Women's organisations on Monday submitted to the Justice Ministry demands for better protection of women from violence as part of a drive called "The safety of women is the responsibility of the state".

“Violence against women is a systemic problem. It needs to be adequately sanctioned. The state should finally take an adequate approach to this problem and pass legislation which is in line with the Istanbul Convention and which is not gender neutral,” said Sanja Juras of the Croatian Women’s Network.

About 50 women gathered outside the ministry, holding a poster which said “The safety of women is the responsibility of the state” and blocking nearby traffic for a few minutes. The drivers who stopped acted on the protesters’ call to “honk their horns so that the minister can hear them.”

Speaking on behalf of 40 women’s organisations, Juras submitted to the ministry their demands for better protection of women from violence.

They demand that the government urgently establish a task force to work on bills regulating femicide, the definition of femicide as a crime under the criminal code, the adoption of a law that would regulate all forms of violence against women and punish this violence solely under the criminal code, and the adoption of a national strategy covering all forms of violence against women in line with the Istanbul Convention, with funding from the state budget.

The demands were received by the ministry’s state secretary, Vedrana Simundza-Nikolic, who said the ministry was constantly amending legislation so that victims were more properly protected and so that the risks of violence against women were recognised on time.

That is being done to protect the victim and punish the perpetrator more strictly, she said, adding that the legislative amendments will be in public consultation for a month.

Asked by the press if the amendments would satisfy the demand to define femicide as a separate crime, she said a task force was discussing this proposal.

Croatian laws which protect from domestic violence are in line with international regulations, but perpetrators are not always adequately punished, which is why the law is being amended, she said.

Juras countered that “the Istanbul Convention has been in force five years already, yet our laws are gender neutral and not aligned with it. We don’t have a strategic approach to all forms of violence against women, we don’t have a law for that.”

Juras accepted Simundza-Nikolic’s invitation to discuss the demands at a meeting which took place after the protest.