Nine women killed in Serbia in nine weeks

“I'm sorry that we have to deal with this in the week of March 8 (International Women's Day). When it comes to the topic of femicide, we cannot find positive examples, we cannot talk about the women's revolution, but rather about putting out fires... It is obvious that we have an epidemic of violence against women which is not an important enough political issue for anyone to do something about it,” Riznic told the N1 show Studio Live.

She added that people often say Serbia has good laws.

“We see that there is a problem in the system, we often hear that we have good laws but poor implementation, and, other the other hand, we see that there is some implementation yet things like this still happen,” said Riznic, stressing that restraining orders are not very useful.

"We have heard many times about restraining orders, but what does this measure mean if there are no control mechanisms to monitor it. This means that a system should be established in which the abuser should know that, if he violates this measure he will bear the consequences, and the other thing is that, in order to avoid violations of this measure, that person must regularly report to the institutions,” she said.

Under the law, if this measure is violated, the abuser gets a prison sentence, “but this seldom happens in practice,” said Riznic.

“In order for femicide not to happen, it is important to make all punishments for violence harsher. Very few abusers get prison sentences, very few of them feel the consequences of their actions,” said Riznic, adding that more stringent punishments will make people realize that violence in unacceptable.

Asked why it seems that the system has understanding for abusers, Riznic said that is a characteristic of society.

“There is still that idea that marriage is a sacred union that must be preserved at all costs, the idea that a woman is a man's property, as are the children. Another thing is that it is left to the system, for someone with such a mindset to decide on people's lives. For example, a police officer can go out in the field and say 'This is not violence'... or tell a woman 'Try to forget'. And after that, no one bears responsibility for the actions of these officers," said Riznić.