On Wednesday, November 22^nd, in Belgrade, the Public Policy Research Center organized a conference “Citizens on watch: Public participation and localization of the reformation of the security sector. The conference brought out the results of the research to which the Public Policy Research Center came by considering the possibilities of localization of campaigns for the legalization and handover of firearms in Serbia, the capacity of local communities to participate in legalization campaigns, and the possibilities of raising the culture of security in local communities.

One of the panelists was also the representative of the Women against Violence Network, Vedrana Lacmanović, who pointed to the dangers of using firearms in cases of violence against women. Significantly contributing to that is the high availability and prevalence of (il)legal weapons, their easy and quick acquisition, and its easy use. Serbia and the countries of the region are particularly affected by this issue because of the wars in the 1990s in this region. It was also pointed out that there should be campaigns promoting the safe keeping and handling of registered weapons, bearing in mind that the mere possession of weapons (both legal and illegal) poses a threat in cases of violence against women, as well as the fact that every third woman killed in a family-partner context in the last 7 years has been killed by firearms.