Maja Vukmanić Rajter, the Coordinator of the Centre for Victims of Sexual Violence of the Women’s Room, held a lecture on “The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Protecting the Victims of Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence and Cooperation with the Police”. The lecture was held on 3 April 2014 at the Police Academy in Zagreb. Participants were police officers from all Criminal Police Departments in the Republic of Croatia who specialize in cases of juvenile delinquency, legal protection of children and minors, and domestic violence.
In the introductory part of the lecture, Maja Vukmanić Rajter presented the activities of Women’s Room and the Centre for Sexual Violence, as well as the web page Safe Zone. She also presented data on the prevalence of sexual violence in Croatia in the period from 2010 to 2013, and pointed out that sexual violence is in fact gender-based violence. For example, according to the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, in 96% of sexual violence cases in 2011, the perpetrators were men. The lecture further named the reasons for not reporting sexual violence, while “real rape” myth was also explained.
Vukmanić Rajter talked about civil society organizations in Croatia that provide direct assistance and support to women victims of violence. She also presented the study “Civil society organizations rendering special services to women – victims of violence as key actors in the process of democratization of society” conducted by Women’s Room in 2010 in collaboration with the representatives of civil society organizations in Croatia. While presenting the results, Vukmanić Rajter pointed to the answers of the participants of the study when it comes to cooperation with other institutions and organizations. According to the results of the study, only 6% of the organizations said they did not cooperate with the police at all. In 73% of the cases, organizations said their cooperation with the police was good or very good. 22% of the organizations did not cooperate with the courts at all, while 56% of the organizations claim they had good or very good cooperation with the courts. In 32% of the cases, this cooperation was described as poor or very poor.
The lecture at the Police Academy in Zagreb was part of Women’s Room activities of raising awareness about sexual violence and sexual rights through the series of educational lectures for institutions and for the general public.
