5th Meeting of Regional Awareness Raising Task Force: Breaking the Cycle of Violence

The Regional Awareness-raising Task Force (RAR TF) facilitated by SEESAC with support from the EU and the Regional Cooperation Council, met for the fifth time on 3-4 April 2024 in Skopje to learn more about the experiences of Western Balkan jurisdictions in conducting SALW related awareness raising activities, foster regional cooperation and strengthen institutional capacities in awareness raising efforts. Focus was placed on incidents of gender-based violence with firearm misuse, specifically in the domestic violence context, as well as on the role and responsibilities of the media and MoI officials in informing the public about this phenomenon.

On the first day of the RAR Task Force meeting delegations, along with the representatives of UNDP and OSCE missions, discussed recent awareness-raising activities, new projects, and best practices, reinforcing the collective effort to promote substantive awareness-raising in the region. “When analyzing awareness-raising activities it is crucial to ask – Was the message understood? Was it delivered at the right time? Did it have a positive influence on the target audience?“ stated Mr. Alain Lapon, SEESAC Chief Technical Adviser.

The need for continuous awareness-raising efforts to create greater sensitivity, increased capacities of the police, prosecutors, and judiciary, continued work with the media, as well as the importance of international institutions and the non-governmental sector in awareness-raising efforts, were highlighted during the discussions.

The meeting continued with a presentation of the final draft of the Guidelines for the Officials of the MOI and Police Services for Communication with the Media in Cases of Misuse of Firearms in Gendered-Based Violence developed by SEESAC, as well as the review of and conclusions from a series of SEESAC-organized trainings conducted with both the representatives of the media and the MOIs/Police Services over the past 6 months on the topic of ethical reporting.

Ana Manojlović, a guest trainer and a member of the Journalists Against Violence Against Women Network, spoke about the cycle of violence and the ethics of informing the public about gender-based violence sharing her valuable experience and insights from talking to both victims and perpetrators.

“It is necessary for trained representatives of the MoIs to continuously communicate with the media and send the right messages.” said Ms. Manojolović. “Only together can we break the cycle of violence, but we need to raise awareness in our societies on how to do it.“

Led by Iva Savic of SEESAC, and Marina Iles and Aleksandra Ivanovic of UNDP, participants discussed how domestic violence survivors perceive the coverage of this phenomenon, including appropriate messages and visual communication, and several considerations that should be considered when preparing and implementing awareness-raising campaigns. Expert trainers provided valuable information on how to conceptualize and design a campaign by pinpointing a problem to be tackled, considering a wide range of target groups, and creatively using channels of communication, all to empower and encourage the survivors, alert the public, and discourage perpetrators.

SEESAC SALW project specialist, Ms. Jelena Bujaković concluded the meeting by highlighting the overarching goal of sustainability, dialogue, and cooperation in creating a Safer Region. "The result of these activities is coordinated approach of all the partners and beneficiaries, continuous knowledge sharing and increased independence of authorities in undertaking actions in the area of awareness raising." Ms. Bujaković said.

The RAR Task Force aims to contribute to the diversification of how awareness-raising is used and to the strengthening of institutional capacities to implement effective awareness-raising efforts in all its aspects, including design, management, monitoring, and evaluation - in each of the six participating jurisdictions. The RAR Task Force aims to achieve this through networking, exchange of information, sharing of best practices and lessons learned, and coordination of and collaboration on awareness-raising activities.

The meeting was organized as a part of SEESAC’s wider work on strengthening the response to factors fueling the demand for and misuse of firearms in the Western Balkans as part of the Support for Enhancing the Fight Against the Illegal Possession, Misuse, and Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the Western Balkans project, funded by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) (2021/425-067).