What's New

Domestic Violence

Human Trafficking

Sexual Harassment

Sexual Assault

Other Forms of Violence Against Women

Home

Our Work

What's New

Advocacy Tools

International Law

Make A Donation

Anti-Gender Developments

Home > What's New

New Report: Implementation of Croatia's Domestic Violence Legislation

Tuesday, October 16, 2012 9:00 AM

The Advocates for Human Rights has released a new report entitled Implementation of Croatia's Domestic Violence Legislation. The report is the result of extensive fact-finding in Croatia to assess how its laws are working to protect domestic violence victims and hold offenders accountable. The report was released in partnership with the Autonomous Women's House Zagreb and the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation. The authors conducted interviews with police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, advocates, legislators, ministry officials, academics, and journalists, among others.

The authors found that domestic violence in Croatia is a serious problem that is often exacerbated by troubling practices in law enforcement and the judicial system. Dual arrests--where both the offender and victim are arrested--are widespread throughout the country because of a legal provision that allows a victim who has verbally insulted her abuser to receive the same punishment as the abuser, who has physically beaten her. In another traumatizing and harmful practice called "facing," judges often force victims of domestic violence to confront their abusers. When a judge is unsure of who is telling the truth, they will force the parties to face each other standing a few meters apart, look one another in the eye, and recount their version of what happened. Judges claim they can decide which party is lying by reading the parties' facial expressions and body language.

The Advocates' team spent 10 days in October, 2012, in Croatia along with their partners and presented the report to Croatia's Parliament, Board of Gender Equality, and other stakeholders including ombudspersons, police, judges, shelter workers, Centers for Social Welfare, and NGOs.

Read the full report here.

Compiled from: The Advocates for Human Rights, Implementation of Croatia's Domestic Violence Legislation (2012).

In This Section

For More Information

Please visit the Croatia country page of this website.

The Advocates for Human Rights Site Map About the Site

330 Second Avenue South, Suite 800, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA Phone: (612) 341-3302 Fax: (612) 341-2971 Email: hrights@advrights.org

Although Stop Violence Against Women endeavors to provide useful and accurate information, Stop Violence Against Women does not warrant the accuracy of the materials provided. Accordingly, this Web Site and its information are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular use or purpose, or non-infringement. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you. We reserve the right to make improvements and/or changes in the format and/or content of the information contained on the Web Site without notice.This information is provided with the understanding that Stop Violence Against Women and its partners are not engaged in rendering legal or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.