How dedicated volunteers are helping women seek protection from abusive partners.
Selma didn’t even know that there were organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina to help women who suffered from violence. So when a police officer told her she had the legal right to choose someone to guide her through the process of divorcing her husband, she was surprised.
“I remember the first time we met. I was afraid, lost, I was physically and emotionally drained. I remember I cried during the conversation,” Selma says, recalling the day she first met Aisa Zaimovic.
‘Just Knowing Someone’s There for You’
Aisa is one of more than one hundred women members of the 4P Network – specially trained helpers who provide support to women in accessing services and justice throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initiated in 2022 by the Center for Women’s Rights Zenica, 4P helpers are available in 35 communities across the country. Their goal is to assist women facing violence to navigate the bureaucratic and legal process of seeking protection.
The rising number of reported cases of violence against women over the past several years highlights the need for this kind of assistance. Twelve women died in gender-targeted acts of violence in 2024, according to the feminist Cure Foundation. Data from the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina indicates a rise in reported cases – from 2,096 in 2022 to 2,867 the following year – after Nizama Hecimovic was killed by her former partner during a live Instagram broadcast in August 2023.
Selma (not her real name) was one of the victims. At first her husband hit her. At that point they were in a 15-year troubled marriage, and she decided to do nothing. But then he threatened to kill her and their children, and Selma went to the police to file a complaint. A restraining order was issued against her husband, and she eventually divorced him.
But dealing with the legal system of a country that’s divided into two entities, 10 cantons, and one district is a very complex matter and going through all of that alone takes a toll.
“Aisa made me feel better. Everything was much easier with her words of support and with the very thought that you are not alone, that there’s someone by your side who wants and knows how to help,” Selma says.
“I called her for everything I needed. Whenever I needed to go somewhere, from social services, court, police, prosecutor, she was always there with me,” Selma says. “I can’t even describe how much that meant to me.”
‘Honor and Duty’
Walking into the tax office in a small Bosnian city, you would probably never guess that the woman assisting clients with their tax questions leads a double life: civil servant by day, women’s rights defender by night. This is Aisa Zaimovic, who says that helping women is a “great honor and a duty.”
“To help a woman regain her sense of worth and get back on her feet is an irreplaceable experience. It reminds me every time how important are human patience and the availability of support,” she says.
First and foremost, her role is to listen, to trust, and not to judge, says Aisa, who joined 4P three years ago.
“I offer them emotional support and help them to get oriented in institutional procedures, to get familiar with their rights, with options to report [abuse], and how to get protection.”
If a woman wishes, Aisa accompanies her to the police or to social service agencies.
“For some women, the process of empowerment lasts for months, while others decide to file a complaint after the first conversation. The most important thing is that they have the right to make a decision at their own pace.”
When police receive a formal complaint of domestic violence, they are obligated to visit the scene, and if there is evidence of a crime they have 12 hours to request a court order for preliminary measures against the suspected abuser.
For many women who turn to 4P, Aisa adds, “this is the first time someone actually listens to them without pressure, without imposing a solution, without making judgments.”
First Responders
The initial idea behind the 4P Network was simple: to train women in smaller communities where access to information about protection for women exposed to violence is often scarce, says Meliha Sendic, president of the Zenica women’s rights organization and co-founder of 4P.
The aim of starting the network, which Sendic says was the first of its kind in the country, came in 2021 after she and colleagues in Zenica and other women’s advocates successfully lobbied to embed the position of “trusted persons” (osobe od povjerenja) in Bosnia’s domestic violence law.
“And then I thought, what will happen with that if we don’t have the resources? So we created helpers, or people of trust, as a resource,” she says.
These more than 100 women, all volunteers, are like first responders for women dealing with violence. They come from all walks of life, from many professions and educational backgrounds. Some volunteer to give back to society, others are survivors themselves, determined to stop the cycle for someone else.
Women interested in joining the network are most often recommended by other volunteers, Sendic says, although anyone can apply by submitting a CV and motivational letter. Once accepted, they undergo a rigorous, three-day training program led by experts from the Zenica center, including Sendic, who says, “Everyone comes in with their own prejudices and stereotypes, and we have to somehow sort that out at the start. That is addressed in the first module.”
Training sessions are held in cities around Bosnia. After the first module, the attendees are introduced to various communication methods, discuss the many faces of power and control, and learn about trauma triggers. They also practice at simulated court hearings and get familiar with the support options available to threatened women, from free legal aid and psychological counseling to more drastic measures such as placement in an asylum home.
In the final module the trainees learn their legal rights and limits as recognized persons of trust, as all 4P volunteers are. They can accompany women to court, typically in divorce proceedings, and assist them through the various procedures needed to seek protection from abusive partners. They can give advice and help clients get medical treatment or social services if required.
4P cannot reach every woman who could benefit from its help, however.
Many women starting the process of escape from a violent relationship don’t know what to say to the authorities, Sendic says, describing what happens when women try to do this alone and without information. “They are late with reporting, they don’t go to a doctor, they don’t have a medical certificate.”
Such women can get trapped in a vicious circle of inter-connected problems. That is where 4P can help.
“The helper can untangle all of that, and tell a woman what she needs to do next.”
Doing the State’s Job
All the 4P Network’s many activities run on a volunteer basis. One of the country’s key challenges, says Sendic, is that Bosnia’s non-governmental organizations must fill the roles of state institutions.
Women’s helplines run by NGOs operate in each of Bosnia’s two autonomous entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, there are eight shelters for women also run by NGOs with funding from the authorities.
NGOs with special expertise in countering violence against women are best-placed to carry out these services, according to Gorica Ivic, head of United Women Banja Luka in the capital of the Republika Srpska entity.
They need funding from the state, but it’s crucial to safeguard these groups’ autonomy, Ivic maintains.
“If the state takes them over, there is a risk that they will turn into general services and centers for reconciling married partners. Violence against women has deep roots in society’s attitude toward them and in the perception of the roles of men and women in society,” she says.
But the biggest problem with the official protection system is its reluctance to address this issue, Ivic says, adding that “its response cannot be ambiguous.”
“Because when a woman, after much pain and trauma, reports violence and receives a trivial response that essentially says it’s nothing, she is left feeling lost. Meanwhile, the perpetrator gets confirmation that he was right, that it’s just a family or relationship matter, and that he can freely continue what he was doing.”
Sendic believes that the volunteer helper model should be made sustainable and independent of any one project or organization.
“A helper is a sustainable system. Wherever you go, wherever you live, or whichever institution you belong to, you are always a helper. You carry that with you – nobody can take that away from you,” she says.
Law Enforcement Gets Serious About Domestic Violence
But what’s happening more and more is that state and local institutions are getting involved and informing women about volunteer aid programs. That’s how Selma got to know Aisa.
This can be seen in the Central Bosnia Canton in the Federation entity, Sendic says, where municipal and cantonal courts, joined by social service centers, are becoming more active in cases of violence against women.
Courts in the canton now have lists of helpers, Sendic says. The municipal court in Bugojno is one: its website has information about three women’s helpers in the area. Judge Sonsirej Radivojevic has gone a step further, creating a form for victims of violence.
“When I send either an indictment with a penal order or a summons for a hearing to interview the victim, I always provide written instructions as well. Sometimes we deliver the form, sometimes we provide it during the interview,” the judge says.
Whether or not women then contact helpers, she doesn’t know. “But I know they got it and that they know their rights and that they can use it.”
Having a legally recognized trusted person next to you in court is a great help to women, Radivojevic says. Even though persons of trust are not permitted to speak on behalf of a woman in court proceedings, they make sure victims of violence know their rights, and this helps them feel safer, she adds.
The judge also mentions cases when the outcome of the trial could have been totally different if a person of trust was involved. Once, the victim of violence asked for the defendant’s release from custody in her closing statement.
“I seriously doubt that would have happened if she had had a person of trust by her side,” she says. The person was released from custody, and the violence continued.
Silence is not Golden
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a signatory to all major international agreements relating to violence against women, including the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention, which aims for zero tolerance of violence.
The country also has criminal laws on the books to punish perpetrators and legal protections for victims of domestic violence. A bill passed by one chamber of the Federation entity’s parliament in March introduces tougher sentences for perpetrators and ensures access to a free hotline.
Discrimination of all kinds is also against the law. However, despite the Istanbul Convention entering into force back in 2014, it has not been implemented in Republika Srpska, where a third of the country’s population lives. This is partly owing to erratic inclusion of women’s groups in the public consultation phase, as well as opposition from conservatives, according to a recent report by the Center For Women’s Rights Zenica and United Women Banja Luka.
Accurate statistics are lacking, but women’s advocates are certain that femicide and other kinds of violence perpetrated on women are rife in the Western Balkans. According to research published by the Cure Foundation in 2023, in the preceding 10 years at least 70 women were murdered in Bosnia. A 2019 OSCE report stated that 640,000 women in a total population of about 3.5 million had experienced sexual violence or other forms of sexual abuse at one point since the age of 15.
The situation is no better elsewhere in the Western Balkans. In the past decade and a half at least 406 women have been slain in Serbia, most by their husband or partner, according to Femicide Memorial.
Education is necessary to break the stereotypes that fuel the violence, Zaimovic believes: “People need to know how to recognize violence; they need to understand the dynamic of power and stop blaming the victim.”
The old Balkan saying “silence is golden” does not always apply, Zaimovic adds. Women should know they are not alone. “It is not your fault and it is not shameful to ask for help. You deserve a life without fear and pain.”
Una Cilic, a journalist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, works for RFE/RL’s Balkan Service in Prague and leads the section reporting on gender-based violence.
