Bringing support, protection and justice to victims of violence against women in Serbia is the theme of the new report published by the Council of Europe independent Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO). The report covers developments since the publication of GREVIO's baseline evaluation report on Serbia in January 2020 until the beginning of July 2025, and assesses the measures taken by the Serbian authorities to prevent violence against women and domestic violence, with a focus on victims, proposing the way forward to improve the situation. The authorities are notably called on to expand preventive measures, awareness-raising, training, specialist support services and to ensure a more trauma-informed response of law-enforcement authorities to all forms of violence against women, beyond domestic violence - including early and forced marriage, sexual violence and harassment, as well as the digital dimension of violence.
Legislative changes
While welcoming the efforts undertaken to align legislative and policy frameworks with the standards of the Istanbul Convention, a particularly notable example being the adoption of the Law on gender equality in 2021, which introduces a definition of violence against women consistent with that of the convention, GREVIO notes with concern that the constitutional challenge has effectively suspended the implementation of the law, thereby slowing down the adoption and implementation of policies to combat violence against women under the convention.
At the policy level, the adoption of a comprehensive Strategy for preventing and combating gender-based violence against women and domestic violence for 2021-25 is a significant step forward, the report says. The strategy, however, was never operationalised, and action plans necessary for its implementation were not adopted.
Training and education to combat violence against women
Maintaining the momentum generated by the adoption of the Law on the prevention of domestic violence in 2017, which was praised in GREVIO's baseline evaluation report, mandatory training for professionals, including judges and prosecutors, has continued, and the report welcomes the plans to expand this training to address the digital dimension of violence against women. Promising initiatives in prevention include efforts to improve school attendance among Roma pupils, particularly Roma girls, as well as the establishment of an online platform for parents, children and educators to report incidents of violence.
The increased participation of victims in the meetings of the locally established coordination groups is a positive development. As for prosecution, the relatively high conviction rates for sexual violence and harassment suggest that the authorities are making efforts to effectively implement the relevant criminal provisions. Emergency protective measures ensuring the removal of the perpetrator from the shared residence provide crucial protection to victims of domestic violence.
Urgent action still needed
However, despite the progress made in Serbia, GREVIO has identified areas that require urgent action by the authorities.
Preventive measures are needed to challenge stereotypical views on the roles of women and men in society and address all forms of violence against women, including its digital dimension, some manifestations of which - such as image-based abuse - have become increasingly widespread in recent years in Serbia. Similarly, the awareness-raising efforts and systematic and mandatory training introduced under the Law on the prevention of domestic violence do not extend to other forms of violence against women.
In the area of protection, insufficient resources hinder the effective provision of both general and specialist support services. Moreover, the strict licensing requirements imposed on domestic-violence shelters, which are already limited in number, place additional burdens on these services and have resulted in some operating without official licences. Sexual-violence referral centres are currently concentrated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, with none established in the rest of the country.
A key issue in the civil-law system is the insufficient attention given to the safety of mothers and children in custody and visitation decisions. Supervised visits are rarely ordered for abusive parents and protection measures for mothers are often not extended to their children.
In the area of prosecution, low reporting rates reflect a lack of trust in the ability of the criminal-justice system to protect victims in particular among Roma women and girls. Attrition rates for offences related to violence against women remain high and convictions often carry lenient penalties, including in instances of femicide. Emergency protective measures are systematically applied, but once they transition to long-term protective measures, they are not effectively enforced. This process should be better monitored, including through electronic means, and breaches should be systematically sanctioned for the measures to be dissuasive. Procedural measures aimed at preventing re‑victimisation and safeguarding the dignity and privacy of victims during court proceedings are not always systematically applied, often due to the lack of necessary technical resources in many courts.
GREVIO advises that the Serbian authorities ensure the full and effective implementation of all victim protection measures throughout investigations and judicial proceedings for all forms of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention. It also advises the authorities to ensure the protection of victims from intimidation, reprisals and re‑victimisation by upholding their right to be informed when the perpetrator is issued with an emergency, protection or restraining order, or when they are released or have escaped.
Comments by the Government of Serbia
