EUICC Launches Campaign on Preventing Gender Based Violence

The EUICC Centres in Pristina and Mitrovica launched the campaign “EU is about preventing gender based violence” with a series of events, which will continue in January.  To launch this campaign, both Centres screened the UK Sundance Film Festival award winning movie “Tyrannosaur” directed by Paddy Considine which deals with the subject of domestic violence and its devastating impact on family life.

The movie was followed by a discussion with panelists from the field of cinematography and advocates of gender equality in the Kosovo, in both centres. In Pristina, Leonora Selmani, a representative from Agency for Gender Equality spoke about the institutional initiatives on combating gender based violence. Blerta Zeqiri, a filmmaker from Kosovo noted that art was very important as a tool for raising awareness against violence.

Panelists Ruzica Simic and Milica Orlovic at the EUICC in North Mitrovica shared their experience working with institutions and their commitment to resolving these challenging issues. The audience interacted with the movie theme by drawing the attention to the lack of effective mechanisms at the institutional level and especially the mobilization of police officers to deal with individual cases when gender-based violence is committed.

The month of December introduced a new series of Master Classes at EUICC. The first lecture on Women’s Property Rights and Inheritance was held at the center on 17 December. Merita Limani, expert on Gender Equality and Property Rights at The Kosovo Property Rights Program funded by USAID, discussed the program’s major interventions, current challenges and successes as well as skills that need to be developed throughout Kosovo to improve the area of property rights. The latest studies have shown that an alarming figure of only 3.8%  of Kosovo women inherit the property either through family or in marriage. “The reason for this small number of women who inherit property is the fact that there is a social norm or attitude which prevents women and girls from claiming the property regardless of where they live geographically,” said Mrs Limani.

The EUICC campaign on preventing gender-based violence will continue in January 2016 and will feature various activities aimed at raising awareness on gender rights and gender equality in Kosovo.