Lectures at the Police Academy are continuing. On September 28, 2010, Maja Mamula and Maja Vukmanić delivered lecture at the Police Academy in Zagreb for over 40 shift chiefs from police stations from different parts of Croatia.
Topic of the lecture was Violence against Women: Situation in Croatia – The Role of Civil Society Organizations.
Maja Vukmanić, member of Women’s Room, delivered lecture on models of prevention in work with youth on September 12, 2010 in Terme Jezerčica for representatives of elementary and secondary schools, police, military, and civil society organizations. Training “Trafficking in Persons is Our Responsibility” was held in organization Delfin in Pakrac within the scope of the project funded by the Office for Human Rights of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
By invitation from the Center for Support and Development of Civil Society – Delfin, from Pakrac, on October 2, 2010, Maja Mamula delivered lecture about violence against women within the scope of a three-day training “Providing support to victims of domestic violence”.
Participants of the training were representatives of courts, state attorney’s offices, centers for social welfare, police, and civil society organizations from Požeško-slavonska County. Training was held in Terme Jezerčica in Donja Stubica.
Maja Mamula, coordinator of the Women’s Room received the award „MARULIĆ: FIAT PSYCHOLOGIA“ from the Croatian Psychological Association.
Croatian Psychological Association established this social recognition with the aim of promotion of development of Croatian applied psychology and public acknowledgement for particularly significant contribution to development and promotion of Croatian applied psychology.
The award will be given on October 13, 2010 at the 18th Annual Conference of Croatian Psychologists in Opatija.
On September 21, 2010, Maja Mamula participated in the thematic session of the Committee on Gender Equality of the Croatian Parliament regarding National Day of Combating Violence against Women. Topic of the session was Prevention of Family Violence: Efficiency of the system of psycho-social treatment of perpetrators. Participants received information about number of licensed persons for providing psycho-social treatment, as well as on the form and efficiency of work with perpetrators of violence. Some presentations instigated heated discussion about the role of feminist approach and theories in work on combating violence against women.
On September 22, 2010, Maja Mamula held a lecture at the Police Academy in Zagreb for shift chiefs of police stations from different parts of Croatia. Topic of the lecture was Violence against Women: Situation in Croatia – the role of civil society organizations. Lecture was held on the National Day of Combating Violence against Women.
Cooperation with the Police Academy is extremely important for establishing cross-sectoral cooperation between police and civil society organizations that work in this area. We would like to thank Ms. Suzana Kikić who has, due to outstanding reputation and quality of work, managed to establish connections between different professions and advance multidisciplinary approach and cooperation.
Women’s Room and Croatian Association for Sexual Therapy organized workshop on transsexuality. Workshop was led by Kristijan Ranđelović, long-term activist from Gayten, Belgrade and coordinator of self-help group for trans persons for the past twelve years. Workshop was catered to sexual therapists with the aim of familiarizing them with the topic and issues which trans persons face on everyday basis.
The Women’s Forum of Social Democratic Party celebrated 15 years with the conference “Gender Equality – Let’s Achieve It Together”. The conference was held on July 3, 2010 in Hotel Sheraton. Maja Vukmanić, Coordinator of the Center for Victims of Sexual Violence represented Women’s Room. Conference included three panels: “Society in Transition – Challenge for Gender Equality”, “Gender Equality for Social and Democratic Development” and “Gender Equality Needs Partnerships”. Some of the presenters were: Mirjana Ferić-Vac (president of Women’s Forum of SDP), Zoran Milanović (president of SDP), Milanka Opačić (vice president of SDP), Gordana Sobol (president of the Committee on Gender Equality of the Croatian Parliament), Gordana Lukač Koritnik (Ombudsperson for Gender Equality of the Republic of Croatia), Željka Antunović (member of SDP Presidency, vice president of the Croatian Parliament) and numerous others who contributed to the quality of the conference with their long-term experience.
Antonija Hojt, Women’s Room project assistant, participated in NGO Days from May 13 through 15 in Zadar, organized by Governmental Office for NGOs of the Republic of Croatia, Council for Civil Society Development, and National Foundation for Civil Society Development. The event attracted over 100 representatives of nongovernmental organizations and relevant institutions. Central theme revolved around role and contribution of civil society organizations in effective accessing of European Union funds.
In agreement with Suzana Kikić, Maja Mamula delivered two-hour lecture at the Police Academy on May 21, 2010. Lecture Role of civil society in combating sexual violence and victims’ assistance was organized for 28 chiefs of shifts from numerous police stations.
This is the first time such lecture was delivered by representatives of civil society organizations at the Police academy with the aim of familiarizing participants with work of numerous organizations that work on combating violence and providing support and assistance to women victims of violence.
Maja Mamula, Coordinator of the Women’s Room, delivered two-hour lecture in Valbadon on May 25, 2010 for twenty-five employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs working with blood and sexual offences. Lecture Role of civil society in combating sexual violence and victims’ assistance had an aim of educating about position and problem of victims who want to report sexual violence in order to improve the process of reporting.
Members of Women’s Room, Antonija Hojt, Paula Zore and Dalibor Stanić, held seven workshops for students of the Classical Gymnasium and 1st Economy School regarding “Prevention of Sexual Harassment”. During workshops, the film “We Were Just Joking” served as an educational tool. This film was made within the scope of the project “Prevention of Sexual Violence – New Generation” financially supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport.
We would like to thank Classical Gymnasium and 1st Economy School for assisting us with the implementation of the project, all professors and students who participated!
On Sunday, May 16, Vukmanić Maja, Coordinator of the Center for Victims of Sexual Violence delivered lecture “Sexual Violence – Consequence of Gender Inequality” for pupils from Pakrac High School. Two-day training “Sex and gender equality – challenges and possibilities” was organized by nongovernmental organization “Delphin Pakrac” which invited Women’s Room member to introduce sexual violence s a consequence of the position of women in the society. Twelve pupils along with expert associate of Pakrac High School participated in the training.
Office for Human Rights of the Government of the Republic of Croatia organized a seminar for military police personnel, departing on the mission to Afghanistan, on May 12 in Army Base Croatia. Lecturers of the seminar were Danijela Gaube, Office for Human Rights, Lidija Pentavec, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Maja Vukmanić, member of Women’s Room.
Seminar served to educate military police personnel about the system of prevention of trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Croatia and psychological consequences of trafficking in human beings.
Women’s Room’s members, Vukmanić Maja and Antonija Hojt, delivered five workshops for students of 3rd Economy Gymnasium on prevention of sexual harassment. Workshops were implemented as a part of the project “Prevention of Sexual Violence – New Generation” financially supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. The film “We Were Just Joking”, which also came as an outcome of the project, was used as educational tool during workshops.
We would like to thank 3rd Economy Gymnasium for assisting us with the implementation of the project, all professors and students who participated!
Dora Palić, Nika Stanko i Damjan Krstinić
US Department of State included data provided by the Women’s Room in the Human Rights Report for Croatia for 2009 (2009 Human Rights Report: Croatia).
Attendees of the ceremony, apart from members of the City Assembly, were representatives of the City of Zagreb, the Government, the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia, civil society organizations as well as previous awardees and numerous friends.
Lisbeth Salander is the main female character of the European novel that is current bestseller, trilogy Millenium. Why write about the novel, about the main character from some novel on the blog that is supposed to deal with feminism, violence… I decided to write about this novel because it deals with violence against women, and it seems to provide good answer to the first question in the title. Lisbeth Salander is a victim of violence. As a child she was witness of domestic violence, and later victim of sexual violence. Despite of this, she manages to survive and take control over her life.
The full text by Paula Zore is available on our blog (Croatian lanuguage only).
As explained in the Prize description on website of the City of Zagreb, the prize Female Citizen of the Year of Zagreb is awarded to female citizens of the City of Zagreb who have, through their activities, significantly contributed to the affirmation of women in the society and the public, affirmation of women’s human rights and gender equality as well as achieved visible results in raising the quality of life of women in the City of Zagreb in terms of economic, social, humanitarian or other status.
The award is presented on the International Women’s Day, on March 8.
This award is a nice symbolic practice that emphasizes importance of work on gender equality and serves as a recognition and support of everyone who works on these issues.
Very beneficial part of the training was exchange of experience between more than 20 participants who came from different countries in the region and represented different cultural and/or national groups as well as diverse sexual orientations.
Apart from defining main problems in the area of combating sexual violence and victims’ protection, discussion revolved around possibilities and the need for standardizing practice of all relevant stakeholders in reporting and processing sexual violence as well as providing assistance and support to victims.
This round table was financially supported by the European Commission, Embassy of Noeway in Croatia and City of Zagreb – Office for Social Protection and Persons with Disabilities.
More information at Women’s Room’s blog.
Members of Women’s Room actively participated at the 17th Annual Conference of Croatian Psychologists in Split. In the scope of the Symposium of the Section for Psychology of Sexuality titled The Field of Sexuality: Personal and Social Responsibility, we held 4 presentations:
- PROBLEM OF INFERTILITY AND BOUNDARIES OF RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSION (Ida Šamanović, Jasna Belamarić, Voljana Kapelina, Kristina Rogale Plazonić)
- POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN RAPE VICTIMS (Goran Arbanas, Maja Mamula)
- EXPERIENCE IN WORK WITH VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE (Ida Šamanović)
- CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE: SPECIFIC ISSUES FROM WORK EXPERIENCE (Ivana Dijanić Plašć, Maja Mamula, Maja Vukmanić, Iva Prskalo)
- EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE OF LGBT CLIENTS (Iva Žegura, Dalibor Stanić)
- SEXUAL EDUCATION OF YOUTH: RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS, SCHOOLS, CHURCH OR SOCIETY? (Asja Zenko, Iva Prskalo)
We are happy to say that presentations were excellent and over 90 psychologists in the audience expressed interest for our presentations. We would like to thank psychiatrist Goran Arbanas from the General hospital in Karlovac for cooperation.
Apart from participating in the Symposium, we organized a round table TWO FOUNDATION STONES IN THE WORK WITH WOMEN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE: INSTITUTIONAL AND NON-INSTITUTIONAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT (Maja Mamula, Ivana Dijanić Plašć, Gordana Sobol). Round table was attended by 12 psychologists who encounter women victims of different forms of violence in their everyday work. We had excellent discussion, exchange of experience and plans for development of cooperation.
Maja Mamula from the Women’s Room was invited by SOS Virovitica to deliver a lecture about sexual violence, forms, prevalence and results as well as a need for standardization of the practice in work with victims of sexual violence. Lecture was held on October 24, 2009, for representatives of relevant institutions such as police, State Attorney’s Office, courts, hospitals and Centers for Social Welfare.
Global Rights and International Human Rights Clinic (Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School) have submitted, together with Lesbian Organization Rijeka “LORI”, Organization Zagreb Pride and Women’s Room, report “The Violations of the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Persons in Croatia” for the occasion of 97th Session of the Human Rights Committee on October 14 and 15, 2009, in Geneva. This report offers an evaluation of Croatia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), particularly in regard to the protection of LGBT persons in Croatia.
8th meeting of the Network of Cooperation between Governmental Institutions and Nongovernmental Organizations against Sexual Violence was organized by the Women’s Room on October 23 – 24, 2009, in Terme Jezerčica. The Network of Cooperation has been active for eleven years and has over thirty members representing police, judiciary system, hospitals, centers for social welfare, schools and nongovernmental organizations.
Results of meetings/seminars held in the past are: creation of quality network between representatives of different institutions and organization; accessibility of information needed for improvement of work; development of the Code of Conduct in Cases of Sexual Violence in schools; development of the document “Recommendations for Changes regarding Sexual Violence: Legislative Changes, Victims’ Protection and Development of Prevention Programs”; as well as work on solving concrete cases from everyday work.
Emphasis of the meeting was: continuation of the work on the Code of Conduct in Cases of Sexual Violence that has been developed in the scope of the Working group for Development of the Analysis and Action Plan for Combating All Forms of Violence against Women with the Governmental Office for Gender Equality of the Republic of Croatia; duties and recommendations of specific institutions contained in the Code; as well as further development of public policies for combating of sexual violence and development of the efficient models for victims’ protection and development of prevention programs.
Meeting was held in the scope of the project “Zero tolerance towards sexual violence” supported by the European Commission and the Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb.
In honor of the European Day of Combating Trafficking of Human Beings on October 18, the Women’s Room participated in a public gathering on Flowers Square. The Governmental Office for Human Rights organized the gathering. The Women’s Room, together with representatives of other organizations from the PETRA Network (a network of nongovernmental organizations that focus on the prevention and elimination of trafficking in women and children), informed the public about the issue of trafficking in persons and distributed informational materials that have been created over our many years of working on these issues.
Maja Mamula delivered a workshop titled: “Trafficking in persons and sexual violence” on September 4, 2009 in Jezerčica. This workshop was a segment of the training organized for 16 members of multidisciplinary team for combating trafficking in human persons of Požeško-slavonska County. Training “Multidisciplinary team as a generator of prevention of trafficking in persons and education” was organized by Association Delfin from Pakrac.
The Women’s Room – Center for Sexual Rights is launching media campaign “STOP Sexual Violence”. Campaign will be organized in cooperation with the best Croatian design and marketing agencies such as Fingere, Imago, McCann Erickson, Reber, and Šesnić & Turkovi. Media sponsorship for the campaign is provided by the Europapress Holding (EPH) and Večernji list. The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness of the public about issues of sexual violence and abuse.
Sexual violence is one of the most severe, and at the same time the least reported, forms of violence. Together with family violence it represents dominant forms of gender-based violence, forms in which in most cases a man is the perpetrator and over 90% of victims are women. The most vulnerable group in regards to age is youth.
Sexual violence is widely present, from sexual harassment (unwanted sexual comments and offers, verbal invitations, physical touch and blackmail, upsetting phone calls, sexist comments and jokes) and sexual abuse (unwanted sexual behavior with the use of force and/or blackmail, which include physical contact with the perpetrator, such as unwanted and forced touching of intimate parts of the body, sexual activities manipulated through lies, blackmail, pressure) through rape to trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation and/or pornography.
Sexual violence occurs more often than most of the people think. Its consequences are far reaching and many people are not ready to admit that. Its price – psychological, health and economic, for the person, her family as well as for the greater community is enormous and it does not allow us a possibility of silent tolerance.
This double morality and lack of concerted action is based on an archaic patriarchal view that men own the right to women’s bodies. Thus, the notion that violence against women is an unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of conflict lives on. When it comes to practical politics the male power elite regard women’s rights as secondary. Politicians and decision-makers are evidently unable, or reluctant, to see women’s rights as an integral part of the security policy analysis. Sexualised violence challenges the traditional definition of a security threat and is not captured in the security analyst’s radar. This is not only a betrayal of half the world’s population, it also paves the way for inadequate decisions and priorities governing international peace and security.
The international community had a rude awakening during the Balkan and Rwandan wars when the systematic abuse of women first became conspicuous as a weapon for ethnic cleansing. The war years of the 1990s led to increased awareness and condemnation of sexualised violence in conflict. In a statute from 1998, the International Criminal Court lays down that sexualised violence constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity. In 2002 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, followed in June last year with Resolution 1820, which condemns the use of rape and other forms of sexualised violence, maintaining that this type of violence is a threat to international peace and security. These resolutions are the cornerstones in the struggle for women’s rights. But there is a problem; the words have not yet been put into concrete actions by world nations.
Reallocate the resources in ongoing peace promoting initiatives to switch the focus to protecting women and girls where they are most vulnerable, for instance, in internally displaced refugee camps where they collect firewood and fetch water near road blocks.
Support national initiatives to bring legal action against sexualised violence as a war crime. This requires support for reforming legal systems. Internationally, orders that encourage or permit the use of rape as a war tactic should be monitored more effectively.
Greatly increased resources to sexual and reproductive health care to enable survivors of sexualised violence to receive the care they are entitled to.
The heads of UN missions must be held responsible for breaching the UN’s own zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation. UN missions must have an equal gender division and all staff educated in women’s human rights and UN codes of behaviour.
Local women’s organisations play a crucial role in empowering women’s self-esteem and promoting human rights. According to the UN special rapporteurs for human rights defenders, women activists are particularly vulnerable. They need increased support and political acknowledgement.
The world’s women can wait no longer. We demand action of our political leaders. Gordon Brown, Hu Jintao, Dmitry Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, what do you plan to do?
Lena Ag, President of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Sweden
Dr Denis Mukwege, Chief Surgeon at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize and the 2008 Olof Palme Prize
Maja Mamula, Women’s Room, Croatia
Mira Vilušić, Horizonti, Tuzla
Berijana Ačkar, Center for Legal Asistance, Zenica
Maja Mamula, together with activists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives of Swedish organization Kvinna till Kvinna, visited Democratic Republic of Congo from May 15 through 24, 2009. The aim of the visit was exchange of experience about sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and DR Congo. You can read about impressions from this trip on our blog .
The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia will be celebrated this year again on May 17th. Women’s Room joined other human rights organizations from across the globe in the appeal to the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the States of the World to reject transphobia and respect gender identity.
The last day of the two-week training for volunteers of the Center for Victims of Sexual Violence was on April 29, 2009. Volunteers received a certificate for completed education and we signed volunteering contracts with them. Training was delivered by Women’s Room’s members: Maja Mamula (coordinator of the organization), Maja Vukmanić (coordinator of the Center for Victims of Sexual Violence), Paula Zore (financial and office coordinator), Mirna Zolić (coordinator of educational program), Iva Prskalo (project assistant) and Dalibor Stanić (project assistant).
We would like to thank all the volunteers who participated in the training as well as lecturers (Ksenija Maslo, Ida Šamanović, Jelena Levak) who shared their knowledge and experience with volunteers.
On March 26, 2009, Women’s Room delivered four workshops about prevention of sexual violence for students of secondary schools in Vukovar. These workshops constitute a part of the program “Implementation of Prevention Program against Sexual Violence in Schools”, funded by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. Trainers, Maja Vukmanić and Mirna Zolić, delivered workshops in Economic Gymnasium, Vukovar and Technical Secondary School “Nikola Tesla”. 54 students attended workshops.
Women’s Room participated in the international conference “Ways of Implementing the EU Directives on Violence against Women, Children and Youth: Good Practice and Recommendations”. Conference was held in Ljubljana from March 20 through 22, 2009. Maja Mamula (Women’s Room) and Lepa Mlađenović (Autonomous Women’s Center, Belgrade) presented a paper: “Justice for sexual violence survivors: Women’s organisations developing counseling for emotional healing and public policies”.
We are organizing a free 26-hour training. Training topics will include: sexual violence, consequences of sexual violence, mechanisms of support for victims of sexual violence, the Code of Conduct in Cases of Sexual Violence, direct work with victims of sexual violence and their friends and family as well as counseling skills:
Aims of the training:
After the training, you will be equipped for direct work with victims of sexual violence.
Training will last for six days – two-hour lectures/trainings and one weekend (April 17 and 18) in the period from April 16 through 29, 2009. Training will be held in Zagreb, in Women’s Room and weekend sessions will be held on Sljeme (accommodation and food expenses will be covered). Training is intended for students. After the training, we expect you to volunteer for approximately 40 hours in the Women’s Room. Deadline for applications is April 8, 2009. We accept applications via email zenska.soba@zenskasoba.hr or via phone: 01/611 91 74. Applications should include short bio and motivational letter.
We are looking forward to your participation!
Women’s Room Team
The Vagina Monologues at the Zagreb Puppet Theater
Scene Travno at 8 PM
Center for Women’s Studies, in cooperation with Center for Women War Victims and Women’s Room, is organizing V-Day, Day against Violence against Women. This year marks a ten-year anniversary of The Vagina Monologues in the region. This performance promotes awareness about violence against women and girls as well as women’s activism against violence against women and girls. Our three organisations have been successfully organizing V-Day in the past years, so we decided to ‘unite forces’ and organize another successful V-Day. Eve Ensler, writer and feminist activist, who received awards for promotion of women’s human rights, author of the renown Vagina Monologues, and founder of the movement against violence against women and girls V-Day will also be joining us for the event. V-Day – global movement against violence against women and girls celebrated last year its tenth anniversary in New Orleans. 30.000 women and men attended this celebratory performance of The Vagina Monologues (www.vday.org). So far, V-Day has raised, through performances of The Vagina Monologues, over $60 million that was used to support activities against violence against women in local communities. This year’s income from tickets is intended for Center’s Fund of Feminist Solidarity.
This leaflet was funded by the European Commission and the Embassy of Finland in Zagreb.
| Training for police: Zero tolerance to sexual violence |
Women’s Room will be conducting training for volunteers of the Center for Victims of Sexual Violence in March. The duration of the training will be 26 hours. We ask anyone who is interested in volunteering to contact us on Women’s Room’s email.
Women’s Room’s address has changed on September 8, 2008. After hard moving process, we have finally settled into new spaces on the second floor at Maksimirska 51a Street. We are continuing out activities from our new office.
The second expanded and updated edition of Kreacija spola? Roda? is now available on more pages and with bigger font :), still questioning terms sex and gender on social and individual levels, and in the fields of legislation, Medicine, Biology, language, sexuality, education, history, politics, activism and human rights.
Primary users for whom Creation is intended are: activists, students, schools, universities, public libraries, civil society networks, relevant institutions and organizations for human, women and LGBTIQ rights in the region and beyond.
This edition of Kreacija is also available in English as Creation of Sex? Gender?
Creation of both editions was enabled by the financial assistance of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and COC Netherlands /HIVOS .
You can download both versions at www.zenskasoba.hr. For your own hard copy, please contact the Women’s Room and the Organization Q and at the following email addresses: jelena.postic@gmail.com, sdurkovic74@yahoo.com and hodzic@policy.hu.
Enjoy Creation!
Maja Mamula (Women’s Room) delivered lecture “Gender-based Violence / Sexual Violence” on February 20, 2009 in the Public Library in Daruvar.
Lecture was open to public and it was met with great interest. Lecture was held at 7 pm on Thursday and attracted 75 participants. Short discussion followed after the lecture.
This lecture was organized through invitation from the director of the Public Library, Romana Horvat. Thanks to her, public in Daruvar had possibilities of listening to a series of interesting lectures in the scope of the Psychology Week in Croatia.
On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, Maja Mamula (Women’s Room) delivered lecture about gender equality at the SDP’s Women’s Forum Novi Zagreb – east and Novi Zagreb – west. The 19 attendees of the lecture expressed high level of interest for the topic, specifically topics related to women’s political participation, discrimination and gender stereotypes.
This lecture was a part of Women’s Room’s program “abcDA! of Gender Equality”. The aim of this program is raising awareness and informing youth, women and public about basic concepts of sex/gender equality and mechanisms for encouraging and supporting social equality.