On June 20 and 21, 2024, a two-day thematic multidisciplinary discussion entitled "Family as a Workplace: Research and Public Policies" within the framework of the Thematic Systematic Support of the National Foundation for Civil Society Development in the field of 'Balancing private and professional life'The multidisciplinary discussion brought together prominent Croatian scientists from various scientific and higher education institutions with the aim of discussing methodological approaches and experiences in the field of balancing family and professional obligations of women and men, with the purpose of opening up space for understanding, creating and implementing public policies within the framework of balancing private and professional life.

The first day of the multidisciplinary discussion was given by: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Valerija Barada from the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar and Associate Professor Dr. Sc. Ksenija Klasnić from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Valerija Barada presented research conducted in 2022 as part of the BaBe association project "The Impact of Public Policies on the Quality of Family and Working Life and on the Demographic Picture of Croatia - Spaces of Change". The research included multi-stage and multi-component action research using a mixed method, and showed that household chores, especially routine ones, are still most often performed by women; that women also more often have to manage resources, time, emotions and relationships in the family; that women more often experience tensions between family and work roles than men; that children from less developed regions and children from unemployed or single-parent households have a lower chance of using public care and education services.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Ksenija Klasnić presented experiences from five projects she implemented in the period from 2017 to 2024, which included housework, work-life balance and mental work as research subjects. She presented different methodological approaches, which most often included mixed methodology, and highlighted individual findings such as the discrepancy in the amount of time and type of engagement that women and men devote to performing household and other family duties; the existence of gender inequalities in performing mental work between men and women in the private sphere, and the introduction of work flexibility for employees as a tool that would particularly contribute to a more successful reconciliation of the private and professional spheres.

After the presentation, a discussion was held about the possibilities of using digital tools to increase the quality of life of working mothers, about public services, about flexible forms of work and the procedures for constructing various tools for measuring family chores and mental work.

On the second day of the multidisciplinary discussion, a public panel was held, attended by scientists, graduate students, and representatives of the City of Zadar, Zadar County, the Croatian Employment Service, and the Croatian Institute of Public Health. In the introductory part of the panel discussion, Tamara Šterk from the BaBe association presented activities from the first year of implementation of the Thematic Systematic Support of the National Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Valerija Barada emphasized the intention that the research would serve to open a dialogue with key stakeholders, with the aim of designing and implementing public policies in the area of improving the reconciliation of private and professional life.

The panel discussion was attended by Dr. Mirjana Adamović, Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Dr. Blanka Čop, Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Law in Split, assoc. prof. Ph.D. sc. Anita Dremel, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek, Associate Professor Dr. Sc. Ksenija Klasnić, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Dr. Marija Šarić, Department of Sociology, University of Zadar and Assoc. Ph.D. sc. Željka Zdravković, Department of Sociology, University of Zadar.

The conclusions of the public panel can be summarized in a few key points, as follows:

- men who are involved in household/family work mostly perform duties related to the outdoor space (walking with children, repairing and taking care of the car, buying groceries, etc.), which can place women in an isolating position within the household with repetitive tasks

- mental work is invisible, permanent, diffuse, unpaid and mostly performed by women, as a result of which they show the negative consequences of too much mental work that can lead to mental strain

- social aspects of mental work include organizing family life, maintaining social relationships outside the household, and providing emotional support to household members

- cognitive-emotional household management consists of two dimensions: resource and time management and emotion and relationship management, and within both dimensions, reach and intensity can be measured.

- work obligations more often have an impact on family life for women than for men

- men perceive that they perform family/household chores equally to their partners, while women estimate that they mostly do the above

- Research shows that respondents are equally divided in their views on the division of household work, while practice indicates that behavior lags behind attitudes.

- public policies within the framework of balancing private and professional life should be gender, age and regionally adapted

In the closed part of the discussion that followed the public panel, the emotional and cognitive components of mental work and its social aspects, analytical dimensions in measuring mental work, and methods of researching mental work were discussed.

The two-day thematic multidisciplinary discussion is just one in a series of activities aimed at exchanging knowledge and experiences between different stakeholders with the aim of opening a dialogue and creating proposals for improving public policies for harmonizing the private and professional lives of women and men based on research data. We continue to work on raising awareness about the importance of equal sharing of family responsibilities between women and men and the importance of gender equality and enabling harmony between private and professional life.

On June 10, 2024, the second in a series of workshops for judicial officials as part of the SURF&SOUND 2.0 project was held at the Judicial Academy in Zagreb. The workshop was attended by 11 participants, employees of county and municipal courts and state attorneys' offices from the City of Zagreb, Zagreb, Krapina-Zagorje and Sisak-Moslavina Counties.

The workshop leaders were Krunoslav Stjepan Rajačić, Deputy County State Attorney at the County State Attorney's Office in Zagreb, Ivana Bilušić, Judge of the County Court in Velika Gorica, and Renato Grgurić, IT expert from the Ministry of the Interior.

The workshop provided an interdisciplinary overview of the phenomenon of online gender-based violence, as well as strategies for combating it, including providing support to victims with a gender-sensitive approach. Special emphasis was placed on the legal and IT aspects of the problem, with practical examples and knowledge of evidence collection and other specific skills related to the topic.

The project "SURF and SOUND 2.0" aims to enable systematic work on the protection of women victims of domestic and gender-based violence in the online environment, and is implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media and associated partners, the Judicial Academy and the Police Directorate. The project is funded by the European Union from the CERF - Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

What the newly adopted EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence prescribes and what we should transpose into Croatian legislation in the next three years was the topic of a multisectoral discussion organized by the BaBe association which is May 28th at the Human Rights House brought together representatives of the civil sector and national and EU institutions and organizations.

This is the second discussion on the prevention and suppression of online violence against women as part of the SURF AND SOUND 2.0 project, which is being implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media and associated partners the Judicial Academy and the Police Directorate. The discussion was attended by representatives of ministries, the Ombudsman's Office, the European Commission, the social welfare system, safe houses, as well as lawyers and experts working with victims and perpetrators of gender-based violence.

"Our intention is to stimulate discussion about the new Directive and potential steps we should take to bring it to life. In line with the project we are implementing with our partners, our emphasis here is on the issue of online violence against women, which this Directive clearly recognizes, especially in the areas of harassment, stalking, incitement to hatred and violence, and sharing of sexually explicit content via information and communication technologies," said Leonarda Novoselić, project manager of SURF AND SOUND 2.0.

The deadline for transposing the Directive into national legislation is June 2027, and according to the State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transition Vedrane Šimundže-Nikolić, we are in a good position in principle in terms of compliance with the Directive, but there will certainly be legislative amendments.

"Certain interventions in the Criminal Code will be necessary. Especially in the part that relates to the consequences of the misuse of sexually explicit content recordings, which will in the future be prosecuted ex officio, meaning that the victim will no longer have to wait for consent. In this way, the directive strengthens the rights and protection of victims. This act also introduces several new criminal offenses, some of which we can subsume under the criminal offenses we already have, and some we will still have to expand in certain modalities," explained the State Secretary.

She recalled that it was precisely such a discussion from the previous SURF AND SOUND project that resulted in the introduction of an independent criminal offense of misuse of sexually explicit content recordings into domestic legislation. “From July 2021 to today, there have been 41 court cases related to this criminal offense, of which 21 are final, 2 are in the appeal process, while 18 cases are still being tried. Most of these involve milder alternative sanctions – either suspended sentences or community service,” she concluded. Šimundža-Nikolić.

From the experience of working directly with victims of lawyers Ines Bojic, an external associate of the BaBe association, pointed out that online and offline violence overlap and that it is usually not an isolated act of violence. “It is necessary to have several conversations with the victim in order to get a broader picture of the violence, and this is precisely what is missing in the court proceedings. The institution of a trusted person plays a key role in creating a quality indictment, and it needs to be strengthened because it can significantly contribute to a better implementation of the Directive.”

Lawyer Teuta Palcic She emphasized the need for training for social welfare center workers: "In addition, the centers are overcrowded, there are not enough experts, and victims wait too long for psychological help. In such conditions, online violence is simply ignored, it is completely unrecognized."

The discussion concluded that, in addition to improving the legislative framework and judicial practices, a longer-term and more demanding challenge will be prevention. In this section, the indispensable role of the education system was highlighted.

The heads of the Department for Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Against Youth and Families believe that prevention is key Anita Matijevic (Police Directorate) and Nikolina Grubišić Požar (PUZ). "Online violence is on the rise among both adults and children, it is a big dark number and we need to approach it systematically. We need elementary education about online violence, just as children learn to read and write, they should be taught the responsible use of information and communication technologies," she warned. Grubišić Požar"In Croatia, we are implementing an enormous number of projects, but we lack standardization, a list of must-have components that need to be processed through the education system. It is necessary to scan the situation and connect good practices into a systematic education adapted to age," she concluded. Matijevic.

Dean Ajdukovic from the Psychological Assistance Society, assessing all initiatives related to combating online violence as useful, pointed out that educating the younger generation is key: "As kids grow up, they must become aware that what they take pictures of now and share with someone can have long-term harmful consequences for them, they must know that some content is not to be shared."

"It is necessary to educate children in schools about critical thinking and the concept of consent, and there is also a need for education among adults. For the quality implementation of this Directive in its entirety, it is necessary to strengthen mechanisms for specialist assistance to victims and improve the keeping of statistics. However, what we lack most is strategic planning in terms of combating and preventing violence. We have a lot of laws, regulations and ordinances that regulate this area, but we do not have a comprehensive strategy that would connect all systems," she concluded. Tamara Sterk, Deputy Head of the BaBe Association Office

The project "SURF AND SOUND 2.0" is funded by the European Union from the CERD - Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program (2021-2027) and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia. It is implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media and associated partners, the Judicial Academy and the Police Directorate.

Photo: Women and the Media

The final conference of the project "puSHEd – protect, understand, support: help the elderly" was held at the House of Europe on Wednesday, 22 May 2024, starting at 12:00. The conference brought together important stakeholders from different sectors and thus rounded off an interdisciplinary view of the topic of gender-based violence against older women. Participants had the opportunity to hear more about economic violence, sexual violence and strategies to combat violence against older people.

Project manager Marina Gombar She presented the activities and results of the project to those present and emphasized that what the system needs most is education, awareness-raising and mutual cooperation between all stakeholders in the system of support for women victims of violence.

Advisor to the Ombudsman Silvija Trgovec-Greif  She highlighted a number of different forms of violence that citizens turn to her for help. She added that the system is focused on physical violence, but there are many other problems, such as a lack of palliative care, a lack of places in nursing homes, and inappropriate attitudes of doctors towards the elderly.

Anica Jezic, Head of the Sector for Development and Improvement of Social Services at the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, spoke to the participants about the operational plan of activities for connecting health and social services in the field of long-term care, as well as changes in the law on social welfare - changes in the field of development of social services.

Iva Prpic, Head of the Department for Support to Children and Families, City Office for Social Protection, Health, Veterans and Persons with Disabilities at the City of Zagreb, emphasized that the City of Zagreb is developing and supporting a local system of support and protection for victims of domestic violence and is paying special attention to respecting the rights and supporting particularly vulnerable groups, including the elderly.

Zeljka Baric, the director of the Home for Children and Adult Victims of Domestic Violence 'Duga – Zagreb', pointed out that the number of calls from elderly women seeking help has increased at the Home Duga. She also pointed out that the state, in cooperation with the profession, should develop a strategy to combat violence against the elderly with an appropriate framework and synergically network the activities of the social welfare and health care systems.

Lawyer Ljubica Matijevic Vrsaljko She highlighted the problem of financial violence, especially through life support contracts, and the slowness of the judiciary in such cases. Psychotherapist and psychologist Marijana Senjak presented her work on victims of sexual violence to the attendees.

The aim of the project is to prevent and combat gender-based violence against older women by developing gender-specific responses in providing support to victims and building the capacity of relevant experts from the protection and support system. The project is also aimed at raising awareness among the general population and improving the community's response to gender-based violence against older women, primarily by increasing the number of reports of violence, but also by preventing it. The project "puSHEd - protect, understand, support, help the elderly" was launched by the BaBe association in partnership with the City of Zagreb and Dom Duga Zagreb, with the support of the Ombudsman, the Association for Victims and Witnesses Support and the European Social Network. The project lasted 24 months and was financed by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme of the European Union and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs.

On May 22, 2024, starting at 9:00 a.m., the first in a series of workshops for judicial officials was held at the Regional Center of the Judicial Academy in Varaždin, as part of the SURF&SOUND 2.0 project. The workshop was attended by 12 participants, employees of county and municipal courts and municipal and county state attorneys' offices from the Zagreb, Varaždin, Međimurje, Bjelovar-Bilogora, Virovitica-Podravina and Koprivnica-Križevci counties.

The workshop leaders were Krunoslav Stjepan Rajačić, Deputy County State Attorney at the County State Attorney's Office in Zagreb, Ivana Bilušić, Judge of the County Court in Velika Gorica, and Renato Grgurić, IT expert from the Ministry of the Interior.

The workshop provided an interdisciplinary overview of the phenomenon of online gender-based violence, as well as strategies for combating it, including providing support to victims with a gender-sensitive approach. Special emphasis was placed on the legal and IT aspects of the problem, with practical examples and knowledge of evidence collection and other specific skills related to the topic.

The project "SURF and SOUND 2.0" aims to enable systematic work on the protection of women victims of domestic and gender-based violence in the online environment, and is implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media and associated partners, the Judicial Academy and the Police Directorate. The project is funded by the European Union from the CERF - Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values program and co-financed by the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

Yesterday, May 7, 2024, The EU Council approved, for the first time in history, a European law on preventing violence against women and domestic violence. EU Directive 2022/0066 It contains measures to prevent violence against women and domestic violence and establishes standards for the protection of victims.

Below is a view basic features of this EU law. The following are criminalized: genital mutilation, forced marriages, sharing intimate content without consent in cyberspace, cyber stalking and cyber incitement to hatred and violence. Imprisonment for the aforementioned offenses ranges from at least one to five years.

The directive contains a list aggravating circumstancesFor example, the commission of the above-mentioned criminal acts against a child, former or current spouse or partner (or spouse/partner), public figure, journalist or human rights defenders results in the imposition of a more severe sentence.

The directive also contains detailed rules for establishment support and protection measure which Member States are obliged to provide to victims. It is expected that comprehensive support for victims of violence and domestic violence will be further improved by including in the text the necessity and obligation to ensure victims have access to both general and specialized support services, shelters, and health services, including services related to sexual and reproductive health.

The Directive recognises as the most vulnerable victims of violence, those at greatest risk, persons who suffer multidimensional, intersectional forms of discrimination. In this regard, states must guarantee protection to all victims of gender-based violence, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics, with a special emphasis on the needs of LBTI women. Furthermore, victims of violence and domestic violence should be made more easily able to report violence, for example, by introducing the possibility of reporting cyberbullying online as a minimum standard.

EU Member States are also required to put in place measures to ensure that children receive professional help. When children report a crime committed by someone with parental responsibility, the authorities must take protective measures for the child’s safety before informing the alleged perpetrator of the child’s accusation. In order to protect the victim’s privacy and prevent further victimisation, Member States will have to ensure that information relating to the victim’s past sexual behaviour is admissible in criminal proceedings where this information is relevant and necessary.

In line with the idea of building a safer future, the aim of the preventive measures introduced by this Directive is to increase the level of awareness among citizens about the root causes of violence against women and domestic violence and to acquire knowledge in the educational system about the role of the concept of consent in interpersonal relationships.

However, although the Directive has holistic approach elimination of violence against women and domestic violence and contains measures for prevention, protection, support for victims, access to justice and prosecution of perpetrators, some forms of violence against women did not find their place in the text. Below we list some of missed opportunities.

First of all, femicide as the murder of a woman caused primarily by the fact that she is female, due to the lack of a foundation within EU legislation, indicates that there is a great possibility that the practice of impunity will be maintained and the urgent introduction of gender-specific protection and adequate judicial treatment will be missed.

Likewise, to our regret, the opportunity to include criminalization of rape with a European definition of consent to a sexual act. Sexual violence against women, widespread across the EU, remains unpunished or subject to lenient penalties in many Member States, and the absence of a definition of consent is an obstacle to strengthening protection and access to justice for all women victims of rape. The Directive does, however, require Member States to do more to prevent rape by raising public awareness and making education on the concept of consent mandatory in schools, as well as by challenging harmful gender norms and roles. Despite some shortcomings, this is the first time that EU legislation has explicitly imposed an obligation on Member States to ensure that medical care is available to women victims of sexual violence. Member States will also have to ensure training for professional and medical staff who come into contact with victims and survivors of sexual violence.

Unfortunately, it was also missing recognizing the connection between domestic violence and violence against children in the context of domestic violence. This omission is particularly significant because of its impact on child custody proceedings where understanding the continuum of violence, from violence against women to violence against children, is crucial to safeguarding the rights of children and their mothers.

EU legislators also failed to address it in more detail migration trends in Europe so the only concrete measures proposed relate to the necessity to ensure access to shelters for all women victims of violence regardless of their residence status. There is nothing in the text of the Directive that would refer to the protection of personal data of migrant women and the procedure for transferring personal data from shelters to other institutions such as immigration offices or judicial authorities.

Finally, welcoming the adoption of Directive 2022/0066, we point out that EU member states have three years to transpose the Directive into national legislation.

The Croatian translation of Directive 2022/0066 is available at the link
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/PE-33-2024-INIT/hr/pdf

Today we celebrate 30 years of our association, three decades dedicated to fighting violence against women and achieving equal rights in society. This anniversary is also a time for deep reflection on our achievements to date and future challenges.

In the coming period and beyond, we will devote ourselves to a serious review of the strategy for the fight against ultra-conservative trends that threaten women's acquired rights, especially reproductive rights, and finding ways to maintain and improve the position of women in society. Furthermore, our primary task remains advocating for the improvement of public policies so that they are gender sensitive. This means ensuring that policies respect the diversity of the needs of women and men and actively contribute to eliminating all forms of inequality in society.

We would like to thank VuMedi doo and its employees who recognized the work of our association and decided to use their generosity to cheer up our shelter users, women and children who found themselves in a difficult life situation and when they needed support and help the most, they made sure that they did not feel forgotten. The employees of the BaBe association and the shelter users would like to thank you very much.

On April 3, 2024, five associations signed agreements with National Foundation for Civil Society Development for inclusion in Thematic systemic support for five thematic areas that will be significant for the development of Croatian society in the next four years. New project of the BaBe association within the framework of Thematic Systemic Support it refers to balancing private and business life and represents a continuation of the 2015 project "Women in the Labor Market - Assessment of Gender Impact" and the project that ended in 2023 "The Impact of Public Policies on the Quality of Family and Working Life and on the Demographic Picture of the Republic of Croatia - Spaces of Change" which, thanks to scientific research (Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb and Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar, Department of Sociology), confirmed that the issue of balancing obligations in private and business life is closely related to social policy and measures aimed at providing assistance for the care and attention of dependent family members, flexibilization of work and working hours of employees, tax policy, health insurance, poverty rates, demographic trends and generally available services at the national and local levels, and is closely related to the roles and expectations that women and men have in the family, but also to the expectations imposed by the labor market.

The project includes continued cooperation with higher education institutions, an advocacy campaign that contributes to raising public awareness of the complexity of the topic, thematic conferences on models of work-life balance, where we expect synergy between scientific institutions, the economy, public policy makers and civil society. We expect that the media visibility of this topic will contribute to raising public and decision-makers' awareness and result in a comprehensive public policy for balancing the family and work lives of men and women. We are faced with various forms and methods of work, the key ones being: advocacy for a coherent public policy regulating the reconciliation of family and work life at national and local levels, with clear indicators of progress; monitoring of legislative solutions and their social impact on balancing private and business obligations; public campaigns with the aim of raising awareness among the public, employers and decision-makers about the inequalities produced by gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles; structured dialogues with all relevant stakeholders on how to eliminate stereotypes about the role of women and men in the family and in the labor market, including the media and the education system; effective dialogue with employers and providing support and assistance to their efforts to enable employees, especially women, to more easily balance their responsibilities; open discussions and expert conferences about new trends, research and contemporary models of harmonizing private and business life with the aim of improving employers' practices; establishing a common platform for activities in this area with civil society organizations.

https://zaklada.civilnodrustvo.hr/news/nacionalna-zaklada-potpisala-sporazume-za-ukljucivanje-u-tematske-sustavne-podrske