It is extremely important to work on the economic empowerment of women victims of domestic violence, said the participants of the conference ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Victims of Violence’ held today in Sarajevo.
The Gender Center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Committee for Gender Equality as a body of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament and the non-governmental organizations Infohouse and the Foundation for Local Democracy organized the conference.
According to statements, a large percentage of female victims of domestic violence, who seek refuge in safe houses, are economically dependent on the abuser because they are unemployed.
That is why it is extremely important to work, systemically coordinated and multidisciplinary, on the economic empowerment of victims, said one of the conference participants, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality Alma Kratina.
“As Committee, we want to open up this important issue, which unfortunately has not been systematically resolved in our legislation. This is why economic empowerment, which is supported by the FBiH Employment Agency, as well as by projects of non-governmental organizations and the Gender Center of the FBiH Government, is highly important. We want to express our readiness for self-sacrificing work on March 8, Women’s Day, not only formally but really in essence, to solve this issue,” said Kratina.
Kratina said that the previous convocation of the Committee for Gender Equality submitted to the parliamentary procedure a new law on protection against domestic violence, drafted in cooperation with the Foundation for Local Democracy and the Safe Network.
The new text of the proposed law is largely harmonized with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention and received support, in the form of a draft, in both Houses of the FBiH Parliament.
Lejla Hodović from the Gender Center of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina reminds that in 2023 it will be twenty years since domestic violence was defined as a criminal offense in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Emphasizing that the victim’s economic dependence on the abuser is recognized as one of the most widespread causes of this type of violence, Hodović notes that parallel to the criminalization of violence, efforts were made to improve FBiH criminal legislation by the Istanbul Convention.
“In January this year, the FBiH Government adopted the Strategy on the fight against domestic violence, and we continuously provide support to cantonal institutions and local self-government units to provide a multidisciplinary response to this type of violence. It is no coincidence that during Gender Equality Week and on the occasion of March 8, we talk about domestic violence as a very complex problem in society, which requires the synchronized action of several interconnected factors – the executive and legislative authorities, non-governmental organizations, the media, the academic community and individuals,” said Hodović.
As long as we talk about women as victims of domestic violence, it is impossible to talk about gender equality, concluded Hodović.
Director of the non-governmental Infohouse Foundation, Dženana Alađuz, explains why it is important to talk about the economic empowerment of victims of violence, citing data from last year’s survey that 85 percent of respondents who want their own business have never received an incentive for business development, as 46 percent of them did not even know that incentives existed. In 27 percent of cases, the application process was too complicated, and nine percent of female applicants did not meet the requirements.
