By carrying out a street action entitled «Without Shame» the women activists celebrated International Day against Violence over Women on Friday and the first day of the campaign «16 days of activism against violence over women» which will last until December 10, the International Human Rights Day. (25-NOV-05)
This year campaign´s topic is sexual violence and especially court treatment of raped women. The installation of court cases of raped women from the age of 15 until 70 were put on Zagreb Cvjetni trg, and examples of court sentences with minimal prison punishments were shown.
-The message «Without Shame» is dedicated to women who should report rape or any other kind of harassment without any shame while as well as to the attackers and competent authorities saying that humiliating court and investigative procedures «shamelessly» additionally wound rape victim by bringing into question her credibility and morality, stressed the coordinator of women right organisation B.a.b.e, Sanja Sarnavka.
According to the police data, in first 10 months of this year 71 criminal acts of rape were reported, which is 17% less than in the same period last year. However, it is believed that only every 20th rape is reported in our as well as in other developed countries of the world. Women do not report rape out of fear, shame and humiliating court procedures in which often absurdities such as the case of a 15-year-old girl who was accused of provoking a 40-year-old man to rape her.
-Behaviour of the victim or the way the victim was dressed cannot be considered an alleviating circumstance for rape, stated Sarnavka.
Foreseen punishment for rape is one to ten years in prison according to the European legislature, but the court practice shows that the pronounced punishments for rape in Croatia are far milder than in the European practice.
