A Digital Pioneer in the Fight against Domestic Violence

In the digital age, the fight against domestic violence has found new allies in technology. The United Nations in Serbia, recognising the potential of digital tools in addressing this global issue, has been collaborating with partners to leverage technology for educating and training practitioners involved in preventing and responding to domestic violence.

In Serbia, a country grappling with the complexities of domestic violence, a unique programme emerged as part of this broader UN effort. An online learning platform, specifically designed to provide comprehensive training on domestic violence protection and prevention, was created for the Judicial Academy. This initiative was spearheaded by a joint effort of UN agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) under wider programmes intended to create an integrated response to violence against women and girls, as well as reduce risk and increase safety in the context of small arms and light weapons misuse in domestic violence cases. The platform and its accompanying modules aimed to empower legal professionals with accessible and up-to-date knowledge and skills to effectively address domestic violence cases.

Championing digital transformation 

At the helm of this digital transformation was Biljana Stepanović, Head of the Division for the Documentation Centre at the Judicial Academy. Tasked with finding a suitable platform for hosting these online training courses, Biljana embarked on a journey that would not only revolutionise the way legal professionals learned but also set a new standard for combating domestic violence in the digital age.

“I believed that digitising a training programme like this one, which was traditionally classroom-based, would bring enormous benefits,” Biljana recalls. A mathematics graduate specialising in computer science with a master's degree in economics, she was eager to leverage her expertise to modernise and streamline the training process.

The task was to make training courses on recognising different forms of domestic violence, assessing the risk of violence escalation and recurrence, proving the crime of domestic violence, including cases of firearms misuse as a high-risk factor, as well as on commitments under the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), available on an online platform. Under the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence, case-handling prosecutors and judges are required to complete this training course at the Judicial Academy.

“I believed that digitising a training programme like this one, which was traditionally classroom-based, would bring enormous benefits. My goal was to devise a solution that people will be happy to use and that will benefit them in the long run. This gave me the idea to launch our own online self-study platform, which would become the cornerstone of our new information system”, notes Biljana.  

An advantage of such a system is that trainees can take the prepared courses on their own, at their convenience, download different learning materials, and further broaden and enhance their knowledge using linked contents from the Academy’s other databases. At the same time, the Academy gets a fully connected database system and the possibility of designing new, tailored courses and contents through analysing trainee behaviour data.

As the project leader, Biljana faced numerous challenges in the development of the new platform.  

“Beside the unknowns, there was the system-wide practice based on printed documents and in-person classroom instruction, as well as the possible ‘silent resistance’ to change. I was lucky to be supported both by the Judicial Academy management and by my own family, who understood why succeeding in this endeavour mattered to me”, says Biljana. 

Two years later, after putting tremendous effort into the new information system code, the Judicial Academy had its own, unique distance learning platform for the first time. Now judges, public prosecutors and deputy public prosecutors, judicial and prosecutorial assistants, Judicial Academy’s initial training attendees, as well as staff in the police, health care and centres for social work, can pursue professional development at their convenience and revisit specific modules if they need a refresher. In addition, digitisation has led to training cost savings, as in-person training is no longer necessary, which is especially important for professionals in smaller communities.  

The advantages of online learning are illustrated by the fact that, in only three months, more than 2700 users have registered on the platform, many of whom have accessed not only the training course on domestic violence protection and prevention, but also a wide range of other content posted on the platform. 

Read the full article here. To learn more about the work of the UN in Serbia visit serbia.un.org