The conference was co-organised on 24 and 25 November 2015 by the Montenegrin Parliament’s Gender Equality Committee and the Women’s Safe House under project “Coordinated efforts - toward new European standards in the protection of women against gender-based violence”, funded by the European Union.

On the occasion the participants were addressed by MP Vera Paunovic on the behalf of the Committee on the Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality who said that despite the noticeable progress the Republic of Serbia has achieved in the establishment of a normative, strategic and institutional response against violence against women, this type of violence remains wide-spread. That is why the development of specialised support services for women and child witnesses are extremely important for the protection of the victims. She said that the Serbian state institutions and local self-governments have developed a very close cooperation with women’s organisations in setting up safe houses and shelters and that some municipalities offer free legal assistance to women who had suffered violence, while others develop other types of assistance like for example the city of Zrenjanin which had allocated an apartment to the local welfare centre to be used to help victims of violence gain independence. She also informed the participants about the activities of the Women’s Parliamentary Network and the preparation of new strategic documents for the improvement of the position of women and for combating violence against women and domestic violence.