prijava
MOSTAR, April 16 (FENA) - During the coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases of domestic violence has increased, including families in which violence has not been reported before, said Abida Pehlić from the "Novi put" Association in a statement for FENA.
According to the NGO sector, the number of safe house beneficiaries in BiH has tripled since the beginning of the pandemic.
“It is evident that the number of reported cases of domestic violence has increased. Based on our experience, we came to the conclusion that the pandemic has exposed the scale of violence and that in fact the violence, which has existed for a long time, has escalated,” said Pehlić.
She believes that pandemic has further complicated the situation within people’s homes, and that there are new families on the list of cases of violence.
Pehlić also said that recent events in Serbia, where famous actresses began to report their abusers, helped a lot in terms of encouraging women exposed to violence. The women realized that they are not the only ones and that the victim is not to blame for what she is going through.
“That helped a lot. However, I think that the additional engagement of the non-governmental sector, which was mobilized during the pandemic and which made all its resources available immediately after learning that there is an escalation of domestic violence, helped a lot,” Pehlić pointed out.
She believes that all together influenced women to ask for help and report violence.
She pointed out, however, that better cooperation between the competent institutions is necessary, in a way that it should be known who should react after the report of violence, that the victim does not have to go from one institution to another because that often happens.
“In many cases, this discourages victims of domestic violence and they actually stop asking for help or do not even ask for any help because they think they will not get it,” said Pehlić.
The situation is especially bad in areas that are traditionally patriarchal, such as Herzegovina, and Pehlić expressed hope that the activities carried out by the associations will encourage potential and actual victims of violence to protect themselves and seek help.
She called on all relevant institutions to strengthen their cooperation with non-governmental organizations dealing with the problem of preventing domestic violence, in order to jointly give a strong answer to this problem.
(FENA) A. B.
