President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova addressed today the panel discussion titled “From reporting violence to preventing femicide – a systemic response”, organized by the OSCE Mission in Skopje.
She noted that despite numerous conventions, laws, strategies and projects, gender-based violence and the number of women killed simply because they were women are rapidly growing.
For her, femicide is a consequence of violence that occurred continuously and was not prevented or sanctioned.
According to her, the fight against femicide must begin at home, in kindergarten and in primary education, and continue with legal acts and institutional mechanisms, including public prosecutorial and judicial ones.
Siljanovska-Davlova pointed out that if femicide is a systemically caused problem, then its solution must also be systemic.
The first panel was addressed by Ambassador Kilian Wahl, Head of the OSCE Mission in Skopje, Gjoko Velkovski, Deputy Minister for Social Policy, Demography and Youth, and Muamet Rexhepi, Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs, presenting their views, data and solutions for overcoming one of the most difficult social problems we face.
The second panel was addressed by: Uranija Pirovska from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Public Prosecutor Fatime Fetai, Judge Gabriela Gajdova, Svetlana Cvetkovska from the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography and Youth, and Elena Dimusevska from the National Network against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Each of them, within the framework of their work, detected the greatest weaknesses in dealing with violence against women, including femicide, positively assessing the established cooperation with the competent institutions, as a guarantee for a positive step forward in this battle. All of them welcomed the newly established Femicide Watch platform.
All participants agreed that in addition to 16 days of activism, 349 days of engagement by everyone are needed to address femicide.
