LocationsPresentation of the First Distance Learning Platform of the Judicial Academy
Together in Preventing Domestic Violence
October 20, 2023
Goran Rajčević/Ministry of Justice
Belgrade, 20 October 2023 – The Ministry of Justice, Judicial Academy and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have presented online platform of the Judicial Academy intended for education of judiciary officials, as well as seven trainings in the field of prevention of and protection from domestic violence. This platform enables the Judicial Academy to organise distance learning for the professionals for the first time.
Special Advisor to the Minister of Justice Snežana Radanović said that launching of this platform is highly useful for professional training of not only judiciary professionals, but also police officers and representatives of other bodies and institutions covered by the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, to acquire and widen their knowledge in the field through continuous training, in a faster and more economical way. Radanović pointed out that, since this law had come into effect, the Ministry of Justice recognised the need for additional education of the professionals who implemented this law, and thus a special emphasis was placed on specialised workshops for the members of the Group for Coordination and Cooperation on the territory of the entire Republic of Serbia. She highlighted that the goal of said trainings had been to address, through exchange of knowledge and experience, the challenges that the risk-assessment professionals had in implementing the Law, with the purpose of protecting victims on the entire territory of Serbia.
Special Advisor to the Minister of Justice Snežana Radanović
Goran Rajčević/Ministry of Justice
“According to the data that the Ministry of Justice receives from the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, since 1 June 2017 when the implementation of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence started, until 31 August 2023, courts have, upon the prosecutor’s proposal, prolonged the total of 116,025 urgent measures,” said Radanović. She added that in the same period, the Groups for Coordination and Cooperation had 17,248 meetings and jointly considered as many as 302,033 cases of reported violence and made 109,645 individual plans of protection and support to victims. “A great number of women has been saved through timely reactions of institutions and their representatives, who were sensitised enough to recognise and prevent violence in due time, and thus prevent more serious consequences, including femicide,” concluded Radanović. She announced that in November this year, the Ministry of Justice would for the first time organise workshops for misdemeanour judges, on the topic of “Judiciary Response on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence”, with the support by the UN Women agency, where a special emphasis will be placed on spots of bother in processing the cases of breaching urgent protection measures.
The distance learning platform includes seven modules of online training that are a part of the obligatory training of public prosecutors, their deputies and judges that engage in the proceedings under the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, so that they could receive necessary certificates.
Look of the module 1a
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In his addressing the guests of the event, Director of the Judicial Academy Nenad Vujić, emphasised that the platform was yet another step in improving the education trainings of the Judicial Academy, and that it was a result of the years of productive cooperation with UNDP.
“With the support by UNDP, the platform has been developed which would enable not only the training but also that all the users have access to materials, and use platform for exchange of experience, as well as to ask questions that would be subsequently addressed in additional lessons. This represents the latest addition in the process of developing online trainings. Furthermore, it is especially important to make connections with other Judiciary Academy services – the database that makes cross-connections between domestic case law and that of the European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Committee, as well as the EU Court in Luxembourg,” said Vujić.
Director of the Judicial Academy Nenad Vujić
Goran Rajčević/Ministry of Justice
Available online trainings cover the topics such as recognising different forms of family violence, assessment of violence escalation and repetition risk and joint action by institutions to secure long term and comprehensive safety for victims. They also address proving the crime of domestic violence, including the cases of firearm abuse as a factor of considerable risk, as well as international obligations, especially those included in the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). Access to these trainings by the Judicial Academy will be also provided to the employees of the police, health care and centres for social work.
“We helped the Judiciary Academy to launch this distance learning Platform to enable judiciary professionals to improve necessary knowledge and skills, especially when it comes to prevention of and reaction to domestic violence. This would contribute to building a society in which violence against women and girls is not tolerated. Also, this initiative is in line with our striving to support the process of digitalisation in institutions, in a manner which brings equal benefit to all the citizens of Serbia,” said UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Serbia Fabrizio Andreuzzi.
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Serbia Fabrizio Andreuzzi
Goran Rajčević/Ministry of Justice
The event also included the ceremony of awarding the certificates to the first participants who had successfully completed the online trainings in the field of domestic violence prevention.
Making of the platform and modules for online learning was supported by UNDP within the projects “Integrated Response to Violence against Women and Girls in Serbia” and “Reduce Risk – Increase Safety – Towards ending SALW misuse in domestic violence context.”