Gradska opstina Palilula

On December 14, the Speaker of the National Assembly opened the Seventh National Conference of the Women’s Parliamentary Network in the House of the National Assembly entitled “Not in my Parliament” and emphasized that the aim was to highlight women MPs from across Serbia on the key issues of women, a debate opens on the important topic of hate speech against women.

Gojkovic said that Serbia and the National Assembly give great importance to the advancement of women, and that significant advances have been made, above all in the adoption of good laws and that it is now important to focus on their consistent implementation in order to reduce violence against women, economically empowering them, providing better representation and visibility. The delegation of the women’s councilor network of the Palilula City Municipality participated in the meeting.

Speaking about women’s representation, Gojkovic said that there are 94 deputies in the Assembly today, holding many leadership positions at the republican level, but that at the regional and local level, women are not sufficiently represented to influence the creation of community policies in the to whom they live. “Bearing in mind all the challenges that lie in the path of full gender equality, it is important that we have the awareness here to represent women in Serbia. Through our deputies, councilors, mayors, their voice and desire to continue to work on building a society where we will all be fully equal and equal can be heard, ”Gojkovic said.

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Andrea Oricio, said that this conference was a good indicator of successfully overcoming political divisions, highlighting dialogue as an excellent tool for political advancement. He added that the OSCE Mission would continue to support the Women’s Parliamentary Network as a successful indicator of the direction in which Serbian society should move. Sasha Miller of the Swiss Cooperation Office stressed the existence of progress in the field of gender equality in Serbia, but said that women were still exposed to various forms of discrimination. According to her, one can still notice the presence of sexism and the support of traditional norms of behavior in society.

UNDP program analyst Zeljka Topalovic highlighted the advancement of gender equality as a necessity, explaining that at the same time, it is very important that the process is aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. She emphasized that gender equality is not exclusively a problem for parliamentarians, but also for citizens, the media and the state.