Opening the regional conference, National Assembly Speaker Maja Gojkovic said that the National Assembly sees the empowerment of women and gender equality as crucial goals, saying that without women there can be no development or progress. She then proceeded to list the laws and conventions vital for the improvement of the status of women in Serbia.

“Today, the National Assembly boasts 84 women MPs which is more than a third of the total number of MPs comprising it. This puts the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia ahead of the parliaments of the countries in the region and many EU member states. We are fifth in Europe and 23rd in the world”, stressed the National Assembly Speaker.

The assembled women MPs were also addressed by Zorana Mihajlovic, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and President of the Serbian Government’s Coordination Body for Gender Equality.

“Women will no longer sit in the corner. They will take their lives in their own hands and ensure speedier developments in the field of gender equality’, said the Deputy Prime Minister.

She explained that a lot has been done to promote the status of women, but there is still a lot to be done because Serbian women do not deserve to be marginalised, more than a half of them unemployed, their careers slowed down and to suffer domestic violence from their partners.

Stefana Miladinovic, coordinator of the Women Parliamentary Network, welcomed the European women parliamentarians on the behalf of the host, and announced the topics of the conference: building power of women in parliamentary political parties, impact of cross party cooperation of women MPs on processes and policies promoting empowerment of women and enjoyment of their inalienable human rights, economic empowerment of women, strengthening the influence of women in parliamentary political parties and implementation of the Istanbul Convention.

The opening of the Conference was attended by Michael Uyehara, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Chief Executive Officer of the Women in Parliaments Global Forum, Irena Vojackova–Sollorano, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia, Sonja Licht, President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence.

Click here to watch the press conference.

The two-day conference, organised with the support of OSCE, brought together 50 women parliamentarians from 12 countries of South-East Europe, as well as gender equality experts and NGO representatives. The participants of the conference deliberated on the gender equality situation and trends and in several panel discussions exchanged views and experiences on the influence of women in parliamentary political parties, cross party cooperation of women MPs, implementation of the Istanbul Convention and women leadership and economic empowerment.

At the end of the two-day conference, the South-East European women parliamentarians signed a Memorandum of Cooperation.

Click here to download the Memorandum.