The case of Darko Kovačević from Daruvar, who brutally beat his ex-girlfriend, has once again highlighted all the shortcomings of the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as the hypocrisy of those who are outraged and who previously opposed the ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention due to gender-based fear.
Criminal Procedure Code/Law is not justice
According to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Criminal Code, this case is classified as a criminal offense of causing serious bodily harm and threats, which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. The maximum duration of pre-trial detention for the same is 6 months, which is considered sufficient to gather evidence and bring criminal charges. Other precautionary measures may also be adopted. However, decisions should be made urgently and both parties, the legal profession and the perpetrator's defense counsel, should be informed in a timely manner.
The case had to be classified as attempted murder, attempted femicide, and the abuser's defense attorney was notified in a timely mannerAlso, the sacrifice was not supposed to be to subject to additional testing in order to confirm the same criminal offense, but to provide her with psychosocial assistance and protection.
This is a classic example. gender-based violence. According to the UN definition, gender-based violence means that violence against women stems from the subordinate position of women in society. More precisely, violence against women is caused by deeply rooted patriarchal patterns of behavior, the attitude that women are worth less than men, that they are less capable, less rational, less intelligent.
This is an example of an additional traumatizing the girl, victims, survivors of that same violence, through unnecessarily long and uncertain court processes where, in the best case scenario, the harsher sentence imposed does not bring satisfaction because it, unfortunately, carries with it a stigma.
This is an example of how the legal framework, its application in practice, and the search for justice are sometimes not harmonized. This is an example of the defendant spending half a year in custody, just as the Criminal Procedure Code states. However, the court was unable to rule in this case because the judge who was originally assigned the case fell ill, and the judge who took over the case did not have time to finish it. And the defendant, who almost beat an 18-year-old girl to death six months ago, was released from custody. All according to the law.
This is also the reason why a very large percentage of women suffer violence from their ex or current husband, life partner, boyfriend. does not report violence. Distrust in the system, condemnation from the environment, existential dependence, fear of the perpetrator, stigmatization and victim blaming are the most common reasons why victims do not come out in public and do not report the violence they experienced to the institutions.
According to the 2017 Report of the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality, out of the total number of proposed protective measures, courts adopt only 17%. According to our internal statistics, only Every fifth case of gender-based violence ends with the perpetrator being punished.. According to the Ministry of the Interior, in the last five years in Croatia, 90 women were killed by their husbands, ex-husbands, partners, ex-partners or other close male persons. From January to August of this year, 5 women were killed by a close male person. Every 15 minutes, one woman in Croatia is abused, and every third woman experiences economic violence in a partner relationship. Only one in 15 to 20 women reports rape.
Support for the suppression and prevention of violence must not remain at a declarative level. High-quality cross-sectoral cooperation between all links in the system that participate in the suppression and prevention of violence is necessary.
If a girl who has survived violence, as well as her family, but also all other girls and families who suffer or have survived some form of gender-based violence, need legal or psychological assistance, we invite them to contact the BaBe Association at the email address babe@babe.hr and/or at the phone number 01/ 4663 – 666.
