In the National Assembly building, the members of WPN presented the work of the Parliament and the results achieved in the area of women’s rights to the representatives of the Balkan Democracy Fund and a group of scholarship students from USA.
During the meeting, the MPs Vesna Marjanović, Vesna Ivković, and Nataša Vučković informed the interested guests about the goals that all women MPs were advocating for in the Parliament, such as a higher participation of women in the executive and the legislative branches of power, in particular
in decision making positions; elimination of gender based violence; economic empowerment; education of women; and wider rights concerning healthcare and family protection. It was emphasised that after the quota system was introduced in Serbia, the number of women MPs in the National Assembly jumped to more than 30% of the total number of MPs. The members of WPN underlined that they hoped that, in the near future, this percentage would stand at 50%.
The representatives of the Balkan Democracy Fund and the scholarship students from USA were particularly interested in the process of law adoption and implementation from the perspective of the rights of women and marginalised social groups.
The members of WPN explained that gender equality was guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, yet, in practice, there were frequent cases of violations of this right. As an example that illustrated the insufficient number of women in positions of power, they stated the fact that there was only one woman head of an MP group, out of 15 MP groups in the Parliament.
The representatives of the Balkan Democracy Fund and the scholarship students from USA thanked the woman MPs for the opportunity to get to know the functioning of the legislative system of the Republic of Serbia, and understand the mechanisms that women MPs employed
Meeting between Women’s Parliamentary Network, the Balkan Democracy Fund and a group of scholarship students from USA
