ZAGREB, 13 Feb 2022 - Croatian women's organisations on Sunday joined for the tenth time the "One Billion Rising" global campaign to end rape and sexual violence against women, as part of which, during an event staged in downtown Zagreb, they said that in Croatia, every 15 minutes a woman experiences some form of violence.

"This year the campaign is dedicated to the fight against violence that destroys women, but also our planet", said the regional campaign coordinator, Zagreb City Assembly member Rada Borić, who pointed to the need to raise awareness of the widespread violence against women.

"One billion women worldwide are abused at this moment, and Croatia is unfortunately no exception, but one billion trees have been felled, rivers and forests have been devastated," she said.

She warned that every 15 minutes, a woman experiences violence in Croatia and that rulings in such cases are quite inappropriate which in a way, encourages the perpetrators.

Three women killed since start of year

"The message is that there is no excuse for violence - even if that someone is a good neighbour or jealous or defender or county head..." Borić said, noting that Croatia has more killed women per million inhabitants than France.

Gender Equality Ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić, too, pointed to the discouraging national statistics.

"In the first 40 days of this year, three women have been killed, three women have been held captive and there have been several cases of attempted murder and threats with weapons, which shows that 2022 will be marked by femicide," Ljubičić said.

"In 2021, 30 people were murdered - 16 men and 14 women. In 90% of the cases men were killed by other men, while the 14 women were killed by 11 men close to them", Ljubičić added.

Sentences for perpetrators too lenient 

Ljubičić also warned that sentences for perpetrators were too lenient, noting that of 1,200 verdicts, less than 10% envisage imprisonment for gender-based violence, while in most cases, the punishment is conditional or a fine.

The Zagreb event's organisers called for working together on the prevention of violence and on raising awareness of the problem through systematic education and institutional cooperation.

This month events dedicated to raising awareness of the problem of violence against women are held also in other Croatian cities, and they will also be held on International Women's Day, 8 March, and Earth Day, 22 April.

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ZAGREB, 19 Sept, 2021 - The key to solving the problem of violence against women lies primarily in the continuous education of those applying laws and regulations, gender equality ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić has said on the occasion of the National Day of Combating Violence Against Women, observed on 22 September.

She welcomed the latest amendments to the criminal code and the law on protection against domestic violence, which eliminated some key shortcomings in the effective suppression of gender-based violence, but said the key was to keep educating those applying laws and regulations, rather than in frequently changing legislation.

Serious acts of gender-based violence are often tried as misdemeanours and serious cases of sexual, domestic and gender-based violence are recognised too late, when we witness femicide, Ljubičić said a statement.

Since 2015, when it was reinstated into the criminal code, domestic violence has been continuously and significantly increasing while misdemeanour complaints have been continuously decreasing since 2009, she said.

The number of misdemeanour domestic violence complaints dropped from over 18,000 in 2009 to a little over 9,000 in 2020, while the number of criminal complaints surged from 400 to over 4,000.

The conclusion is that, in the long term, our system of combating violence against women and domestic violence deters victims from reporting lighter forms of violence until the situation escalates and enters the sphere of criminal law, when violence can no longer be suffered or hidden as the outcome is often tragic, Ljubičić said.

Such a misdemeanour system is not preventative and does not provide an effective and prompt response to violence, she added.

There is a lack of effective and systematic prevention outside the legal system as well as of investment in resocialisation programmes for perpetrators, she said, adding that prevention boiled down to fining or giving them suspended sentences, instead of the harshest ones.

Ljubičić said such a system of combating gender-based and domestic violence showed its weaknesses especially in crises, such as the ongoing pandemic, adding that the number of crimes of domestic violence jumped 40% from 2019.

According to Interior Ministry figures for this year through 31 August, there were 5,522 registered perpetrators of misdemeanour domestic violence, with men making up 77%, as well s 6,333 victims, with women making up 63.8%. There were also 1,153 registered victims of domestic violence crimes, of whom 86% were women.

Ljubičić said the figures were potentially mildly up from 2020, but that the rise in rapes in the first seven months of 2021 was worrisome.

Everything points to the need to effect the necessary changes in the whole system, notably in the prevention and suppression of violence against women, she added.

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