Serbia
Gender equality and gender-based violence
Dejana Dexi Stošić (she/her) is an educator and activist based in Serbia. Her work is primarily about gender-based violence with accent on sexual violence. She is working with and for girls and the programme that she helped established, called “SOS Girls Corner”, won the 2020 With and For Girls award.
From 2018 to 2020, she was Serbian ambassador in the Women Against Violence of Europe network. In recent years she is known for her social media platforms that she uses to educate people and help raise voices of the ones in need. In 2021, she made a twitter hashtag #NisamPrijavila (#IdidntReport) where she explained why she didnt report sexual violence.
After her, in just three days more than 21,000 women used the same hashtag to tell their stories about violence they survived but never reported.
Currently, Dejana Dexi is working as an educator and peace activist, most of the times fighting against nationalistic rhetoric and glorification of war criminals. She believes in people, magic and love. Her hope is that one day each of us is going to be free, because no one is free until we all are.
“We are passing the skills to new generations, to younger girls who are going to continue the work.”
Discussion questions
Dejana states that “women and men are not equal.” What do you think she means by that? Does this apply to your context?
How can human rights education help people address gender-based violence?
Dejana states that “we have good laws but the practice is completely different”. What can be done to ensure that laws are put into practice?
What benefits do you see in having discussion spaces reserved for people experiencing similar human rights problems, like the “Girls Corner” in the video?
Copyrights © 2023 United Nations.
This multimedia educational tool is co-published by the United Nations (OHCHR), Amnesty International and Soka Gakkai International.