Contributed by: Biljana Brankovic, Serbia National VAW Monitor

The Team for Collaboration with institutions (Good Practices Program) within the Autonomous Women’s Center in Belgrade has continuously worked on projects aimed at promoting and implementing in practice a model of coordinated actions of different institutions (police, social work, health care, judiciary, etc.) in the local community. Several hundreds of officials (primarily, social workers and police officers) have participated in these projects so far.

The projects were focused on raising awareness of professionals in institutions about the problem of domestic violence, developing skills of these officials to recognize/identify cases, and to implement adequate interventions aimed at supporting victims, to keep records (using models of data collection), monitor and evaluate interventions, as well as to organize coordinated actions of representatives of different institutions (police, health care, social work, judiciary, schools). Different phases of this project were financed by various donors: the Delegation of European Commission in Serbia, Netherlands Embassy, Fund for Social Innovations (within the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy of Serbia), Freedom House, British government, DFID, and HIVOS.

As part of the projects’ activities, numerous practical tools for officials in institutions were developed, including manuals, protocols and codes of conduct (with detailed instructions and guidelines for efficient intervention, monitoring and evaluation). An electronic database on domestic violence cases was also created within the projects and delivered to all Centers of Social Work in Belgrade (the latest version has also included interventions regarding protective measures, which are now prescribed by the Family Law).

Many of these publications are available in electronic format – in total, 12 of them could be found on the following link:

http://www.womenngo.org.yu/content/blogcategory/44/39/

The publications are written in Serbian, but the protocols are also translated into some other languages (e.g. Albanian). Although the projects achieved good results (according to the evaluation), protocols for officials in institutions have not been officially accepted by authorities as compulsory (in spite of extensive lobbying/advocacy activities).

In the latest phase of the project, activities undertaken in the Belgrade municipality of Lazarevac could serve as a good practices example. Officials of the Center for Social Work in Lazarevac describe the outcomes of the project as excellent: “Within one year, we had 160 reports of domestic violence, one removal of the perpetrator from the home, 25 criminal charges, 10 restraining orders, and 10 measures of compulsory treatment for alcoholism.”

Compiled from: Good Practices Program, Autonomous Women's Center, last visited 4 December 2006; Help to Victims of Violence, RTV B9214, November 2006.