Contributed by: Irena Milatovic and Vanja Mikulic, Montenegro National VAW Monitors

The Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) and UNIFEM CEE organised a regional meeting of non-governmental organizations from SEE and Turkey that are active in the field of combating violence against women. The meeting was held in Sofia, Bulgaria on 9 and 10 May 2007.

The purpose of this meeting was to gather active NGOs from Southeastern Europe and Turkey to stimulate strategic thinking about future initiatives and programmes to stop domestic violence in the region. During the meeting, participants explored together the current achievements and challenges for addressing domestic violence in SEE countries as well as possible regional dimensions.

Participants in the meeting included NGOs and some of the representatives from the governmental gender mechanisms from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Turkey.

This meeting was good opportunity for exchanging experiences in combating domestic violence in SEE and Turkey and provided ideas for future regional initiatives on this issue.

On behalf of Montenegro, the meeting was attended by Irena Boskovic from the Gender Equality Office of the Government of Montenegro and Nada Koprivica from SOS telephone Niksic.

Source: Gender Equality Office of the Government of Montenegro