to take active part in politics at all levels, from local community to the National Assembly, and work on the realisation of their rights in the spheres of health, education and combating domestic violence. Speaker Stefanovic emphasised the importance of initiatives that he and his fellow MPs have launched to amend the laws relating to the improvement of the position of women, saying how glad he was they coincide with the goals of the Women’s Parliamentary Network.

The Head of the European Union Delegation to Serbia, Michael Davenport said that the position of women both in the EU and in Serbia is less than satisfactory, stressing that women continue to be less employed, earn less and fall prey to poverty. That is why the strong and active network of women politicians in Serbia is an opportunity to achieve equal opportunities and establish gender equality recognised as one of the key priorities of the European Union and a strong factor of economic growth, added Davenport.

The Chairman of Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality Meho Omerovic, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Paula Thiede, Finnish Ambassador to Serbia Pekka Orpana and the President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence Sonja Licht, spoke about the importance of setting up a network of women politicians and strengthening the position of women.

MPs Marija Obradovic, Biljana Hasanovic Korac, Dubravka Filipovski and Vesna Milekic presented the goals and activities of the Women’s Parliamentary Network.

In the several working meetings held during the Conference the participants discussed women in politics, gender equality at the local level and economic empowerment of women.

You can read the conclusions and recommendations adopted after the discussion here.

The Conference was held as part of project Women for Democracy and Equality of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, with the support of the European Union via the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), Finnish Embassy and the OSCE Mission to the Republic of Serbia.