OSCE Campaign for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2019: End the Silence

Skopje, 25 November 2019 – Contributing to the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will launch a new campaign titled ‘End the Silence’. It aims to raise awareness about the issue of violence against women (VAW), focusing primarily on the rights of women.

The theme ‘End the Silence’ underlines one of the main obstacles to combating VAW: many women consider domestic violence a private matter and very few women who have experienced violence talk about it. Even fewer report it to the authorities.

The campaign also highlights two important ideas for combating violence against women: the victims are never to be blamed and law enforcement authorities are responsible for protecting them in accordance with the law.

On 25 November, the start of the 16 Days of Activism, we will launch a social media campaign that can be followed on the OSCE Mission to Skopje’s Twitter @OSCE_Skopje and Facebook @OSCE.Skopje accounts, as well as on the OSCE's Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/osceorg.

In December, we will deliver 300 posters to all police stations across the country to raise awareness of violence against women and the role of police in combating it.

The campaign is based on key findings of the 2018 OSCE-led Survey on the Well-being and Safety of Women, for which more than 15,000 women were interviewed. It covered seven OSCE participating States: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine. The research was also conducted in Kosovo. Over 1,900 women in North Macedonia took part in the survey.

According to the OSCE’s research, violence against women remains widespread worldwide, including in North Macedonia, affecting women of all ages, regardless of their income or background.

Based on the survey, almost half the women (45%) in the country have experienced psychological, physical, or sexual violence by an intimate partner. As the survey shows, three out of five (60%) women think violence against women is common and almost three out of ten think it is very common in North Macedonia.

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, Clemens Koja, believes that silence and stigma have allowed cases of violence against women and girls to remain under-reported and unaddressed.

“The time has come to stop this. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable, discriminatory and must be condemned, fought and prevented at all costs. Thus, I am calling on all men and boys to fully engage and take responsibility for achieving gender equality. We should all commit to take a stand for zero tolerance for gender-based violence,” said Koja.

According to the OSCE-led survey, very few women report violence to the police, or seek help from a victim support organization, indicating shame, financial dependency, mistrust of institutions and fear of reprisals, as well as traditional beliefs that domestic violence is a private matter, as reasons. Only 2% actually reported their most serious incident to the police.

For the OSCE, violence against women is not a private matter. Our campaign encourages women to report any cases of violence contacting 0800-100-600 and seek help at the SOS Center 011 / 2645-328 (operational during workdays from 10 am to 8 pm).