Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/croatia/)
When a university student started helping refugees by offering them tea and blankets and playing with the children, male classmates asked strange questions. “Are you expecting to be rewarded for that? Are you going to get money?”
The facility conceals its location to protect its occupants. But a new government policy requiring inspections, part of a larger movement to tighten control over civil society, could expose it.
Traveling through Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia with the Women’s Refugee Commission was eerie. So much of what I heard echoed my own family’s experience, decades ago.
Most survivors who applied for compensation, including legal aid, medical insurance and rehabilitation, are still waiting for the decision. Implementation of the new law is slower than many would like and will determine how many more survivors will come forward.
A long-overdue law guaranteeing reparations for wartime rape that passed on May 29 is cause for celebration. But the challenges in drafting and passing it could portend difficulty in widespread implementation, set to begin this fall.
Croatian women over 50 and those of childbearing age are having a tough time finding work in an economy saddled with a jobless rate of over 17 percent. Two women from either end of the age spectrum talk about the job bias they live with.
Croatia’s war ended in 1995 but soldiers who returned home with post-traumatic stress never received adequate assistance. One group of veterans’ wives took it upon themselves to help form 11 centers to help families cope.
In the former Yugoslav republics, dating violence is common and boys are typically reared to understand force. One organization is using educational brochures and school workshops to teach teens an alternative.