Four competent committees of both houses of the Federal Parliament in the area of social protection will today hold a thematic session on the implementation of the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women, because the majority of representatives and delegates are of the opinion that the adoption of by-laws needs to be accelerated.
The chairwoman of the Committee for Gender Equality of the House of Representatives, Alma Kratina, confirmed before today’s session, stating that the holding of the session has already received the support of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and the head of the Mission, Ambassador Richard Holtzapple, expressed satisfaction that he will have the opportunity to attend the thematic session, because it is an opportunity to discuss the state of the social protection system, with a special focus on the protection of children and adults in need.
In the Federation of BiH (FBiH), the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women is in force, which was adopted at the session of the House of Representatives on February 4th, and at the session of the House of Peoples on March 4th.
The decree on proclaiming this law was signed by the President of the FBiH, Lidija Bradara, on March 12th, and it was published in the Official Gazette of the FBiH, from when its application begins.
“Namely, the implementation of the Law should be ensured by the courts, prosecutor’s offices, police authorities, guardianship authorities, and other institutions competent for social and health protection and specialized non-governmental organizations with the obligation of joint and coordinated action. Therefore, representatives of these institutions are invited to tomorrow’s session so that their presence can contribute to bringing the application of this legal solution as close as possible to the representatives and delegates, as well as to the entire public,” Kratina emphasized yesterday.
Among other things, the Law regulates the procedure for the protection of victims of domestic violence and violence against women, assistance to victims, as well as measures to prevent violence by persons who have committed violence, the role of associations and foundations in the protection system, and the like.
Competent ministers for social protection need to adopt bylaws, and for example, the federal minister of labor and social policy will adopt a special regulation on minimum standards.
As foreseen, safe houses that meet those prescribed minimum standards will be entered into the Central Register of Safe Houses, which will be maintained by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.
“That is exactly what we expect the competent federal ministers to do, so that we have better enforceability of the mentioned law,” Kratina stated.
The Government of the FBiH, at the proposal of the Gender Center of FBiH, adopted the Strategy for the Prevention and Fight Against Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women in the FBiH, and the Report on its implementation was adopted at one of the recent sessions of the Government, in which it is stated that the number of reported cases of domestic violence in the territory of the FBiH is increasing from year to year.
This is yet another sign that it is necessary to begin a more intensive application of the Law that regulates domestic violence.
The start of the thematic session of the Committee for Gender Equality and the Committee for Security of the House of Representatives, and the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Committee for Gender Equality of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, under the title “Systemic response to domestic violence and violence against women in FBiH, including issues of the systemic response to cases of violence against children,” is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., while statements for the media are planned before the start of the session at 10:30 a.m.
