FEMICID: PRIKAZ I OCJENA HRVATSKOG ZAKONSKOG RJEŠENJA
FEMICIDE: OVERVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE CROATIAN LEGAL SOLUTION

Summary/Abstract: Femicide is the most severe form of gender-based violence. According to UNODC data, 137women in the world are killed every day. The adoption of the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence) increased social, political and public interest and increased awareness of femicide and consequently (in a smaller number of European countries) resulted in the introduction of a special criminal offense in criminal laws or passing special laws aimed at protecting victims and preventing femicide. Despite the increased activist and scientific-professional interest in this problem, there is still no uniformly accepted definition of femicide, which prevents the implementation of national and international comparative studies that could serve as a scientific basis in the development of policies, strategies and activities aimed at combating and preventing this problem. In March 2024, Croatia adopted amendments to the Criminal Code which, among other things, introduce the new criminal offense of "aggravated murder of a female person", which represents the criminal definition of femicide. The aim of this paper is to present the development of the Croatian legal definition of femicide, from the first presentation of the proposal to the final version, as well as the alignment of the legal definition with current definitions. An additional goal of the work refers to the analysis of the public debate on the proposal to introduce femicide in Croatia, by analyzing the comments and responses to the comments in the framework of the conducted e-counseling.

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