Guidance centers for victims of sexual violence have been open for eight years, but considering that these centers were supposed to provide more effective treatment for victims of sexual violence, the reality is disappointing. The Istanbul Convention, which North Macedonia ratified on 22 December 2017, requires the establishment of guidance centers, crisis centers, and long-term treatment centers for victims of rape and sexual violence. Despite the fact that nine years have passed since the ratification, apart from three guidance centers: in Skopje, Tetovo, and Kumanovo, no other centers exist in North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
Elena Dimushevska, executive director of the National Network Against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, says that the purpose of the guidance centers under the Convention is to provide urgent support to the sexually abused victim, which should include taking more action.<\/p>\n
\"The centers for guidance of the victims of sexual violence and rape according to the Istanbul Convention must provide urgent support at the first moment when sexual violence or rape is experienced.<\/strong> So, first of all, evidence should be provided since any medical intervention that will be undertaken on the victim will absolutely erase all evidence. The medications, disinfectants that are used, all of these contaminate the evidence. Absolutely, the victim may be in a serious medical condition, this is a situation that must be assessed in the individual situation, but if there is a possibility to obtain evidence before medical intervention is carried out, then it should be given priority. The role of the guidance centers is to obtain this evidence, provide medical support to the victim and then psychological support, and after providing urgent support, start talking about the possibility of reporting.\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n However, the full realization of the purpose of the guidance centers is made difficult by the legal conflict that exists between the domestic legislation and the Istanbul Convention regarding reporting, since both the Istanbul Convention and many laws of European countries stipulate that reporting of sexual violence or rape should be done according to the will of the victim and therefore the focus is placed on collecting evidence. Therefore, reporting the crime should be done at the moment when the victim feels ready, which means that the crime may never be reported.<\/em><\/strong>On the other hand, positive laws in the Republic of Macedonia stipulate mandatory reporting of these crimes regardless of the will and desire of the victim.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Dimushevska says that the will of the victim must be taken into account, therefore, as the Convention provides, the collection of evidence is key to solving the criminal offense and urgent psychological support is of particular importance for victims.<\/p>\n \"The victim may not want to report because she may be scared and traumatized, but this does not mean that tomorrow, in a few days or in a month she will not want to report the violence. Therefore, collecting evidence and preserving it is important in criminal proceedings. But just as important as collecting evidence is the urgent intervention of a psychologist and psychotherapist. Rape, but also other forms of sexual crimes, are serious crimes and leave serious consequences, especially rape, which in most cases in our country is committed by known persons, whether by an intimate partner, relative or family member. Therefore, it is important to collect evidence and provide psychological support.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Reality shows that in our guidance centers for victims of sexual violence, evidence collection is among the last actions carried out after priority is given to reporting.<\/p>\n \"Our guidance centers accept the victim, provide medical treatment if it is urgent and then the social worker, who is also the center coordinator, talks to the victim. The coordinator is obliged to report the case immediately.<\/strong> Before sending a blood crimes inspector, the police send police officers who will assess whether it is a rape and if so, then they call the sexual crimes inspector. In this case, the inspectors will conduct an interview for the third time in a period of several hours.<\/em> The inspector then contacts the public prosecutor and after having taken the necessary actions, the inspector then contacts the Forensic Medicine to collect evidence.\" <\/em><\/p>\n Although the above-explained procedure seems quick, it actually takes many hours to complete,<\/strong> <\/em>and in the meantime the victim may need to consume water, eat, and perform physiological needs, all of which cause evidence found on the victim's body to disappear or become contaminated, which makes the criminal procedure extremely difficult.<\/p>\n The presence of guidance centers for victims of sexual violence is almost unknown to citizens but also to state institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecution. Victims present themselves at the police station, but police officers never send victims to these centers, which are supposed to provide adequate treatment for victims of sexual crimes.<\/p>\n \"These centers were opened in 2018 and even police officers often do not have information about the existence of these centers, which is why this procedure is often carried out at police stations. The police almost never send the victim to the guidance centers, only if the victim goes to these centers themselves. When the victim goes to the police, the guidance centers are not involved in the procedure at all. Based on the report published by us in 2018, if we look at the reports of sexual violence and rape in Tetovo, less than half of the victims have been to the guidance centers and in most cases they are minors.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another problem faced by the centers for guidance of victims of sexual violence is their systematization and organization. The centers are located near health institutions in the respective cities, but apart from the coordinators who are not employed by the centers and who are not paid for the work they do at the center, no one else is employed there.<\/p>\n \"There are no coordinators employed at our guidance centers, one is a psychologist and the other two are social workers who are employed at the respective hospitals and play the role of coordinators of the centers, so they are at the guidance centers during working hours, while when victims come to these centers outside of working hours, they come when the victim presents themselves. There is no other team besides the coordinators. In cases where there is a psychologist during working hours, he\/she can be contacted. These coordinators are not paid for the work they do and in cases where they are called out after working hours, they are not compensated for this commitment and since there is no systematization and they are not organizational units, the centers just exist there.\" Dimushevska<\/em><\/p>\n From 2018 to 2024, only 29 victims of sexual violence were served in the guidance centers for victims of sexual violence. The following table shows the reality of two centers, in Tetovo and Kumanovo, in terms of the number of victims who sought help in these centers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \"Moll\u00ebkuqja\" reached out to the Ministry of Health to find out if they are planning changes to the way the centers operate. They say they are aware that there is a discrepancy between the laws and the Istanbul Convention.<\/p>\n \u201cThe centers were established based on the standards and recommendations of the Istanbul Convention. The state, within its capabilities, established them in 2018 and is the first country in the region to have such centers specifically for rape victims. However, improvements are needed to fully meet the standards, namely improving legal regulations regarding crime reporting, as well as evidence collection and examination of rape victims.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When asked if they allocate funds specifically for the operation of the centers, the Ministry responded that only in 2018 and 2019 were funds allocated for the management of the centers, while every year, from 2018 onwards, funds have been allocated for the service of certain categories.<\/p>\n \"For the management of the Centers in 2018 and 2019, a total of 300,000.00 denars have been planned, or 100,000.00 denars for each center for the coordinators of the centers appointed by the public health institutions themselves. For services, namely access to the Center (examinations and management of rape) for uninsured women or women victims who have been without health insurance for a certain part of their lives - through the Program for Active Health Protection of Mothers and Children, the IPH, the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the General Clinical Hospital and the Kumanovo Clinic, specifically allocated to:<\/em><\/p>\n 2018 \u2013 300.000,00 denars<\/em><\/p>\n 2019 - 300.000,00 denars<\/em><\/p>\n 2020 - no data<\/em><\/p>\n 2021 - 30.000,00 denars<\/em><\/p>\n 2022 \u2013 30.000,00 denars<\/em><\/p>\n 2023- 180.000,00 denars<\/em><\/p>\n 2024 \u2013 90.000,00 denars.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Dimushevska gives her recommendations on how our guidance centers should function in order to maximally fulfill their purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cPractice shows that there should be coordinators and they should be paid for this. The centers should operate 24\/7, there should be a person there all the time. The centers can enter into contracts with individual psychotherapists or with an organization, with a psychological counseling center so that they are available whenever victims present themselves at the guidance centers and pay them based on the services they provide. The existence of the centers is very important, we have a lot of rape: the fact that we have a small number of reports does not indicate that we do not have rapes or sexual crimes, but this means that victims do not report since there is fear, but also prejudice and stereotypes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sexual crimes, due to the way they are committed and because they violate the sexual freedom, physical and psychological integrity of the victim, fall into the category of serious crimes and for this reason, the existence of centers for the guidance of these victims is very important. These victims need special treatment, but also a specialized approach from all official persons, therefore state institutions must contribute to ensuring that these centers fulfill their purpose and help as many victims of sexual violence as possible. The guidance center in Skopje is located at the University Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics, in Kumanovo it is within the General Hospital, while the guidance center in Tetovo is located within the Tetovo Clinical Hospital.<\/p>\n Qendrat e udh\u00ebzimit p\u00ebr viktimat e dhun\u00ebs seksuale jan\u00eb hapur q\u00eb tet\u00eb vite, por duke menduar q\u00eb k\u00ebto qendra do t\u00eb sigurojn\u00eb trajtim m\u00eb efikas t\u00eb viktimave t\u00eb dhun\u00ebs seksuale, realiteti \u00ebsht\u00eb d\u00ebshp\u00ebrues. Konventa e Stambollit, t\u00eb cil\u00ebn RMV e ka ratifikuar m\u00eb 22 dhjetor 2017, parasheh themelimin e qendrave t\u00eb udh\u00ebzimit, qendrave t\u00eb krizave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[347],"tags":[386],"class_list":["post-11229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dhune","tag-dhune-seksuale"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n
\n Viti<\/td>\n 2018<\/td>\n 2019<\/td>\n 2020<\/td>\n 2021<\/td>\n 2022<\/td>\n 2023<\/td>\n 2024<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n TETOV\u00cb<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n KUMANOV\u00cb<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 0<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n This material is completely or partly financed by UK International Development and The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, that do not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed within. The author alone is responsible for the content.<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"