Another woman was killed in Belgrade.
Her body was found on Sunday morning in an apartment in the Belgrade neighborhood of Rakovica.
A middle-aged man came to the police and stated that he killed his wife in an apartment in Rakovica. He allegedly said that the body was in the apartment.
For now, it is not known whether the couple had children.
400 children were left without parents
400 children were left behind by women killed in domestic violence in the past five years.
When a tragedy occurs, the question of responsibility and blame usually arises. Little is said about children who are practically left without parents after the murder of their mother. They really need support, both psychological and material, but it is often lacking - the NGO warns.
Vesna Stanojević from Sigurna kuća points out to RTS that they currently have cases of mothers who have five, four and three children.
"Unfortunately, all these children witnessed the violence that their mothers suffered. If you pat a child on the head, he twitches, because he expects someone to hit him. He's not used to being caressed and hugged by someone," says Stanojević.
Children are often victims of domestic violence. The causes of violence are mainly poverty, family problems, abusive parents. Physical violence against children is easier to recognize than emotional violence, which leaves longer-term consequences.
However, there is no accurate record of how many children in Serbia actually suffer violence.
According to UNICEF data, one of main weaknesses system for the prevention and protection of children from violence is the lack of a centralized database. In addition, the problem is that there is no functional central body that would be responsible for coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the effects of policies and measures for prevention and protection. The list of weaknesses goes on….
After violence, children live with trauma
In the past decade, 406 women were killed in domestic violence. Of these, 300 had children, and a third were minors.
And when, after the announcement of the authorities about the family tragedy, then the opinions of experts and the search for cracks in the system, the media coverage stops, the children are left to live with the trauma, to grieve and to remember.
"State support is almost non-existent"
Vanja Macanović from the Autonomous Women's Center (AŽC) tells RTS that the support of the state in such cases is quite weak, and almost non-existent.
"And that's what they're dealing with." There is no systemically organized support for children who watched their mother being killed, in terms of psychological support," adds Macanović.
Vesna Stanojević emphasizes that these are children who are left without parents and asks what happens to them next.
"I have never heard from any official institution any information that these are children of a certain age, that they are entrusted to grandparents, friends, relatives." All this must be transparent", Stanojević points out.
Relatives without foster parent status, some rejected due to means test
The Center for Social Work in Belgrade says that the care of children is mostly taken over by relatives. If they don't have them, then they go to a foster family or a social welfare institution.
Vanja Macanović explains that relatives who take care of children are not actually given the status of relative foster parents, on the basis of which they would receive a higher amount of compensation, but are subject to the same system as when applying for child allowance.
However, he adds, there are also difficult conditions, since some families were rejected due to the higher means test.
Objection to violence mild
Deputy Ombudsman Gordana Stevanović said previously for Vreme that the response of the competent authorities is still ineffective and untimely.
"The measures that are taken are not adequate to the violence that the woman suffers and are mostly temporary and aimed at removing the female victim from the family household for a specific, mostly short period of time," explained Stevanović.
