The “United Women” Foundation was established in 1996 and is one of the most well-known organizations dealing with issues of gender-based violence in the Republika Srpska. Through their actions, they improved the legislative framework related to issues of gender-based violence, provided support to women survivors of violence, and raised society’s awareness of this problem.
Although their first activities were aimed at empowering women in urban and rural areas, over time they developed into an organization that provides direct services to women who have survived domestic violence – an SOS telephone, free legal advice, and a safe house for women and children, victims of violence.
With their activities, they helped more than 7,500 women from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through their efforts, they led to the improvement of legislative frameworks that, for the first time, recognized marital rape as a criminal offense. Also, they continuously work to raise awareness about the problems of human trafficking and gender-based violence through the media and various initiatives, education of politicians and professionals in the health system, police and social work centers.
Years of dedicated work in the area of improvement and protection of women who have survived domestic violence, as well as many successful projects and initiatives.
“The “United Women” Foundation has been organizing educational activities for many years. We created numerous memoranda and agreements on joint action in the field of prevention of gender-based violence. At the City of Banja Luka level, a coordinating body was formed that gathers all protection subjects at the local level, which aims to improve the system of protection for victims of domestic violence. The representative of the Foundation is a member of this coordinating body. At joint meetings, we work on improvement of the protection system for women and children who have survived domestic violence. We had several successful joint projects with the City of Banja Luka concerning the prevention of violence against women and children. At the level of Republika Srpska, a Council for combating domestic violence was also appointed. As a member of the Council, a member of the United Women Foundation was also appointed,” says Lana Jajcevic, legal advisor at the Foundation.
The Foundation has been working for many years, ensuring that every woman is “aware of her power, to be equal, respected and happy”.
“The United Women Foundation is proud of all the activities that were implemented so far with the aim of systematic protection of women and children victims of domestic violence. We are proud to have been pioneers in the creation of a legal framework that brought violence against women from the “private sphere” to the public in such a way that violence against women was established as a criminal offense and not as a misdemeanor. We are proud of 26 years of dedicated work behind us and of our numerous users whom we have helped to get out of the “hell” of violence, and implemented our vision,” says our interviewee.
Laws on paper, lack of implementation in practice
Nevertheless, regardless of the institutional framework that has been established, and for which the Foundation is largely responsible, violence against women and children is still on the rise, claims Jajcevic.
“This is what we have been witnessing by the increased number of calls to the SOS telephone and addresses to the Foundation’s legal aid office, as well as the increased number of reports to competent institutions (police, social work centers, prosecutor’s offices and health institutions). For the sake of comparison, last year, in 2021 we had 1407 calls to the SOS phone, and in just 6 months of 2022 we had 746 calls. As for the legal aid center in 2021, we had 429 requests directed towards the legal aid center, and in 6 months of 2022, we had 327 requests”, says our interviewee.
The reason for this is the non-implementation of the laws that have been adopted and insufficient awareness of the institutions about this problem.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is a signatory to the Istanbul Convention – the Council of Europe Convention on the prevention of all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. After ratification, harmonization of the legislative framework was started, which is aimed at prevention and punishment of domestic violence offenders, but we still have an increase in cases of violence, which tells us that somewhere the implementation of laws and by-laws is “stuck”. This is, unfortunately, a sign that the “subjects of protection” still do not have a sufficiently developed awareness that violence is a criminal offense and that violence that occurs “between four walls” is not a “private matter” of each woman, but a socially and legally punishable offense.”, claims Lana Jajcevic for the Local Works.
Successful cooperation with institutions?
The United Women Foundation, regardless of all the obstacles, has satisfactory cooperation with institutions and other organizations that are working on domestic violence and human rights issues.
“We are members of several networks at the BiH level, such as the “Women’s Network” and the “Safe Network”, which gathers organizations that manage safe houses in BiH, the Network for Building Peace, and the “RING” Network, which gathers organizations dealing with the prevention and protection of human trafficking victims. We also cooperate with all institutions that deal with gender equality issues, such as the Gender Centers of the RS and FBiH, the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH, the Ombudsperson of BiH, the Ombudsperson for Children of the RS and many other organizations and institutions,” points out Lana Jajcevic.
Nevertheless, she points out that cooperation with institutions exists, but that it needs to be improved and that an even more effective system of protection for women and children who have survived domestic violence needs to be built.
“This is particularly related to the establishment of systemic protection for women who have survived violence, especially in terms of finding a model of the so-called “exit strategy” for women who have survived domestic violence who do not want to return and continue their lives with the perpetrator. The issue of “social housing”, the issue of employment and self-employment of women through programs created exclusively for them, e.g., enabling the use of grants for employers who employ this category of women, or the allocation of grants or funds with a low interest rate for starting their own business,” Jajcevic said.
Occasional involvement of local communities in problem solving
Local communities are mostly involved in activities during the global campaign 16 Days of Activism, which is marked every year from November 25 – December 10, our interviewee claims.
Also, every year on May 25, the City of Banja Luka, in cooperation with the Foundation, marks the “Orange Day” – the Day of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
“Every 25th day of the month, we conduct some activities to raise public awareness about the problem of violence against women and domestic violence. I would like to highlight only some of the activities such as “Fitness against violence” where we organized outdoor exercise for the citizens of Banja Luka in the “Mladen Stojanovic” park and talked with the exercise participants about the problem of violence or “YOU ARE NOT ALONE – call SOS” where we introduced the SOS phone to the citizens of Banja Luka through a street and billboard campaign, as well as raised awareness on ways of protection against violence and new legal solutions,” says Jajcevic, and adds that Orange Day is continuously marked in many local communities.
However, in some local communities, the support ends there. Namely, according to the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence of the RS, each local community is obliged to bear 30% of the housing costs for women who have survived domestic violence and are staying in safe houses. However, according to our interviewee, this rarely happens.
“Although the law has been in force since 2013, only a few local communities allocate budget funds for the care of women who have survived violence and are staying in safe houses. The vast majority of local communities do not plan these funds in their budgets, which speaks volumes about the attitude towards the protection of survivors of violence as a major social problem and phenomenon,” Jajcevic claims.
Resources and commitment are the recipe for a successful project in the local community
In addition to resources, expertise, and the commitment of all actors to improve the situation in the area of gender-based violence in local communities, a lot of empathy and understanding for the needs of women who have survived violence is needed, as well as an individual approach to each of them.
“Each local community should determine its priorities for action, and certainly the needs of women who survived violence should be high on the scale of those priorities, given that survivors as a marginalized group can be very useful members of the community if we provide them with adequate protection so that they can lead a free life from fear and pressure. Life in a cyclical circle of violence leaves huge traumas and unfathomable consequences for their physical and mental health”, our interviewee emphasized.
She also points out that local communities must plan to set aside part of the funds in their budgets for the fight against gender-based violence.
“Local communities must plan funds in their budgets for the prevention of domestic violence in order to build systemic solutions for protection against domestic violence at the local level – from specific protection services such as SOS telephone, legal counseling and placement in safe houses to the provision of social housing and access to an employment system for survivors”, she claims at the end and adds that these services should be provided free of charge and made available 24 hours a day.
