Daniela Gašparíková, UNDP Resident Representative to Montenegro

Dear panellists, dear participants, dear partners,

• Thank you for taking part in today’s event, the objective of which is to shed the light on extend of our current understanding of femicide, in the context of Montenegro, and against the back-drop of the latest international discourse on the subject..
• Violence against women and girls takes many forms, with femicide – or killing of a women/girl because of her gender, being its most extreme manifestation.
• Globally, an estimated 736 million women (aged 15 and older)—or almost 1 in 3 women—have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life.
• The Global Femicide Watch initiative indicates that among the victims of all intentional killings involving intimate partners, more than 80% of victims are women.
• Latest available data of the Eurostat (2015) shows that incidence of femicide per 100,000 women in Montenegro is close to 1 (intimate partner 0.64 and family members 0,32 combined).
• For almost two years now, the COVID-19 has dominated our lives, as well as the public discourse and agendas. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact continue to overshadow the pandemic of violence against women and girls in all its forms, and undermine the urgency of this issue.
• And this is of concern because of 3 reasons:

1. Existing systems to prevent and protect women and girls from violence got tested and had to cope with new context and challenges posed by the COVID-19
   
2. We know that economic hardship, due to unemployment and challenges of making end meets, are contributing risk factors driving gender-based violence, including femicide.
3. The killings of women by their partners are rarely isolated incidents that happened suddenly and unexpectedly. Yet, they are often a final act of reoccurring violence that was not adequately recognised and prevented. And what’s even more, they are often culturally and socially rooted, accepted as inevitable, tolerated, and justified over a long period. 

• We are still missing precise evidence of incidence of GBV during Covid. However,  applying risk-informed approach in times of uncertainty and factoring in the above-mentioned drivers under the circumstances of prolonged COVID, it’s safe to assume that likelihood of incidence of GBV, including femicide, is on the rise.
• Hence, with the event today we would like to start the journey of all involved in the system of prevention of GBV and protection of GBV victims towards better understanding and detecting the so called ‘tipping points’ – the factors, if occurring singularly or combined, that lead to the most extreme forms GBV and femicide.
• The vast majority of femicides ARE preventable. Understanding that GBV is about the interplay between ‘power and control’ and deeply rooted social norms and prejudices about what is acceptable behaviour for women and men, especially in patriarchal tradition.
• We have learnt that at the times of broader societal movements, political events or recurring and prolonged crisis, the human rights are often at stake, including women's rights that were once taken for granted.
• The 2021 marks ten years since the Istanbul Convention - the most far-reaching international treaty aiming to tackle violence against women – to which Montenegro is commendably one of the first signatory states.
• Yet, Montenegro continues to lack a functional and integrated data collection system regarding the number of victims and perpetrators of violence against women disaggregated by sex, age, type of violence, and others.
• In 2015 the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women called for the establishment of femicide observatories which should collect data and analyse all femicide cases including court decisions, in order to identify gaps in the intervention system, criminal justice and criminal procedures system, as well as risk factors to protect women and girls from getting killed.
• Recognizing the need for research and systemic data collection on all forms of femicide, UNDP and UN Women are supporting the establishment of a Regional Femicide Watch initiative with funding from the EU (through the Regional Programme “Ending Violence against Women in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey: Implementing Norms, Changing Minds”).
• The risk-informed approach to prevention of femicide has its foundation in international legal standards. The Article 51 of the Istanbul Convention stresses that parties shall take the necessary legislative/other measures to ensure that an assessment of the seriousness of the situation and the risk of repeated violence is undertaken by all relevant authorities in order to manage the risk and provide safety and support.
• For all of us here today, gender equality is a fundamental value that we are persistently, genuinely, and passionately fighting for. Women’s empowerment and their full participation in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental to peaceful and cohesive societies. To get there though, first and foremost, women and girls need to stay alive.