On the occasion of another terrible case of femicide that occurred yesterday in Split, we would like to point out that intimate partner and gender-based violence are not a family dispute, and violence is not a private matter, but a serious problem and the responsibility of the entire society.
The Ombudsperson has continuously highlighted the worrying increase in the number of murdered women. Compared to 2018, the number of women killed by intimate partners has increased by 50 percent, while fourteen out of 19 murders of women in 2020 were classified as femicide. In order to change this situation, a change in the entire system is needed, the Ombudsperson said.
We remind you that in October we warned that the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality Višnja Ljubičić emphasized in her Annual Report for 2020 that despite the increase in gender-based violence and the Ombudsperson's warnings about the need to urgently amend the legislative framework, key laws and regulations remained largely unchanged and not aligned with the Istanbul Convention, which certainly did not contribute to the effective fight against gender-based violence.
Many laws still do not recognize violence against women as gender-based in their provisions, or do not criminalize it, or do not provide for prosecution ex officio, or do not provide protection to all victims, or ultimately do not provide real, but only declaratory protection to victims, which in some cases has resulted in femicide, states the report of the Ombudsperson, who has been warning for years that the judiciary sentences less than 101% of all perpetrators of violence to unconditional prison sentences, all others are sentenced to relatively mild fines or suspended prison sentences.
Without the urgent implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence, the system will continue to fail. Declarative condemnation of violence and ratification of the Convention is not enough. It is essential that all of us together as a society, especially those in positions of power and those directly involved in the system, condemn all forms of gender-based violence without compromise, because only then will the existing system be improved and the measures resulting from the ratification of the Istanbul Convention truly implemented.
Additionally, the BaBe Association is appalled by yesterday's extremely unacceptable reporting by HRT. The public service paid for by the citizens of Croatia should serve as an example of journalistic ethics, and not promote shameful practices, especially considering the sensitivity of the topic and the fact that the news, namely Dnevnik, is watched by minors and numerous victims of violence.
We would like to remind you that in practice we constantly encounter women who are afraid to report violence, and the move by the HRT editorial staff to show a video of a stabbed woman lying on the floor of a Lidl in Split, where she was an employee, in the main news program at 7 pm has certainly aroused fear in many women who are victims of violence and may have deterred them from reporting it. We also emphasize that publishing such videos affects the mental health of children and young people. In line with all of the above, we appeal to the HRT leadership and expect that the responsible editorial staff will be sanctioned.
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