Contributed by: Gabrijela Mihova, Macedonia National VAW Monitor

The Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women of R.Macedonia- ESE, The Citizen’s Association”Akcija Zdruzhenska”from Skopje, National SOS line (OWS), Crisis Centre Hope, NGO Shelter, together with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Ministry for Labour and Social Affiars(MLSA) are the carriers of this year’s campaign for the “16 international days of activism against violence over women.”

The campaign is organized under the motto “Put a fullstop. Help violence become a history.”. This mutual action for helping and supporting victims of domestic violence is aimed at the promotion of existing services for protection established by the state and citizens’ organizations, in order to make them accessible to the victims of domestic violence. Besides legal regulations of the problem in 2004, there are a broad range of services prescribed for protection of the victims. These services are provided by the governmental institutions and nongovernmental organizations mutually.

In past years, the Republic of Macedonia has undertaken serious steps in the field of combating this evil. It has focused on determining the prevalence and forms of domestic violence, establishing a coordinative approach, unifying positive practices and preparing the National program (strategy) for the forthcoming period.

The continued efforts of international organizations directed toward the elimination  and prevention of this phenomena, on the international and national levels, are clearly speaking about the relevance and the need for a mutual coordinative approach of each relevant actor in this field.  One example of such action is the days of activism for combating domestic violence against women, as well as the countries’ obligation to conduct certain activities and to report regularly about the achieved progress in this field.

The campaign was launched with a press conference addressed by the secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Dusko Minovski, ESE’s executive director Jasminka Friscic and the president of “Akcija Zdruzenska,” Marija Savovska. The press conference was followed with the distribution of prepared materials (flyers and posters) on the square “Macedonia,” by representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, Sector of Interior Skopje, and Centres for Social Welfare and civil society organizations.

The primary results from the research on domestic violence, which was conducted by ESE, with support from the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), through funds from the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) were announced within the campaign. Each second woman in Republic of Macedonia is a victim of psychological violence. This form of violence is manifested through: husbands/partners’ insistence on knowing where and with whom she is all the time, insulting her  and  making her feel bad, becoming angry when she talks to another man, threats and preventing her from working outside the home. Second in prevalence is physical violence, 18.6 %. It is manifested through: slapping, physical threats, hitting, grabbing or pushing. Dominant manifestations of the sexual violence is prevalent at 10.6 % and include unwanted and humiliating sexual intercourse.

But, besides the high prevalence of domestic violence and relatively high percentage of the victims recognizing domestic violence as criminal behavior (56.9%), only part of them are reporting the violence.

This difference between the actual prevalence of violence within the family and its reporting, i.e. victims seeking help and support from governmental institutions and civil organizations, is due to several reasons.

1. The low reporting is greatly due to traditional relations in the marriage and family and the still existing domination of patriarchal values.

2. The data regarding the attitudes of the general population towards domestic violence demonstrate that people are uninformed about the legal regulation of the problem.

3. Besides the dominant patriarchal values  and need for information, the degree of the state engagement in the provision of protection also contributes to the low level of reporing in cases of domestic violence.

With this in consideration, future activities in this field should aim toward eliminating existing barriers and obstacles, which does not allow domestic violence to be recognized and reported. On the other hand, there is a need for increasing the degree of quality of help and protection that is provided by the govermental institutions and civil society organizations. This will enable victims of domestic violence to have confidence in these institutions and organizations, encourage victims to report the violence, and find a solution to this form of violence.

Within this year's campaign, besides the mutual coordinated activities in Skopje, mutual actions of the relevant actors are planned in several towns across the country: Bitola, Ohrid, Veles, Tetovo, Strumica, Stip and Kumanovo.