FEMALE RESIDENTS OF LESKOVAC AND BUJANOVAC ON GENDER EQUALITY

7. March 2014.

Leskovac – The Mayor of Leskovac, Goran Cvetanovic, discussed the promotion of gender equality with representatives of the Committee for Gender Equality from Leskovac and Bujanovac.

"The principle of gender equality and non-discrimination is one of the foundations of human rights, fhereas gender equality is a prerequisite for prosperity of our community," said Mr. Cvetanovic.

He also said that women in Serbia were still unequal.

“There is still a widespread social tolerance of domestic violence, there is a higher unemployment rate of women and they are less represented in all spheres of social life, so that those are the problems that still need to be addressed. Four years ago, the National Strategy for the Advancement of the Position of Women was adopted, as well as the Law on Gender Equality. The city of Leskovac acts in accordance with the adopted laws, as is evidenced by the example of my office, where women are the majority. Representatives of the Committee for Gender Equality from Bujanovac chose our city as an example of good practice."

"They are here to share their experiences with us. On this occasion, I declare that we’ll have some joint projects, "said Ana Wolf, the President of the Committee for Gender Equality of the City of Leskovac.

The Head of the Office for Local Economic Development of the Municipality of Bujanovac, Fazila Azemovic, spoke about the project that was being implemented in Bujanovac, which is funded by the European Partnership with Municipalities Program "EU Progress". Ms. Azemovic pointed out that in terms of cooperation, the Committee for Gender Equality from Bujanovac gravitated to Leskovac the most, since Leskovac is one of the most successful cities in such activities.

By these projects, we wish to combine the following three segments: the commercial sector, the non-governmental one and the public one, which applies for a variety of projects, and we look forward to our future cooperation, "said Ms. Azemovic.

She also said that the statistics on women's participation in the social life of Bujanovac weren’t good. That is why the Committee focused its efforts towards strengthening the position of women in the entire society.

Source: Jugmedia and Coordination Body