INVITATION to the action “Women’s safety is the responsibility of the state”

Women’s organizations and initiatives are organizing the public action “Women’s safety is the responsibility of the state” on August 21, 2023 in 13 cities in Croatia.

With this action, the women sendoff the brutally murdered Nizama Hećimović. Her murder once again showed the dysfunction of the system for protecting women from violence. We express our solidarity with women in Bosnia and Herzegovina who, at the same time as we are looking for greater effectiveness in protection against violence.

Violence against women is not an elemental calamity. It is the most predictable crime precisely because of the long duration of violence by a close perpetrator and the scheduling of the protection system that precedes the murder.

The problem of violence against women is a universal problem. The reason for the escalation in the number of murders of women is the lack of a strategic approach to this topic and the absence of effective and systematic violence prevention measures.

October 1 this year will be the 5th year since the entry into force of the Istanbul Convention, and the state has not done anything to ensure its consistent application.

The Law on Protection from Domestic Violence, apart from not covering all forms of gender-based violence, caused women terrible harm by treating violence against women as a misdemeanor, equating it to riding without a ticket on a tram.

Through symbolic public actions, women are asking the Croatian state to take responsibility and take concrete steps to protect women from violence. There are successful models of combating femicide!

We are looking for:

1. that the Government urgently establish a working group that will work on adopting legal solutions to regulate femicide;
2. defining femicide as a separate criminal offense in the Criminal Code;
3. passing a law that will regulate all forms of violence against women and place the sanctioning of violence against women exclusively in the criminal sphere;
4. adoption of the National Strategy, which includes all forms of violence against women, in accordance with the Istanbul Convention and with the funds provided for implementation in the state budget;

Places and times of the event:

In addition to actions that organizations throughout Croatia organize at different times, we invite all women to stop for 15 minutes on Monday, August 21, 2023 at 4 p.m. wherever they are, and thus resist the normalization of violence. #STOP!

The action is organized by:

Ženska mreža Hrvatske:

Autonomna ženska kuća Zagreb

Centar za ženske studije

Centar za građansku hrabrost – HRABRE SESTRE

Centar za građanske inicijative Poreč

Centar za žene žrtve rata ROSA

Centar za podršku i razvoj civilnog društva „DELFIN“

Centar za društveno-humanistička istraživanja Zadar

Centar za zdravo odrastanje IDEM i ja Mali Lošinj

DEŠA – Dubrovnik

Domine – organizacija za promicanje ženskih prava

Koordinacija ženskih grupa SEKA

Lezbijska grupa Kontra

Mirovna grupa OAZA

Projekt građanske demokratske inicijative Beli Manastir  – P.G.D.I.

SOS Rijeka – centar za nenasilje i ljudska prava

SOS Virovitica

TARA Ličko Petrovo selo

Udruga Brod

Udruga „HERA“ Križevci – za zaštitu i promicanje ljudskih prava

Udruga žena Dalj

Udruga žena Nit, Korenica

Udruga žena Romkinja u Hrvatskoj „Bolja budućnost“

Ženska grupa Donji Lapac

Ženska grupa Split

Ženska pomoć sada – SOS telefon za žene i djecu žrtve nasilja

Ženska udruga Izvor Tenja

Ženska sekcija SSSH

Udruga žena Vukovar

Zaklada Solidarna

#spasime

U dobroj vjeri

Sigurna mjesta

Ženska soba

CESI – Centar za edukaciju, savjetovanje i istraživanje

Pariter

Ženska grupa Karlovac „Korak“

RODA – roditelji u akciji

Šibenska udruga mladih Š.U.M. i KU Fotopoetika