The Croatian Parliament adopted amendments to the penal code on Thursday to include femicide as a separate crime, making Croatia the third country in the European Union to give legal status to the murders of women based on their gender.
Before Croatia, only Cyprus and Malta had done so.
“Through these changes, we protect the rights, security and dignity of women and we send the message that violence against women is unacceptable
,” declared the conservative Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, at the end of February, presenting the proposal for law.
Croatia shocked by the murder of a student
The adopted text provides that penalties can range from 10 to 40 years of imprisonment, the heaviest provided for by Croatian legislation.
The changes to the penal code were adopted with the votes of 77 MPs in favor, and 60 voting against, the official Hina agency reported.
According to local NGOs, Croatia is the 3rd country in the EU with the highest rate of feminicides per number of inhabitants.
In 2022, 2,300 women were killed in Europe by their spouse or family members, according to EU data.
In Croatia, which has a population of 3.8 million, 13 women were killed in 2022 - 12 of them by a relative, and nine in 2023.
The government decided to propose this text after the murder in September of Mihaela Berak, a 20-year-old law student, killed by a police officer with whom she had had a brief relationship.
His death sparked a lively debate on the errors of a system responsible for protecting victims, and on legislation.
Demonstrations broke out across the country to demand justice for Mihaela and demand that femicide be included in the law.