OSCE holds workshop on development of gender-based violence curriculum for law enforcement in Belgrade

On 10 November 2022, the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department held a national workshop dedicated to updating the national curriculum for law enforcement on gender-based violence (GBV) in Belgrade. This is the second workshop organized at the national level within the project “Enhancing Criminal Justice Capacities for Combating Gender-based Violence in South-Eastern Europe”, and it was accomplished with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Serbian Ministry of Interior.

Workshop participants analysed and proposed improvements to the Serbian national training curriculum on how to prevent and fight GBV, notably to align the current national training materials with the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention, with a state-of-the-art curriculum piloted at the regional level, and with the main findings from the mapping of police and judicial training curricula on GBV conducted in 2021 as part of the OSCE WIN project.

Professor Stojanka Mircheva, OSCE consultant, emphasized that the police officers need to understand what a survivor of gender-based violence is experiencing, in order to be able to provide an appropriate response. In addition to the application of the law, the police officers must have the appropriate skills and attitudes towards the survivors and their needs, therefore fully implementing the victim-centred approach, while holding perpetrators accountable. This has to be reflected in the basic, specialized and continuous education for all police officers, with a focus on all forms of gender-based violence and gender equality.

The workshop gathered 17 participants (nine women and eight men) from the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ministry of Interior, the Police Training Center, the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office of the city of Novi Sad and of the city of Ruma, the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies, the Judicial Academy, the Republic Institute for Social Protection and the Autonomous Women’s Centre.

During the workshop, participants discussed the set of recommendations proposed by the OSCE to improve the national curriculum and elaborated on the best way to institutionalize these changes. Participants also stressed the relevance of the project and their continued interest in its activities.  

This workshop will be followed by a specialized training course for police officers, which is planned to take place in early 2023. The training will be organized with the Serbian Ministry of Interior, and will include local ownership and a full customization to the national legislation and national needs.