Tamara Vucic in Skopje at a conference on bodily autonomy

Speaking last night at the panel titled "Call to Action", Mrs. Vucic said that in recent years, Serbia made significant progress and harmonized its legal framework with the international one when it comes to gender equality and bodily autonomy.

"In 2021, Serbia adopted a new law on gender equality, the National Strategy on Gender Equality, as well as the Strategy for Combating Gender-Based Violence", Tamara Vucic said.

She added that, other than the legal framework, developing self-confidence and taking responsibility for one's own body was important for the empowerment of women and girls.

"We, women, girls, mothers, wives, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, aunts have to be aware of our position in society and the great, I would say glorious role that we play", Tamara Vucic noted.

Speaking about responsibility towards one's own body, she referred to a recent survey conducted in Serbia which showed that one in five senior high school students in Serbia smokes, more than half drink alcohol, and one in five is open to sexual intercourse on a first date.

"Because of such figures, we need to react and look for practical solutions. It is practice that has shown that sports and culture are the strongest impulse for the benefit of the mental and physical health and development of young girls.

For that reason, I always and everywhere strongly advocate the importance of hobbies, not only for adolescents, but also for us adults", Mrs. Vucic said.

She referred to the "Women's Sports Institute" and "Women's Basketball Movement" projects as examples of good practice.

Furthermore, she emphasized how important it was that free immunization with a 9-valent HPV vaccine had started the previous year.

Regional conference "The Power of Choice" brought together, in addition to the spouse of the President of Serbia, the spouses of presidents of Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The spouses of presidents of Ukraine and Croatia addressed the event via video messages.

Before the conference in Skopje, the spouse of Stevo Pendarovski, Elizabeta Gjorgievska, who was the host of the event in Skopje, welcomed Mrs. Tamara Vucic at the presidential building of North Macedonia.

Participants at the event were also greeted by President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski.