BiH: Conference “Introducing the Institute of the Person of Trust in the System of Protecting Victims of Violence/ BiH: Konferencija “Uvođenje instituta osobe od povjerenja u sistem zaštite žrtava nasilja”
29 October 2018 –The Center of Women’s Rights from Zenica and the Foundation United Women Banja Luka organized the Conference “Introducing the Institute of the Person of Trust in the System of Protecting Victims of Violence – Exchanging Good Practices with Countries in the Region” in Sarajevo on 25 October 2018, with objective of opening the dialogue on mechanisms for enhancing assistance and protection to women survivors of violence through introducing the institute of person of trust into the legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Person of trust is the mechanism of special importance for socially vulnerable women survivors of gender based violence that are not familiar with procedures of the public institutions in chain of protection (police, centers for social work, prosecutors, courts), and are in need of concrete and continuous support and assistance during the whole process – from reporting the violence to the police to end of judicial proceedings. Base for introducing person of trust are the international standards, namely the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council 2012/29 on Establishing Minimum Standards on the Rights, Support and Protection of Victims of Crime and the Council of Europe Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
As the Croatia and the Montenegro already harmonized their legislation and introduced the person of trust, representatives of public institutions (judiciary, departments for victims/witness support) and civil society organizations – Center for Women’s Rights from Podgorica (Montenegro) and the Association for Support for Victims and Witnesses from Vukovar (Croatia) – shared their experiences in providing assistance and support to women survivors of violence.
Women and men participants of the Conference from Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely representatives of courts, prosecutor’s offices, victim’s support units, and centers for social work, as well as women’s and human rights organizations throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina discussed need for introducing the person of trust into the laws of BiH, and agreed that focus of public advocacy activities in upcoming period should be introducing this model, and enhancing cooperation and coordination of official institutions and CSOs on prevention and combating gender based violence, and improving assistance and protection of women survivors.
The Conference was organized with support of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation from Sweden, and is part of the long term advocacy efforts of the Center of Women’s Rights from Zenica and the Foundation United Women Banja Luka on improving position and access to justice for women and children survivors of violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
29 oktobar 2018 – Centar ženskih prava iz Zenice i Fondacija Udružene žene Banja Luka su 25. oktobra 2018. godine u Sarajevu organizovali konferenciju “Uvođenje instituta osobe od povjerenja u sistem zaštite žrtava nasilja – razmjena dobrih praksi sa zemljama regiona” sa ciljem otvaranja dijaloga o mehanizmima za unaprijeđenje pomoći i zaštite ženama koje su preživjele nasilje kroz uvođenje instituta osobe od povjerenja u zakonodavstvo Bosne i Hercegovine.
Osoba od povjerenja je mehanizam podrške od posebnog značaja za socijalno ugrožene žene koje su preživjele rodno zasnovano nasilje i koje nisu upoznate sa procedurama javnih institucija u lancu zaštite (policija, centri za socijalni rad, tužilaštva, sudovi), i koje imaju potrebu za konkretnom i kontinuiranom podrškom tokom cijelog procesa – od prijavljivanja nasilja policiji do završetka sudskih postupaka. Osnova za uvođenje osobe od povjerenja su međunarodni standardi, naročito Direktiva Evropskog parlamenta i Vijeća 2012/29 o uspostavljanju minimalnih standarda o pravima, podršci i zaštiti žrtava krivičnih djela i Konvencija Vijeća Evrope o sprečavanju i suzbijanju nasilja nad ženama i nasilja u porodici (Istanbulska Konvencija).
Kako su Hrvatska i Crna Gora već harmonizovale zakonodavstvo i uvele institute osobe od povjerenja, predstavnici/ce javnih institucija (suda i odjela za podršku žrtvama i svjedocima) i organizacija civilnog društva – Centra za ženska prava iz Podgorice (Crna Gora) i Udruge za podršku žrtvama i svjedocima iz Vukovara (Hrvatska) – su podjelili svoja iskustva u pružanju podrške i pomoći ženama koje su preživjele nasilje.
Učesnici/ce Konferencije iz Bosne i Hercegovine, predstavnici/ce sudova, tužilaštava, odjela za podršku svjedocima, centara za socijalni rad, kao i organizacija civilnog društva koje se bave zaštitom ženskih ljudskih prava iz cijele Bosne i Hercegovine su razgovarali o potrebi uvođenja instituta osobe od povjerenja u zakone Bosne i Hercegovine, i složili se da fokus aktivnosti javnog zalaganja u narednom periodu treba biti uvođenje ovog modela, unaprijeđenje saradnje i koordinacije vladinih institucija i organizacija civilnog društva na sprečavanju i suzbijanju rodno zasnovanog nasilja i unaprijeđenje pomoći i podrške ženama koje su preživjele nasilje.
Konferencija je organizovana uz podršku Fondacije Kvinna till Kvinna iz Švedske i dio je dugoročnih napora Centra ženskih prava iz Zenice i Fondacije Udružene žene Banja Luka ka unaprijeđenju položaja i pristupa pravdi za žene i djecu koji su preživjeli nasilje u Bosni i Hercegovini.
Photo: Center of Women’s Rights Zenica