The deaths of a mother and her six-year-old daughter in Taftalidze provoked a broad social response and left a bitter question unanswered: why did the protection system fail to act in time?

The Gender Equality Platform stressed that Macedonia's protection system has existed since 2004, but to this day does not function in a way that protects victims. The organisation noted that examples of timely and professional conduct do exist, but they are the exception, not the rule.

The Platform calls for urgent government action: allocation of budget funds for the civil sector, strengthened prevention campaigns, mandatory training for professionals working with victims, and financial support for survivors.

Psychologist and Gestalt psychotherapist Tijana Ivanovska, who worked for two years in an anonymous shelter for victims, criticised institutional failures: "I was witness to numerous cases of institutional deafness, incompetence and nepotism in the social protection system."

She particularly highlighted the slowness of institutional response and the practice of transporting victims in marked official vehicles, which reveals their identity to perpetrators – something that directly puts them at greater risk.

The National Network against Violence towards Women also demands an urgent investigation and accountability for all institutional failures that contributed to the tragedy. "The system must function proactively, not reactively," the organisations stress with a unified voice.