An update has been conducted to the legal report concerning the legislative framework for the protection of survivors of sexual violence and its alignment with international mechanisms.
IMPROVING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR MORE EFFECTIVE PROSECUTION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS A FORM OF WAR CRIME
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights Croatia, within the project Justice&Voices: Advocating Rights of War Violence Survivors through Law, Storytelling and Art, which aims to advance justice, recognition, and public visibility of women who survived wartime sexual violence in Croatia during the 1990s, conducted an update of the legal report concerning the legislative framework for the protection of survivors of sexual violence and its alignment with international mechanisms.
The Republic of Croatia has not taken all available measures to ensure survivors effective access to justice. After amendments to the Judicial Development Strategy in 2013, the institutional focus on survivors of wartime sexual violence was further reduced, although facilitating their access to justice should be one of the priority goals. A problem is also the misalignment of national legislation and judicial practice with international standards, especially regarding the definition of wartime sexual violence and the recognition of all forms of sexual violence. This misalignment has, in some cases, led to incorrect legal qualification of acts and the downplaying of their severity.
The most problematic in this context is the Law on the Rights of Survivors of Sexual Violence during the Armed Aggression on the Republic of Croatia in the Homeland War, which is not aligned with international standards as it contains disproportionate restrictions (citizenship, residence, and non-participation in hostile forces) that may exclude some survivors of sexual violence from exercising their rights, contrary to the international legal principle of non-discrimination contained in international humanitarian and criminal law. Furthermore, the law narrowly defines sexual violence, omitting a range of forms of sexual violence recognized in international instruments, such as other severe sexual abuses or forced marriage. Such a normative framework limits access to reparations and potentially discriminates against certain groups of survivors, although international law obliges states to ensure justice and reparations for all survivors of sexual violence committed during armed conflict.
Due to the aforementioned legislative shortcomings and systemic dysfunctions, we propose the following concrete steps:
- Clearly define who is responsible for providing legally mandated psychological and legal assistance to survivors of wartime sexual violence and implement the regulation that defines this, i.e., develop an effective support system as established at the ICTY.
- Further educate and sensitize all professionals who come into contact with survivors of wartime sexual violence through multidisciplinary training and encourage better cooperation among different institutions.
- Develop a standardized, detailed, and sensitive list of questions to guide the taking of statements from survivors of wartime sexual violence, covering all data relevant to criminal proceedings, following the example of the list developed by the Commission for Survivors of Sexual Violence. The questions should not be created as a closed set or mandatory questions but should depend on the specific circumstances of each individual survivor of wartime sexual violence, with each interview minimized as much as possible, especially considering that most survivors suffer health consequences from the experienced sexual violence (e.g., PTSD).
- Implement the principles of Rule 96 into Croatian legislation – although these principles seem to be considered in Croatian judicial practice (but we cannot know to what extent), their introduction into the legal framework would additionally ensure their implementation and symbolically signal the Republic of Croatia’s intention to facilitate access to justice for survivors of wartime sexual violence.
- Align the Law on the Rights of Survivors of Sexual Violence during the Armed Aggression on the Republic of Croatia in the Homeland War with international human rights mechanisms and the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia – expand the definition of the criminal offense of sexual crime and enable reparations for all survivors of sexual violence from 1991-1995 on the territory of Croatia, regardless of their status during the conflict.
- Further formally ease the conditions regarding proof and compensation for crimes of wartime sexual violence, taking into account international mechanisms – Rule 96 and the provisions of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
You can find the full report here.
