According to UN, women and girls make up nearly half of the 258 million people worldwide who have crossed international borders to escape danger or pursue opportunity just in 2017. These global migrations are part of Serbian reality as well - from 2015 over a million of people from various Asian and African countries passed through its territory.

We would like to dedicate this International Day of Girl Child to all brave girls on the route to better and dignified life. They face dangers and obstacles no person should ever know, and even more just because they are girls, especially gender-based violence.

Istanbul Convention on violence against women is one of the most important instruments that provides in-depth understanding of the problem of gender-based violence and how to fight it. It recognizes that violence against women and girls is a serious violation of human rights and a major obstacle to achievement of social equality between women and men. The Republic of Serbia has ratified this crucial document in 2013.

As part of the monitoring of the implementation of Istanbul Convention, NGO Atina has prepared the independent individual report regarding violence against refugee and migrant women and girls and submitted it to GREVIO expert group.

The findings of the report point out that state authorities clearly must change political approach from humanitarian to integrative, thus fully applying regulations and mechanisms aimed at suppressing gender-based violence against refugees and migrants and protecting the victims.

Besides individual report on this particular issue, NGO Atina has participated in joint process of monitoring led by SOS Hotline Vojvodina.

This report is based on the NGO Atina's experience in the field and on the research conducted in the past several years.

Today we salute girls of the world and their strength and power to cope in our societies that still have to learn how to recognize their value, hoping that everything we do will lead to their better lives and futures.

Here you can find more information on Atina's work during refugee crisis.
Here are current activities related to improving position of refugee women and girls.