ANNOUNCEMENT: Licensing of SOS telephone - mission impossible, and the license is a requirement for the Ministry’s open call

Latest news

Public statement: Allocation of financial resources for SOS helplines in Leskovac
Press Release: The Avon Foundation for Women is donating 1 million dollars to Women's support organizations around the world
Press Release
Working hours and contacts of Women Against Violence Network organizations during modified working conditions due to Corona virus
PRESS RELASE: The participants of the “Women friendship festival” in Tutin have been discriminated
Invitation to join the support and solidarity rally for Marija Lukić March the 6th in Kruševac
Invitation to join the support and solidarity rally for Marija Lukić February the 21st in Kruševac
Invitation to join the support and solidarity rally for Marija Lukić January the 29th in Kruševac
PRESS RELEASE: Human Rights Committee Vranje and the SOS Corner for Girls program won the 2019 World award
Announcement regarding November 25th, The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

: 23 November 2017

On 10.11.2017, The Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ and Social Affairs announced a public invitation for associations to provide SOS telephone services for women who have experienced violence (worth 30 million dinars). One of the requirements of this call is having a license to provide this service, although the licensing of this service is an impossible mission, and that at the date of publishing the call no organization in Serbia had a license, which the Ministry, as the licensing authority, would have to have known.

The question is why does nobody have a license to provide a SOS phone service out of 327 licenses for social services? The answer is because there is no licensing system for this service. Neither the Organization licensing regulation nor the Ordinance on the conditions and standards for the SOS phone for women who have experienced violence prescribe what is required to be submitted to the organization to enter the licensing process. If it does not exist, it is concluded that it has been left to organizations for a free assessment which conditions to fulfill and which documents to submit. It should also be noted that until recently the reply of the Republic Institute for Social Protection to the issue of licensing organizations was that the SOS telephone service for women cannot be licensed.

If an organization would get licensed, despite the lack of procedures, during the duration of the competition and in such a short time, this could be interpreted as a predetermined outcome of the competition.

We emphasize that this public invitation also violates the Law on Social Protection, because it prescribes that social protection services are provided through public procurement, not through a competition.

Because of this, the Autonomous Women's Center is wondering whether the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans' and Social Affairs, through the announced competition, really wants to finance the SOS phone service for women who have experienced violence, in accordance with the needs of women and the standards of the Council of Europe Convention against violence against women.

We remind the public that for 25 years this service has been provided by women's civil society organizations organized into the Women against Violence Network.