Saturday morning at the UNDP office in Zagreb - a conversation about violence against women in Croatia, a solid legislative framework and completely deficient implementation, the fact that the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence covers only part of the huge problem of gender-based violence against women and that there is almost no gender dimension in the implementation of this law - the law primarily protects the family and children, and court processes are focused on the perpetrator, ignoring the victim. Although the Croatian Government has committed to signing the Istanbul Convention, it has not done so to date and it is not known when it will. The Government promised to amend the Law to bring it into line with the Istanbul Convention, but it seems that it has given up on that too.
Women victims of violence in Croatia are generally subjected to secondary victimization at the moment they seek help from institutions that are obliged to help them (police, social welfare centers, courts), with honorable exceptions - victims are not believed, are asked to prove their claims, are confronted with the abuser, are advised that they do not need the help of a lawyer...
Progress has been made in the police thanks to education, but it is insufficient and should be continuous. The biggest problem is the social welfare centers and judges who, with honorable exceptions, lack basic education on women's human rights and gender-based violence. A special problem is women victims of war, women raped in war, then victims of violence from particularly vulnerable groups of women with disabilities, and among them exceptionally women with mental health problems.
No one in Croatia is involved in preventing violence against women except women's civil society organizations, and even they are having a hard time, since preventing violence against women is not among the priorities of donors.
These theses, supported by arguments and concrete examples, were presented To the Special Rapporteur of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, who came to Croatia to prepare a report on violence against women. The focus of her work is to discover how the state understands its responsibility for crimes against women, how it interprets them. Government representatives always ask for evidence of the claims in her questions, and the Special Rapporteur collects evidence through interviews with representatives of women's civil society organizations.
Based on information from various sources, Ms. Manjoo will prepare a report for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the General Assembly, the CEDPW Committee, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe by June next year. The information may be supplemented by written reports to the Special Rapporteur.
Important: Individual victims of violence, or associations on their behalf, who have specific problems with the authorities of their country in exercising their right to protection from violence may file complaints with the Special Rapporteur, in which case the Special Rapporteur will remind the government of its international rights and obligations in protecting women victims of violence. In this regard, a state that does not respect women's human right to a life free from violence does not have to be a signatory to any international treaty, and the person making the complaint does not have to exhaust national legal mechanisms first..
