*This is the total of the number of people involved in the measures of the active employment policy in line with the Agreements on performance of the National Employment Service for 2017 and 2018, and the number of persons involved in the measures of the active employment policy within the Project 2012 IPA and 2013 IPA.

Percentage of women involved in the measures of the active employment policy, NES
	01/01 – 31/12/2017	01/01 – 30/06/2018
Participation of women in the total number of people involved in the measures of the active employment policy	54.56%	53.80%
Participation of Roma women in the total number of the Roma involved in the measures of the active policy	44.19%	42.52%
Participation of women with disabilities in the total number of people with disabilities	42.57%	45.28%

Stereotypes

18.The Government’s objective is to create the necessary conditions so that parents could have an easier decision on having the first, second and every next child, but the right of every woman is to decide on when she will become a mother and to decide on having a family.

19.In the Strategy for Encouraging Births passed in March 2018, giving birth is treated as a free choice of emancipated women. The Strategy defines a higher involvement of men in the activities connected to the child care and the care for the household, as well as the measures of support by government bodies to the parenthood within the population policy thorough mitigating the economic price of child raising, alignment of the work and parenthood, reduction of the psychological price of parenthood, preservation and improvement of the reproduction health, resolving issues of infertility, health motherhood, population education and activation of local self-governments. There is a financial support to associations which work on the economic empowerment of women.

20.In April 2018, the Research on Alignment of Work and Parenthood was presented, which showed that a large number of employers in Serbia fail to ensure any type of financial support to employed parents, and that a large number of them is ready to ensure some types of assistance with certain benefits given by the government. Around 48% of employers ensure financial assistance for the costs of medical treatments of children, 28% provide one-time assistance for a child birth, and only 5.5% of employers provide one-time financial assistance for a child’s enrolment into school. Also, most of the employees are not familiar with and rarely use their legal rights on flexible working hours.

21.Within the measures for raising the awareness on gender equality and the change of negative gender stereotypes, there were campaigns and trainings organised for media professionals, and the support was provided to media contents promoting gender equality. In 2017, the Ministry of Culture and Information co-finances 14 projects contributing to gender equality, in the total amount of RSD 6,050,000. The team for social inclusion and poverty reduction, in cooperation with the CBGE, organised a training for journalists on gender sensitive media reporting and affirmative presentation of vulnerable groups, and several stories on successful women and girls and various topics have been prepared and published.

22.With the reports, press conferences and the participation in the public events the CBGE promoted the topic of gender equality and the policies of the Republic of Serbia in this field: panel discussion “Women and work, two jobs” on the occasion of celebrating 8th March; celebrating the Women and Girls in Science Day, the Girls in the ICT Day; support to the campaign “Inspiring Girls”; conference “Women leaders against discrimination” — final conferences of the programme “Academic women leadership”; conference “Roma women in Serbia: achievements, challenges and perspectives” on the World Roma Day; round table “Proposals of regional policies for illegal migrations, fight against human trafficking, and recommendations for future national Strategies for prevention and elimination of d violence against women in the family and in intimate partner relationship and Strategy for prevention of human trafficking”; conference “Female Entrepreneurship a unused potential of Central and East Europe” organised by the Union of Businesswomen of Serbia, and the support to the initiatives for developing female entrepreneurship; conference of the Influential Women Network “Influential Women — can women change Serbia?”

23.The results of the survey Men in Serbia,; resistance and challenges were presented in the conference held in Belgrade on 17 May 2018, and then also through promotional conferences in Novi Sad, Čačak, Kragujevac and Niš.

24.One of five priority fields of the mandatory training of teachers, defined by the Rulebook on permanent professional development of pre-school teachers, teachers, and profession associates is: to create tolerant and non-discriminatory environment for each individual, and prevention of violence, prevention of discrimination and inclusion of children from socially marginalised groups.

25.In the Catalogue of the programme of permanent professional development of pre-school teachers, teachers and professional associates for the school years 2015/16 , 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 there are 19 approved programmes in the field of gender equality and protection from violence and discrimination.

26.The team for social inclusion and poverty reduction, in cooperation with the CBGE, has carried out the analysis of curricula and textbooks for subject Serbian Language from I to IV grade of primary school, in order to define the inclusion of gender perspective in the teaching material and documents which define teaching.

27.Within the subject Civil Education for primary and secondary education and upbringing there are thematic units which refer to gender and every other equality, with the aim to train pupils to identify different forms of violation of rights, to understand their genesis and be ready to confront it. Gender equality and women’s rights are one of the topics.

28.In the Teaching and learning programme, for 5th grade, the objectives and outcomes of the subjects improve the culture of tolerance, gender and any other equality, civil rights and duties, and respect of Serbian and other cultures and development of interculturalism as the fundamental value of a democratic society, positive attitude towards other languages and cultures, and towards own language and cultural heritage.

29.Project “Encouraging democratic culture in schools” is a two-year activities within the European Union — Council of Europe Programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey”. The general objective of the project is to increase the quality of education by encouraging democratic culture in the formal education system, through the implementation of anti-discriminatory approaches based on the standards and practice of the Council of Europe. Specific objectives of the project are: improve the competences of teachers, pupils and citizens in the community about the concept, policy, practice and benefits of inclusive education and democratic culture in schools; empowering and increasing the resources of pilot schools for elimination of prejudice and discriminatory approach towards vulnerable groups, and reducing the incidence of violence in schools.

30.There are no formal obstacles for men and women in the Republic of Serbia to get the education under the same conditions for all professions and to develop and improve in their careers. The National Employment Strategy for the period 2010–2020 also covers the measures of encouraging female entrepreneurship, self-employment, and employment of women, reduction of economic inequality.

31.At the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, with the support of the OSCE Mission and cooperation of the CBGE, there was the first conference “Gender Equality in Higher Education: International Good Practice and the Local Context”. The Coordination Body provided support and was actively involved in the research “Universities in Serbia: Women and the Power of Action” carried out in 2018 in five state universities. The findings were presented at the Rector’s Office of Belgrade, and the contribution is expected to the promotion of the gender equality principle and the improvement of the position of women in science and higher education, especially women hired in the field of natural and technical-technological sciences.

Violence against Women

32.The Council for elimination of domestic violence was established on 13 July 2017.

33.Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the Autonomous Women’s Centre and the Centre for Children’s Rights, supported by the UNDP and UNICEF, developed and implemented numerous programmes intended for professionals in order to prevent all possible difficulties in the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence. From February to May 2017, a pilot programme was developed and realised in the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Offices in Kruševac, Čačak, and Užice, the First, Second and Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. Among other things, a single list of risks was created within this programme, which was sent to all prosecutor’s offices in the country. Ministry of Interior has created the extended single list of risks intended for police officers. In the period from December 2017 until March 2018, this programme was realised in the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Niš, Kragujevac and Sombor, and will continue in the period October–December 2018 for the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prijepolje, in the department in Priboj, and also for the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Leskovac, Negotin and Bor.

34.In May 2017, with the funds collected by the implementation of the opportunity principle, the Ministry of Justice supported the project of the Autonomous Women’s Centre “Free Legal Aid for Women who are Victims of Domestic Violence and Violence in Intimate Partner Relationships” in the amount of RSD 1,094,400 (EUR 8,823.07).

35.In one year of the implementation of the law by the courts, 15,617 emergency measures were ordered.

36.Ministry of Interior initiated ex officio the proceeding for seizure of weapons if criminal charges were filed for domestic violence. In 2016, 97 pieces of weapon were seized from natural persons based on criminal charges for domestic violence, and in 2017, 159 pieces of weapon were seized based on the same reason. The new Strategy of control of shooting and light firearms for the period 2019–2024 is in the process of drafting together with the Action Plan.

37.Every Prosecutor’s Office has a Group for coordination and cooperation comprised of a prosecutors, worker in the centre for social work, and competent police officer (reviewed 44,728 cases of domestic violence, created 10,503 individual plans of protection and support to victims). In the period from 1 June 2017 until 31 July 2018, public prosecutor’s offices filed proposals for emergency measures against 17,674 individuals, the court accepted the proposals against 17,069 individuals.

38.The Law ensures equal protection to all victims, and statistical data collected at the level of prosecutor’s office do not contain the data classified per categories of vulnerable social groups.

39.Penalty for criminal action of forced sexual assault over a physically helpless person has become equal to the penalty of rape (paragraph 94 of the Report).

40.Ministry of Construction, Infrastructure and Transportation has supported the reconstruction of 10 safe houses with RSD 10,000,000, and in cooperation with the Organisation “Out the circle — Vojvodina” the project for the accessibility of the Safe House for Women in Novi Sad for women with disabilities. CBGE supported also the establishment of the Centre for empowering women who are victims of domestic violence in Sremska Mitrovica (after Sombor the second one of this type in Serbia). With the support of the UN Women, 60 panic taster systems have been ensured for healthcare institutions and centres for social work.

41.CBGE has established and continuously maintains the cooperation with the “Women against Violence Network” and women’s organisations, preparing the independent report on the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence. The Government passed the proposal of the CBGE to declare 18 May the Remembrance Day for Women Victims of Domestic Violence which was a joint initiative of the CBGE and the “Women against Violence Network”, which organised signing of the petition and submitted 25,000 signatures to the president of the CBGE.

42.According to the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence the responsible police officers and public prosecutors, deputies of public prosecutors and judges applying this law are obliged to undergo specialised trainings carried out by the Judicial Academy and the Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies.

43.Holders of the public prosecution power — contact person have been appointed who will be in charge of the work, monitoring and cooperation with other relevant institutions and bodies, in connection with criminal acts against gender freedom and criminal acts against marriage and family.

The number of registered cases of violence against women in the healthcare system in 2017
No	Issue	Vojvodina	Central Serbia	Serbia with Kosovo
1	Number of registered cases of violence in the intimate partner relationship/gender-based violence	1 025	2 895	3 962
2	Number of cases in which the Police was informed	944	2 537	3 515
3	Number of cases in which a Public Prosecutor’s Office was informed	131	289	420
4	Number of cases in which a Centre for Social Work was informed	478	1 122	1 612
5	Number of cases in which no other authority was informed	16	286	303
6	Number of injured parties asking for assistance from a community health centre/healthcare institution	943	1 906	2 875
7	Number of injured parties who are women with disabilities, pregnant women, women who have just given birth, or elderly women	102	220	323
8	Number of injured parties who have declared as members of Roma national minority, if you possibly have such data	77	84	166
9	Number of cases in which a physician reported to the Police, Prosecutor’s Office or Centre for Social Work a case of violence in the intimate partner relationship/gender-based violence	686	1 361	2 062
10	Number of cases in which violence was identified but the physician did not report it to the mentioned bodies	6	90	98

44.In 2017, due to committing a criminal act of domestic violence referred to in Article 194 of the Criminal Code, 11,671 people were reported. Compared with the same period last year, when due to this criminal act 10,245 people were reported, this number is an increased by 13.92%. Public Prosecutor’s Offices issued orders on initiation investigation against 417 people.

45.In the reporting period there were 4,452 accused individuals (4,108 men and 317 women), which is 38.56% of the total number of reported people based on the reports which remained in work after the dismissal.

Court decisions regarding filed criminal charges in 2017
Total	3 722
Convicting judgement	3 452 / 92.75%
Prison	1 046
Fines	20
Penalties to work for public interest	13
Suspended judgement	2 314
Court warning	6
Security measure as independent	53
Security measures in addition to the main penalty	1 125
Exonerating judgement	107 / 2.8%
Dismissal	163 / 4.38%

Total number of issued emergency measures in line with the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence for the period 01/06/2017 – 30/06/2018, Ministry of Interior
Emergency measures in line with LoPDV	Total number of issued emergency measures	I Measure of Temporary removal of the perpetrator from the apartment	II Measure of Temporary ban issued to the perpetrator to contact or approach the victim of violence	Extended emergency measure by the court	Violated emergency measure, number of minor offense charges
2017	13 808	4 469	9 339	7 762	889
2018	13 244	3 986	9 258	7 252	815
Total	27 052	8 455	18 597	15 014	1 704

46.From 1 June 2017 until 30 June 2018, the number of recorded criminal acts referred to in Article 194 of the Criminal Code of RS is 8.7% of the total number of criminal acts of general crime.

47.Website, launched by the Ministry of Justice within the “Turn off Violence” campaign was visited 70,000 times, and other success indicators are: 81 agency posts; 143 articles in printed media; 288 articles in electronic media; 366 internet posts, and 700,000 views of six videos on YouTube and Facebook. Also, since Roma women are unlikely to decide to report domestic violence, in March 2017, Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the NGO “Osvit” from Niš, created a video encouraging the public to report violence against women.

Trafficking and Exploitation of Prostitution

48.Strategy for Prevention and Elimination of Human Trafficking, especially Women and Children, and Protection of Victims from 2017 until 2020 was adopted in August 2017 with the relevant two-year Action Plan.

49.With the aim to implement this strategic document, the Office for Coordination of the Activities Combating Human Trafficking was established within the Police Directorate. The manager of this Office was appointed for the National Coordinator for Fight against Human Trafficking.

50.Council for Combating Human Trafficking chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, was established on 12 October 2017. Members are Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, Science, and Technological Development, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Minister of Health, and Minister of Justice.

51.Also, on 17 October 2017, a Special Working Group for the Implementation and Monitoring of the Strategy of Prevention and Elimination of Human Trafficking, especially Women and Children and Protection of Victims 2017 –20 22 was established. This working group is consisted of the representatives of 17 ministries and state authorities, Red Cross of Serbia, and two specialised civil society organisations Atina and Astra. The special working group has had 3 meetings so far.

52.Formalisation and organisation of Local teams for combating human trafficking is taking place in 17 cities throughout the Republic of Serbia.

53.In order to improve the proactive system of identification of cases of human trafficking, and a more efficient prosecution, the Intersectoral working group was formed, adjustment of the existing mechanisms of cooperation of competent authorities, and establishment of new ones in line with the proactive approach made by the representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran, and Social Affairs, Labour Inspectorate, Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor’s Offices for Organised Crime and the Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies. One of the tasks of this Intersectoral working group is the creation of the analysis of the current state of affairs in the field of investigations on human trafficking. Also, at the operational level, on 15 March 208, the police teams for combating human trafficking were established.

54.On 28 June 2018, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran, and Social Affairs, and the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded the Protocol on cooperation in the field of identification of victims of human trafficking, provision of assistance and protection of safety of the victims, prevention of human trafficking, and statistical reporting aimed at researching the phenomenon of human trafficking.

55.Starting from September 2017 until June 2018, within the programme “The Basics of Children’s Safety”, the members of the Ministry of Interior carried out 6,021 lectures in 1,140 primary schools on human trafficking, gathering around 107,338 pupils of the fourth and sixth grade.

56.Ministry of Justice established the working group for the creation of the National Strategy which should regulate the improvement of the rights of injured parities (victims) and witnesses of criminal acts with the relevant action plan.

57.Services for information of victims and witnesses were opened in all higher public prosecutor’s offices, which significantly improved the existing network of available services for the victims. At the same time, Drat Law on Free Legal Aid defines that victims of criminal acts are beneficiaries by the force of law.

58.In each higher public prosecutor’s office there is one appointed deputy public prosecutor in charge of the coordination and action in the cases of human trafficking. A public prosecutor attends a continuous training. The publication “Legal framework and recommendations for the application of the impunity principle for victims of human trafficking in the Republic of Serbia” was created, also containing the guidelines for judges, public prosecutors and police officers. The competent deputies of public prosecutors attended trainings on the implementation of the mentioned guidelines.

59.Public prosecutor’s office has regular contact with the Ministry of Interior and the Centre for protection of victims of human trafficking. The cooperation is realised also with other state bodies and civil society organisations, at the national and international level, especially civil society organisations “ASTRA” and “ATINA”.

60.The cooperation of the countries in the region is worked upon, especially in the part of identification and protection of victims. In the regional project IOM (mission holder in Sarajevo) there have been activities on changing and modernising the Standard operational procedures for treatment of victims of human trafficking. Serbia is considering the model of the memorandum of cooperation (which is specific compared to other countries due to the existence of specialised national institution of Centre for Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking). Preparation of the memorandum of cooperation with Montenegro and Macedonia is in progress.

61.Criminal Code, incriminated mediation in prostitution. Whoever causes or induces another person to prostitution or participates in handing over a person to another for the purpose of prostitution, or who by means of media or otherwise promotes or advertises prostitution shall be punished with imprisonment of six month to five years and a fine. If the offence is committed against a minor, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment from one to ten years and a fine (Article 184).

62.Criminal Code also defines forcing to prostitution as one of the actions in the crimes belonging to Crimes against Humanity (Article 371) and War Crimes against Civilian Population (Article 372). Criminal Code also in the part Human Trafficking (Article 388) states prostitution as one of the objectives in which executive action will be taken.

63.Law on Public Order and Peace defines prostitution as an offense and defines it as provision of sexual services with compensation in money or other values. According to this law, whoever engages in prostitution, uses the services of prostitution or gives premises for the purpose of prostitution — shall be fined in the amount from RSD 50,000 to RSD 150,000 or imprisonment from 30 to 60 days, and who gives premises to a minor for the purpose of prostitution — shall be imprisoned from 30 to 60 days (Article 16). It is necessary to point out that a public prosecutor is a party in the misdemeanour proceeding.

64.Also, Mediation in prostitution is one of criminal offenses to which special rules apply, which refer to the cooperation in the prevention of domestic violence defined by the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence.

65.All victims of human trafficking have access to social protection, accommodation, legal representation, counselling and psychotherapy, support in employment and education, and development of everyday life skills. It is necessary to increase the availability of the existing services and create new ones which will ensure efficient support, especially in the part which is connected to the employment and economic empowerment, as well as family functioning. There has been in increase in granting the status of especially vulnerable witness to victims, especially children. Victims who are foreign citizens have ensured humane conditions for stay and the possibility to have dignified and safe voluntary return. The first state reception centre for emergency accommodation of women victims of human trafficking (girls, young women and women aged over 16), as an organisational unit of the Centre for Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, will soon be opened.

66.The Centre has memorandums and protocols on cooperation signed with the National Employment Service, Community Health Centre of Voždovac, Special Hospital for Addiction Diseases, Clinic for Mental Disorders “Dr LazaLazarević”, “TijanaJurić” Foundation, and the Red Cross of Serbia, and a memorandum of cooperation is signed between the MoI, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran, and Social Affairs and Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office.

67.Centre for Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, in cooperation with domestic civil society organisations and international organisations, provides support to these women and children to overcome the suffered consequences, in order to avoid their revictimisation through a recurrent prostitution exploitation. Of the total number of identified victim for the period 2012–2017, 39% of the victims of sexual exploitation are women. Girls make 38% of identified victims of sexual exploitation.

68.NES realises a support programme in which victims of human trafficking have a proper access and possibility for employment. All the existing services of healthcare and social protection are available to the victims of sexual exploitation without discrimination.

Participation in the Political and Public Life

69.The managerial position in the legislative and executive power are unchanged, and women make the majority in the judiciary.

70.Representation of women in the political life at the level of local self-government units is regulated by the Law on Local Elections which defines that on the electoral list, among every three candidates on the list (first three candidates, other three candidates, and so on until the end of the list) there must be at least one candidate — of the gender less represented in the list (Article 20, paragraph 3). In the positions of presidents of municipal/city assemblies there are 14.4% women. In the positions of deputy presidents of municipal/city assemblies there only 23.5% of women. Among the councillors there are 32.7% of women, while on the positions of presidents of council groups there are 18.6% of women. On the positions of mayors/presidents of municipalities there are 7.9% of women, and on the positions of deputy mayors/presidents of municipalities there are 18.5% of women. Women are members of the councils of local communities with the representation of 11%, while on the positions of presidents of local communities there are only 5% of women.

71.Data on the nationality of women on managerial positions do not exist.

72.In the defence system at the end of 2016, the percentage of women was 19.90%, while on the managerial positions there were 18.15% women of that number, which is an increase by 0.75% compared to the previous year. Women in МoD and SAF can, under equal conditions as men, to be representatives of military diplomatic core of the Republic of Serbia.

73.On 7 September 2018, the position of ambassadors and general consuls is taken by 19 women — out of 68 positions of ambassadors 14 are women, and of 19 general consuls five are women.

Education

74.Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development collects the data using the Single Education Information System (SEIS). Monitoring the students’ achievements has been improved by the introduction of the unique education number (UEN) which follows its holder through all the levels of formal education and upbringing, and is a key to connection of all the data on the child, pupil and adult in the SEIS. Even though the LoFES defines that nationality may be an integral part of the UEN, a note in the law states that stating a national affiliation is not mandatory (Article 177), so these data on the national affiliation of pupils and teachers do not exist.

75.According to the Survey on workforce of the National Statistical Office, the percentage of students who early dropped out from school (ESD) in the Republic of Serbia is 8.3% (Statistical Office of Serbia, 2015).

Students enrolled at the beginning and the end of school year 2015/16 and 2016/17
Pupils at the beginning of school year 2015/16	Pupils who finished the school year 2015/16
Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
551 607	283 292	268 315	549 128	281 944	267 184
Pupils at the beginning of school year 2016/17	Pupils who finished the school year 2016/17
Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
545 234	280 498	264 736	543 028	279 238	263 790

76.Around 6.000 children leave regular education in one school year in one generation during the primary education. The largest dropout rate is between 5–6 grade 3.1% and the lowest between 3–4 grade, and is 0.7%. The rate of completion of primary school by Roma children increased from only 35% (MICS2012) to around 64% (MICS2015). 59% of Roma children continue secondary education.

77.Prevention of dropout from the education system has been recognised also in the Strategy of Education Development in Serbia until 2020 (2012), in which the objective is to bring the dropout rate to less than 5%.

78.National Educational Council and Councils for Vocational Education and Education of Adults monitor, analyse and give recommendations for reducing dropout from the education system and define proposed measures for the continuation of education of people who have dropped out from the system. Schools in the school development plan define measures for the prevention of dropout, realise them and monitor them. There is also the intersectoral cooperation with parents and other competent bodies in local self-governments. Support measures have been realised through various projects and programmes, among which of special importance are grants given through DILS and DILS /REF programmes.

79.National framework for monitoring the inclusive education had been prepared, and the education quality indicators have been defines. Serbia has joined the activities under the Open Coordination Method (OCM).

80.Increased enrolment of children from Roma population aged 3–5 into preschool institutions through ensuring the support to inclusion will contribute to the realisation of project “Inclusive preschool education and upbringing “realised by the MoESTD from the World Bank loan. All planned measures are aligned with the gender equality principle, as well as with equal representation of boys and girls, and women and men.

Employment

81.In 2017, the measures of active employment policy covered 84.158 women in total. The total number of women employed after the inclusion in the measures of active employment policy is 25.953. At the end of 2017, the record of the National Employment Service contained 618.827 unemployed individuals of which 324.977 were unemployed women.

82.National action plan for employment plans the support to employment of particularly sensitive — vulnerable categories of women. NES has gender-based data and keeps the records on unemployed individuals based on 20 categories and factors of difficult employability.

2017
Unemployed individuals on the record		Covered by the measures of active employment policy
Single mothers	11 364	3 410
Women over 50 years of age	89 232	13 164
Women from the category of the redundant employees	25 007	7 436
Women up to 30 years of age	77 054	29 553
Beneficiaries of financial social assistant	32 608	5 912
Roma women	12 411	2 421

83.In 2017, the two-day training of the NES “Way to a successful entrepreneur” was completed by 5.663 women (45.42%). Subsidies for self-employment were granted to 1.848 women (50.22%), of whom 44 were women with disabilities. The monitoring programmes covered 251 women.

84.Employment rate of the population aged 15–64 in 2017 in average was 57.4%. The employment rate for women in 2917 was 50.8 % and compared to 2016 it increased by 2.4 percentage points. The employment rate of men (63.9%) is higher by 13.0 p.p. than the employment rate of women.

85.Unemployment rate of the population aged 15–64 in 2017, in average was 14.1%. The unemployment rate for women in 2017 was 14.8% and compared to 2016 it decreased by 1.9 percentage points. The unemployment rate of men was 13.5%, which is a difference by 1.3 p.p. compared to the unemployment rate for women.

86.Gender responsible companies pay more attention to respecting the constitutional and legal provisions prohibiting gender-based differences in salary.

Health

87.Regulation on the National Programme for preservation and improvement of sexual and reproductive health of Serbian citizens, was passed by Serbian Government on 28 December 2017.

88.Ministry of Health continues with the action of free preventive check-ups aimed at early diagnostics and promotion of prevention as the most efficient manner of care of one’s health. These check-up are carried out every last week in a month throughout Serbia both in community health centres and in clinical-hospital centres and general hospitals, and the access is provided to the individuals who, for any reason, do not have health insurance.

89.Ministry of Health plans to improve the availability of healthcare for Roma population by expanding the programme and coverage over 50% of the territory by 2020 (RSD 88.000.000). Also, through the support given to the activities carried out by citizens’ associations it increases the supported grants for achieving the results of social health determinants (RSD 15.000.000) and improves the life quality in achieving the objective of extending the life span (RSD 15.000.000)

90.With the aim to harmonise the work of health workers, primarily gynaecologists, doctor of general medicine and paediatricians, with modern scientific knowledge in the field of counselling and issuance of contraceptives, the Working Group of the Ministry of Health, with the support by UNDP, has created clinical guidelines for available contraceptive methods. These guidelines will facilitate clinical work and increase the safety of healthcare workers in assessing the safety of issuing contraception, including the rationalisation of diagnostic procedures to be carried out before the application and during the use of the selected method.

91.According to the Law on Healthcare and Law on Health Insurance, all people on the territory of the Republic of Serbia have equal access and quality to healthcare services.

Women in Rural Area

92.Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs allocated RSD 3.000.000 in 2018 for the realisation of the projects of associations on the topic of economic empowerment of rural women.

93.NES carries out the services of Employment Caravans focused on those individuals who due to their health status, insufficient or improper education, socio-demographic characteristic or other reasons are not registered on the NES record, including women in rural areas. The mentioned service covers: information on the requirements and manner of registration in the records, on the rights and obligations of the unemployed, on the NES services and programmes, and on the measures of active employment policy, registration of people in the record, employment counselling. These activities are carried out by mobile teams on the field.

94.National programme of rural development for the period 2018 –20 20 adopted in July 2018, defines an increased participation of women in terms of the land ownership, employment, decision making on the local level, etc. When ranking women, the applicant in a competition receives additional points.

95.Also, the incentives for the preparation and implementation of local strategies of rural development receive only those beneficiaries who in their managerial structure have representatives of formal or informal women groups from the territory of the partnership.

96.With the Rulebook on the conditions and manners to exercise the rights to loan support, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management ensured the access to the use of loans through providing subsidies for the loan interest.

97.For the investment which refer to crop farming, fruit growing, wine growing, vegetable growing, and flower growing, as well as the investment in agricultural mechanisation, the plan is to facilitate the access for women to micro loans. If the beneficiary is a natural person – holder of the commercial family household who is a women, the facilitated access to the use of the loan is achieved through subsidizing a part of the loan interest.

98.Implementation of the IPARD II Programme of the Republic of Serbia 2014 –20 20 started on 25 December 2017. This programme also gives advantage to women and plans a set of incentives within the measures: Investments in the physical property of agricultural households; implementation of local development strategies — LEADER access and Diversification of agricultural households and development of business if the candidate is a women or an enterprise having minimum 30% of women employees.

99.MoESTD puts great efforts to ensure the quality and equally available education for all. Local self-government units (LSGU) ensure funds for the transport: of children and their escorts for attending the preparatory preschool programmes at the distance more than two kilometres, of pupils of primary schools at the distance more than four kilometres from the school’s seat; transport, accommodation and meals for children and pupils with developmental disorders and disabilities and their escorts, regardless of the distance from the place of residence to the school; transport of children and pupils having the residence on the territory of the LSGU at the distance of more than four kilometres from the school seat, and in cases when pupils of primary school go to school on the territory of another LSGU — if the school to which pupils go is the closest to the place of residence of the pupil; transport of pupils to national and international competitions.

100.In cooperation with UN WOMEN and Women Development Platform of Serbia, with the support from the Swiss Government, the International Rural Women Day was celebrated on 15 October 2017, with a big conference with the participation of rural women and the representatives of the civil sector, on which priorities were defined for the improvement of life quality for rural women and gender equality in the rural development policies.

Women Refugees

101.Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence is applied with no discrimination to all the people including the asylum seekers.

102.Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection prohibits any form of discrimination on any grounds. Also, this law defines that when assessing the best interest of a minor, one should take into account the welfare, social development and the origin of the minor, opinion of the minor depending on the age and maturity, the principle of family unity, and the protection and safety of the minor, especially if there is a doubt that the minor is a victim of human trafficking or domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence.

103.The issue of managing migration has an important place in strategic documents regulating the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the EU.

104.Republic of Serbia has demonstrated in its previous practice, the capacity to adequately and efficiently react to sudden migration waves, to engage special resources and coordinate the activities of numerous stakeholders in order to protect its interest, on the one hand, and to provide the necessary assistance and protections of the fundamental rights of the migrants, on the other.

105.The measures to discourage the illegal entry into the territory of the Republic of Serbia, reception and acceptance of migrants, enhanced health and social support to vulnerable categories, inclusion of children into the education system, combating migrant smuggling, required the reorganisation of competent services, an increased number of operators, additional trainings of employees, procurement of the necessary equipment and devices, enhanced cooperation with the countries in the region, etc.

106.In September 2018, 15 centres are operational (five permanent asylum centres and 10 reception centres, three temporary closed) of the total capacity of 6.000 beds. At this point, the availability of the accommodation capacities is satisfactory. The Commissariats for Refugees and Migration has temporarily put out of service three transit reception centres, due to the rationalisation of the funds. The funds for the operation of the facilities are allocated in the budget and from the Syrian Trust Fund (MADAD) and if there is no increase in the number of migrants those funds will be enough until the end of this year. In addition to the basic needs (accommodation, food, clothes, hygiene), the people in the reception centres are provided also with the relevant social case aimed at preventing conflicts, easier overcoming of uncertainty and training for an easier integration/re-integration through educational and occupational activities.

107.In the school year 2018/2019, all children migrants aged 7–14 were included in the programme of obligatory education system. Children of preschool age were included in the obligatory preparation preschool programme (5.5 to 6.5 years of age), and the enrolment of children in secondary schools is done in line with the resources of schools and the interests of young migrants.

108.Employees in the reception centres have undergone trainings/education in the field of gender-based violence, voluntary return to the country of origin, information on the country of origin, violence against women, cultural orientation, early identification of torture among the migrants and asylum seekers, migration and asylum policy, gender equality, human trafficking (identification and integration of victims of human trafficking), assessment and coordination of field workers in the individual work with children and families, human rights. All suspicious cases are immediately forwarded to the competent services in line with the standard operational procedures.

109.In the Republic of Serbia today there still 199.584 internally displaced persons. After 19 years of displacement, the rate sustainable return is only 1.9%. According to the latest analysis of the situation and needs of the IDPs, from May 2018, there are 16,644 internally displaced households in the need in Serbia (households which currently have no resolved accommodation solution and are not able to resolve it themselves).

110.Mechanism have been created on the central and local level for the implementation of all types of support programmes for internally displaced persons in the Republic of Serbia (granting construction material for starting the construction or adaptation of poor facilities owned by the persons; purchase of village houses with gardens; procurement and construction of prefabricated houses; granting accommodation units for social housing in protected conditions and apartments for rent; granting assistance for resolving the problem of internally displaced persons residing in the so called informal collective centres). For the improvement of the conditions of internally displaced persons, in 2018 RSD 268 million were planned. The plan is to close all collective centres (one in central Serbia with 65 IDP and 8 on the territory of the AP of Kosovo and Metohija with 278 IDP).

111.According to the Law on Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths, the activities of keeping the records of births, marriages and deaths, and resolving the first-instance proceedings for the area of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, have been entrusted to the city administrations of the cities of Niš, Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Kruševac, Jagodina, Vranje, and Leskovac. All necessary measures have been taken to renew the missing or damaged records of births, marriages and deaths based on the available data on the citizens, and the citizens are invited to submit applications and the evidence they have for the renewed registration in the records.

112.Authority which is unable to obtain the evidence ex officio based on which the registration is performed, and the interested person also does not hold the evidence, it will make a relevant decision, and the party will be sent to a relevant proceeding before the competent court for the identification of the relevant facts. Once it gets the final court decision on that, the facts will be entered into the relevant record.

113.The registration procedure for births is regulated by the Instructions on keeping records of births, marriages, and deaths and the forms of the records in the manner which is in line with Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

114.The healthcare institution is obliged to report a child’s birth in that healthcare institution. Birth report issued by the healthcare institution is a public document and after receiving this report the registrar must enter the reported fact into the record of births with no delays.

Women from Vulnerable Social Groups

115.Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma Men and Women in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2016–2025 has five specific objectives in key areas which contribute to the realisation of the overall objective, which are education, housing, employment, health and social protection, in which significant results have been achieved.

Education

116.In terms of education, a job description, qualifications, additional knowledge and work experience have been defined necessary for the performance of the activities of pedagogical assistants. 174 certificates have been awarded to pedagogical assistants who have undergone the accredited training modules, in the Centre for Life-Long Learning at the University of Kragujevac.

117.The World Bank Board approved the realisation of the project “Inclusive preschool education and upbringing”.

118.In the school year 2016/17, in primary schools on the territory of the Republic of Serbia 711 pupils were enrolled, returnees on readmission, 369 girls and 342 boys. In the school year 2016/17, in secondary school on the territory of the Republic of Serbia 16 pupils were enrolled who are returnees on readmission, 6 girls and 9 boys.

119.In the school year 2016/17, 2.264 pupils attend the electoral subject Romani language with the elements of national culture in 72 primary schools in Serbia. 55 teachers have been hired to teach Romani language with the elements of national culture.

120.Enrolment of the Roma pupils in the first grade of secondary schools in the school year 2017/18 was realised by applying the Rulebook on the enrolment of pupils in the secondary school regulating the application of measures of affirmation enrolment action for Roma pupils in secondary schools. The total number of enrolled pupils of Roma nationality in secondary schools in the school year 2017/18 was 2.546 pupils. Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development (MoESTD) granted 150 pupil scholarships for the school year 2016/16 to Roma pupils in secondary schools with excellent achievements. In school year 2016/17, the program of scholarships continued starting from the second semester of school year 2016/17 — scholarships for 500 secondary school pupils, with the achievement score between 2.5 and 3.5. The support to the inclusion, learning, and progress of pupils of Roma nationality in secondary schools is provided by 201 teachers — mentors.

121.Based on the programme of affirmative enrolment measures for students of Roma nationality to higher education institutions founded by the RS in the academic year 2016/17, 182 students were enrolled (М88;F94). In the school year 2016/2017, 1.895 attendees of Roma nationalities completed the primary education for adults.

Housing

122.For the field of housing of key importance is the Law on Housing and Maintenance of Apartment Buildings in 2016 which regulates the issues of moving out and moving in.

123.Geographic information system (GIS) for sub-standard Roma settlements is established and is functioning. All local self-government units are provided with the initial data on the substandard housing in the Roma settlements on their territories from the GIS base, based on which they will monitor the annual progress on improving the conditions of housing of the Roma in those settlements. Within the development of the accessible housing models, a publication was designed and published on relevant models for meeting the housing needs of the Roma population.

124.Within the project, Technical Assistance “Improving the living and housing conditions of the Roma who are currently living in informal settlements”, technical documentation is prepared in additional 13 LSGU in order to improve the housing conditions of the Roma, and in those LSGUs mobile teams will be established and operating for providing assistance to the members of the Roma population and support in implementing infrastructural projects which are also funded from the 2013 IPA in 13 LSGUs. The project funded from 2013 IPA Technical Assistance “Improving the living and housing conditions of the Roma who are currently living in informal settlements” (contact on technical assistance worth €1.500.000) and “Implementation of permanent housing solutions and improvement of the physical infrastructure in Roma settlements” (grant scheme worth €9.500.000) has been agreed. Ministry of Finance (CFCU) signed the contract with company KPMG d.o.o. of the total value of € 1.370.200. Project implementation, which is planned to last 27 months, started on 19 June 2017. Contracts are signed with the bidders meeting all the requirements of the tender procedure. Ministry of Finance (CFCU) signed 11 contracts on locations in 13 municipalities, of the total value of €7.550.000, on 6 June 2017.

125.Also, a dialogue is realised between the City of Niš, the private investor and the citizens of the Roma population aimed at seeking permanent housing solutions for those living in the informal settlement Crvenazvezda in Niš.

126.Housing is also ensured for a significant number of the members of the Roma minority within the IDP population, both within the closure of official collective centres, and within the provision of housing solutions for the people living in informal centres and private houses. Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations, when planning and realising the budget and donation funds, takes care that these programmes cover local self-government units (LSGU) on which territory a large number of internally displaced persons live. At a public call from April 2017, funds were allocated to LSGUs to improve the living conditions of internally displaced persons, as follows: 24 JSGUsfor minimum 120 packages of construction material, 24 LSGUsfor purchasing 73 village houses and 26 LSGUs for 225 packages of economic empowerment.

Employment

127.As for the employment, for the implementation of the measures of active employment policy in 2017, from the funds collected based on the contributions in case of unemployment, 2.8 billion dinars have been allocated, and from the Budget Fund for professional rehabilitation and incentives for employment of persons with disabilities 550 million dinars have been allocated. In 2017, 125 requests for co‑financing programmes and measures of active employment policy were submitted. With the decision on the participation in the financing of programmes and measures of active employment policy, defined by local action plans for employment in 2017, 118 requests of local self-government units were approved, and 115 signed the Agreements on regulation of mutual rights and liabilities during the implementation of the programmes and measures of active employment policy with the NES.

128.In the period from 1 January to 31 October 2017, in the record of the NES, 3.644 cases of employment of persons of Roma nationality were registered, of whom 37% were women.

129.In the period 1 January–31 October 2017, 3.935 persons (1.638) of Roma nationality participated in the measures of active employment policy.

Number of persons of Roma nationality per measures and programmes of active employment policy
Employment Fairs	1 255 (women 521)
Job seeking club	22 (women 12)
Training for active job seeking for qualified persons	205 (women 81)
Motivation-activation training for persons with no qualifications and persons with low qualifications	1 255 (women 521)
Motivation-activation training for persons with no qualifications and persons with low qualifications	1 220 (women 568)
Self-efficiency training	29 (women 7)
Educational services in the Business Centre	181 (women 68)
Professional practice	3 (women 2)
Acquisition of proactive skills and knowledge for redundant employees and long-term unemployed persons	4 (women 2)
Acquisition of practical knowledge for non-qualified persons	4 (women 2)
Labour market training	5 (women 4)
Subsidies for employment of unemployed persons from the category of persons who are unlikely employable	193 (women 105)
Public works	666 (women 219)
Subsidies for self-employment	137 (women 46)
Subsidies for persons with disabilities without experience	4 (women 1)

Healthcare

130.To improve the healthcare, in August 2017, a competition was made for amending programmes of 14 mediators and employment of 10 new health mediators. The data collection on the Health status of the Roma is reconstructed and improved.

Social protection

131.In the field of social protection there are 115 established internal teams for organising social and family-legal protection of children living and/or working on streets in the same number of centres for social work.

132.In March 2017, contracts on special-purpose transfers were concluded with 125 local self-governments on the fund transfer from the government level for financing social protection services from the scope of local self-government units (RSD 701.213.000).

133.In the system of social protection two new services have been developed for families with children in the risk from relocation: family associate, as a social-educational services of a regional type (it will be introduced through the new Law on Social Protection), and occasional fostering which has already been introduced into the system though the existing solutions in the Family Law and the Law on Social Protection.

134.In order to improve the legal regulations in the field of recognising and reacting to discrimination in the institutions of education and upbringing, in October 2017, the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System was amended by the provisions which closely define the ban of discrimination, ban of behaviour which harms the reputation, honour and dignity, and the liabilities of the bodies and individuals in reacting to discriminatory behaviour.

135.MoESTD passed the new Rulebook on the actions of institutions in case of suspicion of or identified discriminatory behaviour which entered into force on 1 September 2018. The Commissioner for Equality Protection, in cooperation with the MoESTD, in the phase of creation of rulebooks for school employees, parents and children, will speak about the identification of discrimination but also about protection mechanisms.

136.The Rulebook defined that the Team for combating discrimination, violence, abuse and neglect, in every school will keep and store a special documentation on cases and emerging forms of discrimination, number of reports and complaints, number of conducted informal and formal procedures, their outcome, etc.

Characteristics of registered unemployment of women NES
In the record of the National Employment Service the registered number of	December 2017	June 2018
Women	342 977 / 52.5%	306 234 / 52.9%
Women with work experience	206 303 / 63.5%	194 416 / 63.5%
The most numerous category of the unemployed	from 40 to 44 years	from 50 to 54 years
Average age	40	40y 11m
University degree	36 321 / 11.2%	11%
Average waiting time	5 years	5y and 2m
Women with disabilities	6 037 / 39.2%	5 291 / 39.4%
Roma women	12 411 / 39.2%	12 518 / 47.5%

Employment of women/Source NES
Registered total number of employment cases	January–December 2017	January–June 2018
Total	268 497	135 536
Women	138 152 (51.5% of which 27.973 with university degree — VII and VIII level of education)	70 820 (52.3% out of which 13.515 with university degree — VII and VII level of education)
Women with disabilities	2 570 / 39.7%	1 650 / 42.6%
Roma women	1 562 / 37.6%	960 / 36.7%
Employed with the mediation of the NES	36 782 / 52.1%	19 387 / 53.4%
Girls entering marriage before turning 18
Period	General population	Roma population
2005	7.9%	45.9%
2010	7.7%	53.7%
2014	6.8%	57%

Marital and Family Relations

137.The Council for Children’s Rights reviewed in March 2018 the data from the MICS survey on the factors influencing children marriages. A great variety of factors was identified which impact early marriage — somewhere social norms prevail, and somewhere the economic situation, etc.

138.Within the project “Improving the system of social protection for empowering the family”, realised by the National Institute for Social Protection with the support of UNICEF, the activities are realised for curbing the practice of children marriages. The realisation of the project started in 2018.

139.Ministry responsible for education, in cooperation with the organisation Save the Children started a project on curbing and preventing early dropout from schools for Roma children, with a special focus on the Roma girls and prevention of early and forced marriages. Within the project “Legal Aid to Persons in Risk of Apatridia” funded by UNHCR in May 2018, the civil society organisation “Praxis” held four workshops with more than eighty girls of the seventh and eighth grade on prevention and elimination of children, early and forced marriages and early dropout of Roma pupils from the education system (Kostolac, Belgrade and Novi Pazar). This is a follow-up of the last year’s activities, and by the end of the year eight additional workshops will be organised with children of the fifth and sixth grade on the topic We asked the children: Why some children leave school, what are marital duties and why should we say “STOP to child marriages”.

140.In the past decade, there has been a downward trend of children marriages in the general population, but in Roma settlements there has been an upward trend:

Girls entering marriage before turning 18
Period	General population	Roma population
2005	7.9%	45.9%
2010	7.7%	53.7%
2014	6.8%	57%

141.The UNICEF initiative of 28 June 2018 was supported to establish the National coalitions for prevention and elimination of early marriages in order to stop the practice of child marriages in Serbia, in line with the objectives of sustainable development 2030 (Coordination Body for Gender Equality; National Institute for Social Protection; Protector of Citizens; Commissioner for Equality Protection; Roma Women Centre BIBIJA; Roma Association of Novi Bečej; UNFPA and UNICEF).

142.The forthcoming amendments to the Family Law will not cover the same-sex partnerships. This issue will be regulated by the Civil Code, which comprehensively regulates the civil-legal relations, including the family-legal relations.