The Women against Violence Network, Autonomous Women's Center and Women in Black are calling citizens to join us on Thursday (May 21^st 2015), at 5:00 pm, at the last bus terminal near the Home of the Serbian Army building, at the Republic Square[1] in Belgrade. We will gather all dressed in black to silently remember women who were murdered by their male partners or family members and to request that those responsible in state institutions be punished – institutions that have not done enough to prevent murders of women.

The protest organizers state that: “We have been following cases of femicide for five years, we request that the state give this issue the attention it requires and that it respond systematically, we request that the state behave responsibly and we are waiting for the realization of all the promises it made. The only thing that's come of all of those promises so far are new murders of women in Serbia”.

Since the beginning of this year 20 women have been murdered by their partner or male family member! Just in the past two days 6 women have been murdered: yesterday, near Kanjiza, 4 women were murdered, and on the same day, near Velika Plana, a violent perpetrator murdered his ex wife, also this morning in Cacak a man murdered his wife.

If institutions had taken those reports of domestic violence seriously, if those violent perpetrators had been punished adequately, if their weapons had been taken away, if risk assessments for the women's lives had been conducted, if the violent perpetrators had been removed from their homes after the first incident, these murders would have been prevented. All of these steps did not take place because the state is not guaranteeing that the law will be upheld, because professionals from institutions still act in such a way that it reflects their own attitude and prejudice against women, and not in accordance to the law and professional obligation. The reason for this problem lies in deep hatred of patriarchal society has for women.