OSCE supports training course on the first database for domestic violence cases in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH)

SARAJEVO, 6 November 2015 - The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in co-operation with the FBiH Gender Centre, the Network of Women Police Officers, and UN Women, today concluded a series of ten training courses on implementing the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence and the use of the domestic violence database.

During the courses, which were conducted through an implementing partnership agreement with the Network of Women Police Officers, more than 400 police officers, social workers and civil society representatives from the FBiH learnt about how to use the database and to practice working with it.

“Victims need to be empowered to report domestic violence to authorities and be aware of the measures for protection available to them,” said Fermin Cordoba, Deputy Director of the Human Dimension Department in the OSCE Mission to BiH. “But they also need to regain confidence in institutions and these institutions should have the means to help them.”

Zlatan Hrncic, Expert Associate at the FBiH Gender Centre, said: “Education and upbringing have a key role in preventing domestic violence and these workshops will help and improve our work, as well as give us clear overview of the situation.”

Suvada Kuldija, President of Association of the Network of Women Police officers, believes that the database will improve monitoring of the relationship between victims and perpetrators. “It will give us better insight into the system of protection, activities of social welfare centres, NGOs and police, undertaken in the field of domestic violence prevention.”

Irfan Nefic, Spokesperson of the Canton Sarajevo Interior Ministry, said: “The best prevention is fast and adequate police reaction, and timely prosecution of the perpetrators.”

This database on domestic violence is one of the first developed in the Western Balkans region. It is a source of integrated information on all domestic violence cases in the FBiH that have been reported to police, social workers, safe house representatives and the domestic violence hotline.