ZAGREB, 30 April 2022 - Women under 50 are up to seven times more exposed to sexual harassment in the workplace than men, Gender Equality Ombudsman Višnja Ljubičić said in parliament earlier this week on the occasion of World Day for Safety and Health at Work, observed on 28 April.

Numerous surveys in Croatia confirm the occurrence of harassment, including sexual, in the workplace and that it is gender-based, she said.

They show that 7.9% of women under 50 experience sexual harassment in the workplace, especially those under 35, as against 1.1% of men.

Last year saw a significant increase in sexual harassment complaints thanks to initiatives such as #nisamtražila (I didn't ask for it).

However, only one in ten respondents reported it, citing fear of losing the job and not believing that the perpetrator will be punished.

Also, 36.6% of female respondents reported mobbing, as against 10% fewer men.

Ljubičić said that in professions like social welfare, health, education, administration and journalism, female employees were the victims of violent behaviour by service users.

Over 75% of men and women said the sexual harassment and unacceptable behaviour they experienced in the workplace affected their health, either physically or mentally.

Ljubičić said certain steps forward were made in 2021, including stricter penalties and prosecution ex officio for the criminal offence of sexual harassment.

On the other hand, she added, only several cases are prosecuted a year and there are even fewer convictions.

ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - In 2021, 14 women were killed, which is fewer victims than in 2020, however, 80% of them were killed by persons close to them, which is an increase and women continue to be the most frequent victims of domestic violence, Gender Equality Ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić said in her annual report.

"Femicide, sexual harassment, period poverty and political participation of women are topics that dominated the public sphere in 2021, however, the rights of gender minorities were insufficiently discussed", Ombudswoman Višnja Ljubičić says.

Still without response to violence among persons close to one another 

"Over the past seven years there has been an increase in cases of domestic violence reported as crimes and a drop in the number of such cases reported as misdemeanors, both before and during the coronavirus pandemic, with 2020 seeing a 27% rise in the number of cases of domestic violence reported as crimes", Ljubičić said.

"This was certainly also due to the pandemic, and such trends were recorded across the EU", she said.

2021 saw a slowing down in the growth of criminal acts, which is still not insignificant and stands at 12%. The number of femicide cases dropped as well, but the share of women killed by persons close to them rose.

State institutions still lack a response with which to address the causes of gender-based domestic and general violence, including violence against women, she warned.

The increase in the number of crimes and the decline in the number of femicide cases is definitely owing to increased efforts police have been investing in recent years in raising awareness and educating staff about the problem.

Stricter legislative and practical definition of domestic and gender-based violence has possibly helped reduce the number of murder cases but that will be possible to determine with certainty in the future, she said.

Civic initiatives encourage victims to testify 

Ljubičić warned that in 2021 there were 100 complaints of sexual harassment, a four-fold increase from the year before, which, she said, is owing to civic initiatives that provided the victims with a public platform to present their testimonies.

An increase in reports of sexual harassment was also recorded by the Ministry of the Interior, having registered 98 such reports, with 85 of the victims being women and 13 men, she said, noting that women were more frequently victims of gender-based violence, notably sexual.

Pay gap smaller, however, not owing to policies but pandemic 

According to statistics on gross pay by gender, in 2020 and 2021 the pay gap between men and women decreased.

Standing at 13% in 2019, the pay gap almost halved in 2020, to 6.9% and went up mildly to 7% in 2021.

An analysis leads to the conclusion that the reduction of the pay gap cannot be attributed to an affirmative and planned economic policy but rather to the consequences of the pandemic on the labour market, with an increase in the share of work from home and a decrease in the number of days spent on sick leave to care for a family member, Ljubičić said.

Still no election gender quotas

Last year was marked by local elections and even though the share of women in local and regional government bodies grew by 2.9%, there is still no true implementation of gender quotas, with the 27% share of women in those bodies being still far below the legally prescribed 40%, the ombudswoman warned, noting that last year's local elections were the second local elections at which fines were applied for proposers of slates not complying with the gender quota.

Ljubičić called on political parties to encourage equal participation of women in party structures and at all levels, and on prosecutorial authorities to consistently file misdemeanor charges against those not complying with the principle of equality. She urged local authorities to sign the European charter on gender equality at the local level and adopt an action plan.

Significant increase in hate crimes against LGBT community

In 2021 a significant increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity was registered, and for the first time in ten years the Pride parade in Zagreb was marked by a number of verbal and physical assaults on its participants.

Of a total of 101 crimes motivated by hate, 13 were motivated by the victim's sexual orientation and one by their gender identity, an increase of 75% from 2020 and of 133% from 2019.

The number of misdemeanors motivated by prejudice or hate based on sexual orientation was 315.

Asked if the significant increase could be also due to intolerant statements by politicians that could be heard often in the election campaign, Ljubičić said that inappropriate statements by politicians and other public figures can contribute to a rise in homophobia and intolerance.

Combined with the lack of systematic civic education at all levels of the education system, this can result in the demonstration of open aggression towards members of gender and sexual minorities, she said.

The ombudswoman also noted that one of the problems that was not being given adequate attention was the complex procedure of acquiring the right and access to medical services for gender minorities.

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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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ZAGREB, 10 March, 2021 - Following a recent ruling by the EU Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case Jurčić vs Croatia, Gender Equality Ombudsman Višnja Ljubičić on Wednesday warned about discriminatory practices targeting pregnant women and called for their fair treatment.

Ljubičić told a press conference that according to the ECHR ruling in the said case established that the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) violated the pregnant woman's rights.

The ECHR ruling, she underlined, was delivered after all judicial instances in Croatia had ruled that the HZZO had acted correctly.

Presenting a chronology of the case, Ljubičić noted that in 2009 Jurčić underwent an in vitro fertilisation procedure after that she concluded an employment contract. Ten days later she discovered that she was pregnant. HZZO was to have approved sick pay during the pregnancy and maternity allowance, but decided that the hiring contract was fraudulent and that it had been concluded only so the beneficiary could receive those allowances.

Ljubičić claimed that Jurčić was discriminated against because she lost the right to receive any of these allowances while at the same time she could not receive unemployment benefits because she was in fact employed.

"We informed HZZO that it cannot act in this way and adopt decisions of its own accord because a an employment contract had been concluded between an employer and employee," she said.

Ljubičić added that the Health Ministry was warned in 2013 that Jurčić planned to send her application to the Strasbourg-based court, while in the meantime the Constitutional Court assessed that HZZO had not discriminated against Jurčić.

Ljubičić underscored that by reporting on that ruling she wanted to motivate institutions to a just treatment of pregnant women because her office was receiving complaints from them of their rights being denied.

Prior to that working contract Jurčić had been employed for 14 years with another employer, Ljubičić explained.

The ECHR ruling, delivered on 4 February this year, says that Jurčić was discriminated against and that several legal acts had been violated.

"Turning to the applicant’s case, the Court notes the authorities’ conclusion that the applicant had been unfit to work on the date of concluding her employment contract because her doctor had recommended her rest following her in vitro fertilisation ten days before. In particular, the authorities relied on the fact that the applicant was expected to work at the employer’s headquarters over 350 km away from her place of residence and that travel in her condition might reduce her chances of a favourable outcome of the fertilisation (see paragraphs 16 and 19 above). In that connection, the Court considers that, as a matter of principle, even where the availability of an employee is a precondition for the proper performance of an employment contract, the protection afforded to a woman during pregnancy cannot be dependent on whether her presence at work during maternity is essential for the proper functioning of her employer or by the fact that she is temporarily prevented from performing the work for which she has been hired. Moreover, the Court is of the view that introducing maternity protection measures is essential in order to uphold the principle of equal treatment of men and women in employment," says the EU court.

The ECHR also "notes that, in deciding the applicant’s case, the domestic authorities limited themselves to concluding that, due to the in vitro fertilisation, she had been medically unfit to take up the employment in question thereby implying that she had to refrain from doing so until her pregnancy was confirmed. The Court observes that this conclusion was in direct contravention to both domestic and international law."

In the ruling Jurčić was awarded €7,500 in damages which the Republic of Croatia is obliged to pay.

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