Zagreb – On the occasion of the forthcoming National Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on September 22, the Committee on the Family, Youth and Sport, headed by the Committee Chairwoman Ms Jadranka Kosor, hosted a round table conference on domestic violence. Despite the State’s unambiguous resolution to raise the level of awareness of the problem of domestic violence and violence against women, no actual figures show these forms of violence are on the decrease. Nonetheless, a glimmer of “light at the end of the tunnel” is the information indicating the number of domestic violence felonies has been declining since the year 2006.
"In the last fifteen years that the police has been keeping records on the cases of domestic violence against women, yearly there have been around 20 thousand misdemeanor domestic violence incidents. The number of felonies, on the other hand, has decreased from almost 2,000 in 2006 to 360 in the first six months of the year 2012”, said Assistant Police Director Mr Vitomir Bijelić.
Public Attorney for Gender Equality Ms Višnja Ljubičić underlined the problem of insufficient financial funds local communities allocated for victims of domestic violence. Ms Helena Štimac Radin, Head of the Office for Gender Equality of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, thinks a lot has been done in the past ten years to raise awareness of the problem of domestic violence in Croatia. Also, she reminded that the Council of Europe had adopted the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women. Twenty-one countries have so far signed the Convention and Ms Štimac expressed her expectations Croatia would soon join them.