The BaBe Association, in partnership with the Agency for Electronic Media, held a final conference on the topic of online violence against women as part of the project SURF and SOUNDOn this occasion, on February 15th, at the House of Europe in Zagreb, the achieved results and planned activities in implementing the continuation of the project were presented. SURF and SOUND 2.0 over the next two years. The consortium of partners includes the Police Directorate and the Judicial Academy.
"The counseling center recorded 146 cases of online violence, mostly involving women aged 18 to 45, but we were also approached by three girls accompanied by their mothers. When it comes to perpetrators, the majority are ex-partners, followed by unknown persons and online partners. In terms of forms of violence, the most common are acts of abuse of sexually explicit content and online stalking. Only about 40 percent of victims reported their case to the police," the project coordinator said. Dean Sarcevic from the BaBe association
Among the first activities of this comprehensive project were three multi-sectoral workshops aimed at strengthening the capacity of experts and improving the legislative framework.
"The first workshop was dedicated to the topic of legal regulation of non-consensual pornography, after which we sent the proposals from that workshop to e-consultation and simultaneously conducted a campaign advocating for the criminalization of revenge pornography, during which we collected more than 10,000 signatures in a petition," said Šarčević.
Dean Šarčević, BaBe association
As of July 31, 2021, the offense of misuse of sexually explicit recordings has been introduced into criminal law, making Croatia one of the few European countries to do so. Assistant Minister of Justice, Vedrana Simundza Nikolic She also presented some statistical indicators.
"So far, a total of nineteen cases related to the commission of this crime have been processed, of which five are valid, seven are invalid, and seven are still pending. Already in 2021, we had verdicts for two such crimes," she said.
Lawyer Ines Bojic she emphasized the importance of cataloging this criminal act, saying that without it they would have many more problems in counseling the beneficiaries, and in that case the Republic of Croatia would find itself many times in a situation of not conducting efficient investigations.
"Because when we look at some of the cases we followed earlier, where all the elements of this criminal offense were fulfilled, but since it was not in the Criminal Code, we had situations where the person whose case arrived at the State Attorney's Office at a very different time had to think about what form of criminal offense to classify it under," said attorney Bojić.
Vedrana Šimundža Nikolić, assistant minister in the Ministry of Justice and Administration
Assistant Minister Šimundža Nikolić sent a message about the importance of reporting:
"No matter how much the victim ends up in some kind of "re-shame" zone, because they have to talk about it again, because maybe those who didn't know will find out about it, etc., we must know that reporting this criminal act is the only way to sanction the perpetrator and send the fundamental message that such behavior is unacceptable and punishable."
To make it easier for victims to report, a platform has been launched within the project. NEON – NO! to online violenceProject coordinator Šarčević emphasized the role of the Agency for Electronic Media, which contributed to the visibility of this topic by implementing national campaigns as part of which a video and radio spot were recorded and broadcast, and billboards were placed in several cities.
"The Electronic Media Agency was a great support to us in implementing the project activities. During the duration of this national campaign, in the three summer months, the number of applications via the NEON platform increased tenfold. 67 percent of all applications came through it," said Šarčević.
AEM's role as a partner in the project was also in organizing workshops for media professionals, which were held in five cities. The workshops discussed a sensitized media approach to the topic of respecting the position of the victim.
"Around 80 journalists went through the media workshops, which is a drop in the ocean of need, but at least we tried to reach the widest possible public and put this topic on the table, and it is a very pressing one. Through this project, I met a lady from a small community who is a victim of her partner, who blackmailed her with pictures, publicly shamed her and destroyed her health and life. I think the role of the media is to approach this topic in a way that each of us can ask ourselves at a certain point whether our life could turn into hell in this way," said the member of the Electronic Media Council. Anita Malenica.
Lawyer Ines Bojić and member of the Electronic Media Council Anita Malenica
Director of the Electronic Media Agency Joseph Popovac expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation on the project.
"The Council and the Agency for Electronic Media already work on equality issues, we develop such projects because we believe that the topic is socially important. That is why we were honored by the invitation of the BaBe association to participate in this project, and since March we have been continuing with SURF and SOUND 2.0", said Popovac, thanking VEM member Anita Malenica and AEM expert associate Marija Lalic for his contribution to this project, adding: “For this project, but also for the project Women and the media and in general for our women's story that we are developing at the Agency for Electronic Media, I would like to especially thank our former Council member Outside the Raven".
Josip Popovac, Director of the Agency for Electronic Media
The Gender Equality Ombudsperson also participated in the conference. Visnja Ljubicic which reminded that before establishing the criminal offense for the so-called revenge pornography, to which the Institution of Rights Defenders gave its approval, in such cases it was dealt with according to Article 31 of the Law on Gender Equality, which refers to the violation of a person's dignity.
"We punished this together with the police and misdemeanor courts, but we realized that with online communication, this violence has become unfathomable. Education is necessary, recognizing the problem because there is no public effect about the harmfulness of such actions, the extent of emotional and physical devastation to the person who is the target, to which such behavior can lead," said the Ombudsman Ljubičić, particularly emphasizing the devastating impact that online violence has on the mental health of school children. The Ombudsman also informed the conference participants that this institution, together with its partners, has begun implementing a three-year international project on gender-based cyber violence.
Gender Equality Ombudsperson Višnja Ljubičić
A kind of guidelines for continuing the project SURF and SOUND 2.0 which will be implemented from March 2023 to 2025 could be read from the panel "Strengthening the system for combating online violence against women" in which the final conference participants Nikolina Grubišić Požar Head of the Department of Juvenile Delinquency and Crime Against Youth and Families of the Zagreb Police Department, Iva Katic from the Personal Data Protection Agency, Nella Popović, PhD as a representative of the Judicial Academy and Jakov Kiš from the National CERT. While the guest from France Laura-Blu Mauss presented the local model of combating violence against women in the digital space as an example of good practice.
Within the project SURF and SOUND two publications were also published Analysis with recommendations for public policies to combat online violence against women in Croatia and Code of conduct in case of online violence against women.
Source: zeneimediji.hr
