Sanja Merćep photographed Cvijeta Senta at Human Rights House Zagreb, Croatia, in June 2026, for the fourth edition of the “Portraits of Strength” photography series.

Why did you become a human rights defender?

I became a human rights defender because I was raised to believe that standing aside in the face of injustice was not an option.

My mother, a feminist and a deeply unconventional woman, taught me early on to question authority, speak up, and refuse indifference.

Later, growing up during the wars of the 1990s in Croatia and witnessing nationalism, violence, privatisation, and the social injustices that followed deeply shaped my political and personal worldview. Human rights work emerged naturally from that experience as a way to resist fear, exclusion, and inequality.

What is the nature of your work, and what challenges do you face as a Woman Human Rights Defender?

One of the hardest things about human rights work is realising that history does not move in a straight line. There is a meme of an older woman protesting with a sign that says: “I can’t believe I’m still protesting against this shit.” That feeling resonates with me.

Just when one struggle calms down, another appears: nationalism, racism, attacks on women’s rights, shrinking civic space, violence against minorities, and militarisation. The context changes, but the underlying patterns often remain painfully familiar.

As a woman human rights defender, you also face a constant expectation to remain resilient, composed, politically sharp, emotionally available, and ready to react to every new crisis indefinitely. That ongoing exhaustion is rarely acknowledged, yet many women in this field carry it quietly for years.

What is the current human rights situation in Croatia?

The current human rights situation in Croatia reflects broader trends visible across Europe. We are witnessing growing inequality, political polarisation, and the normalisation of fear and exclusion. Hostility towards migrants, minorities, women, LGBTQ+ people, and those who challenge dominant political narratives is becoming increasingly visible and socially tolerated.

I am also deeply concerned by the growing militarisation of politics and public discourse, as well as the tendency to justify violence, border brutality, and discrimination in the name of security or geopolitical interests. The ongoing destruction and mass suffering in Gaza, which many human rights organisations and experts describe as genocidal, have further exposed the double standards that continue to shape global human rights politics. Too often, human rights appear to apply selectively depending on who is affected and whose suffering is politically visible.

At the same time, social and economic rights are increasingly undermined by precarious work, rising living costs, housing insecurity, privatisation, and widening inequality. Civil society organisations and human rights defenders continue to play an essential role, but many are working under constant pressure, exhaustion, and uncertainty.

I remain hopeful because people continue to organise, resist, and stand in solidarity with one another. That persistence reminds me that human rights are not only legal principles but also a daily practice of defending each other’s dignity.

What kind of human rights situation in Croatia would you like to see in the next 30 years?

In the next 30 years, I would like to see human rights understood and lived as truly universal, and not selectively applied depending on geography, political alliances, race, or economic interests.

I hope for societies free from fear, nationalism, racism, and the acceptance of violence and inequality as inevitable parts of political and economic life. I would like solidarity, dignity, housing, healthcare, education, and safety to be understood as collective rights rather than privileges reserved for some.

I would also like to see a world less shaped by geopolitical domination, militarisation, and the West’s continued political and economic hegemony. Too often, the language of human rights is used selectively, while wars, exploitation, border violence, and structural inequalities are tolerated or justified when they serve powerful interests.

For human rights to truly matter in the future, they must be defended consistently, including when it is politically inconvenient.

Most of all, I hope future generations will grow up believing that empathy, equality, solidarity, and collective responsibility are not signs of weakness, but the foundations of a just society.

Do human rights still matter?

Human rights still matter because societies continue to prove how easily people can accept violence, exclusion, inequality, and the dehumanisation of others when it serves political, economic, or ideological interests.

Recent years have shown that rights are never guaranteed. They survive only as long as people are willing to defend them.

For me, human rights are not an abstract moral language or a symbolic European value. They are a political and ethical insistence that no person should be treated as disposable.

Human rights work is often frustrating, slow, and full of contradictions, but abandoning it would mean accepting that some lives matter less than others. I cannot accept that.

What is your motivation as a human rights defender?

Human rights work is exhausting and often slow, but standing aside has never felt like an option.

About Portraits of Strength

Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) work to protect and advance freedoms while facing discrimination and stereotypes about their role and participation in society.

HRHF’s “Portraits of Strength” photography series honours the vital role that women play in defending human rights, and portrays women human rights defenders from across the Network of Human Rights Houses.

The exhibition, now in its fourth edition, shares portraits taken by local women photographers and tells the stories from WHRDs working on a variety of issues, including the documentation of human rights violations and alleged war crimes, rule of law, women’s rights, political prisoners, freedom of expression, and more.

Find out more here.