MINISTER MIHAJLOVIC: NATIONAL SOS TELEPHONE LINE TO BE INTRODUCED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

27. July 2017.

Bujanovac – Zorana Mihajlovic, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Coordination Body for Gender Equality, said that, for the purpose of preventing violence against women, a national SOS telephone line should be introduced, as well as panic buttons at the centers for social work.

She said that violence against women was a social problem and that we had to try to jointly cope with it, which required a broader social action.

She pointed out that the resolution of the problem had to be taken down to the level of local self-governments.

“The law, which is applicable, has been adopted and the penalties are high, but we have to put it to a lower level or to the level of local self-governments. We must introduce a national SOS telephone line and panic buttons as soon as possible,” Minister Mihajlovic said.

She noted that the Government, at the proposal of the then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, had established the Coordination Body for Gender Equality more than two years before

She also stated that more concrete measures, such as better coordination with the civil sector, were necessary.

“A wider social action is necessary, as well as our ideas on what each of us could do before the problem emerges, and that is what the Coordination Body for Gender Equality will work on.”

Source: Novi Sad-based daily Dnevnik and Coordination Body