On 16 February, the final Steering Committee meeting of the project “Reinforcing the Fight against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Kosovo*- Phase III” took place in Pristina.
Frank Power, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Pristina, opened the meeting and thanked all participants for the excellent cooperation of the past 20 months, and thanked the Ministry of Justice in particular for their dedication to combat VAW and DV. Caterina Bolognese, Head of Gender Equality Division of the Council of Europe, reminded participants of the strategic objectives of the Council of Europe and the importance given to issues of gender equality, violence against women and domestic violence. Nazlie Bala, Political Advisor to the Minister of Justice was thankful to the Council of Europe for their ongoing support in implementing the IC in Kosovo*.
Segolene Chesneau, Project Manager and Nitë Bylykbashi Deliu, Senior Project Officer presented the project results and main achievements. All participants highlighted the following as the most important achievements of this project:
- the report "Assessment of the alignment of Kosovo*'s laws, policies and other measures with the standards of the Istanbul Convention" following the GREVIO methodology
- the Curriculum for the Training of Professionals Working on Programmes for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence, which was adopted by the Ministry of Justice
- Through the capacity building component of the project, the project trained 216 front line professionals (170 women and 46 men) in responding to cases of violence against women and domestic violence
* All reference to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.
