Femicide, as the most extreme form of gender-based violence, is still present in Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) society, and 2025 has not passed without victims. On this occasion, we examined what has been done so far regarding femicide in BiH.
United Nations (UN) data showed that 50.000 women were killed worldwide in 2024, and 12 victims were recorded in BiH. Victims of femicide are women who suffered long-term domestic or intimate partner violence, mostly previously reported to the competent services. Most of them were killed by a partner.
In BiH, femicide is not an isolated incident. Civil society organizations and safe houses have been warning for years that capacities for the protection of women in BiH are insufficient. The presence of femicide in our everyday lives shows that violence against women is a huge social problem.
Statistical data on the number of women killed in BiH are more than alarming. According to available data from the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH, 56 women were killed in the period from 2015 to 2020. In the period from 2021 to 2022, 16 women were killed.
In the period from 2023 to 2024, 35 women were killed. According to data from the Agency for Gender Equality, 31 women were killed in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and four in Republika Srpska (RS). Of the total number of women killed, 17 were in some form of intimate relationship with the perpetrator.
According to the cited data, 107 women have been killed in BiH since 2015. For 2025, there are still no statistics on the number of women killed, but the femicide case from Mostar, when Aldina Jahic was killed, resonated most strongly. Anis Kalajdzic has been charged with this murder and is currently in custody.
Police officers of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC), when submitting their report, characterized this criminal offense as aggravated murder of a woman, which represents one of the first cases with this qualification after the adoption of the Law on Femicide.
What have we done regarding femicide?
In May 2025, a major step was taken toward combating violence against women when the FBiH adopted the Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Criminal Code of the FBiH, which treats femicide as aggravated murder of a woman.
The Law states that anyone who commits a gender-based murder of a woman will be punished with imprisonment ranging from 10 years to long-term imprisonment. In addition, the amendments also relate to sexual intercourse with a helpless person, with a child, and abuse of position, as well as coercion into sexual intercourse, lewd acts, gratification of lust in front of a child or minor, exploitation of a child or minor for pornography, and introducing a child to pornography.
However, at the level of BiH, we do not have a law that treats femicide as a criminal offense. It also does not exist as a separate criminal offense in the Criminal Code of the RS.
The European Union (EU) and the UN launched a new program in December 2025 worth 7.5 million euros with the aim of strengthening prevention and assistance to victims of gender-based violence, including femicide, in BiH. More than 100.000 BiH citizens in 2025 supported, with their signatures, the Initiative to introduce femicide into the Criminal Code of the FBiH, as well as the Initiative to adopt a new Law on Protection from Domestic Violence in RS.
It should be recalled that after the murder of Aldina Jahic in Mostar, citizens organized protests against femicide.
Although in the FBiH we have a new legal framework that tightens prison sentences and provides measures to combat violence against women and domestic violence, cases of femicide are still being recorded in BiH. The question arises as to whether, as a society, we have done enough to confront this severe form of violence and what more we can do.
Alma Kratina, a representative in the Parliament of the FBiH, said that it is necessary to adopt all bylaws.
“After the adoption of the new Law on Protection from Domestic Violence and Violence against Women, the Draft Amendments and Supplements to the Criminal Code, as well as the Strategy for the Prevention of and Fight against Domestic Violence, the prerequisites have been created for full protection and support for victims, as well as harsher punishment of perpetrators. However, for us to be able to say in our reality that we have made real progress as a society in protecting victims, and before that in prevention, it is necessary to adopt all the bylaws. Unfortunately, the Government, that is, the competent ministries, is late with this task,” Kratina said.
She emphasized that broad, comprehensive education of all actors in the protection chain is necessary, both in the police and centers for social work, as well as in the judiciary and prosecution.
“People who work with victims must be sensitized to resolving these extremely complex situations. Better coordination among all institutions in the process of protecting victims is necessary, and this is, among other things, defined by the new law. Awareness of the importance of working on violence prevention has nevertheless been raised to a higher level after violence long ago left the private sphere. There is still much to be done, but there is certain progress,” Kratina stated.
She added that serious media campaigns are needed through which we will talk about prevention, but also about empowering victims after the traumatic experience they have gone through.
“In a society in which we witness aggressive outbursts, deviant behavior, and the issue of insufficient protection of mental health on a daily basis, much needs to be improved in order to reduce the major problem of domestic violence and violence against women,” she concluded.
The problem of violence in BiH
Psychologist Emina Kucuk spoke about the issue of violence in our society. As she pointed out, it is important to talk about it because the issue of violence in our society, and in general as a global construct, is so complex, multidimensional, deeply rooted, and normalized that it cannot be simply explained or presented in any way.
“Never in the history of human nature has it happened that an abuser stopped being an abuser because you politely asked him not to be. Or because you presented him with all the rational, factual, plainly obvious evidence as to why he should not be one or why the victim does not deserve it,” she said.
She points out that emotions that exist and awaken within us exist to enable our survival. She states that violence is a problem deeply rooted in all spheres of our society.
Furthermore, she emphasizes that a victim can make a victim of themselves. She adds that an abuser can perceive himself as a victim because he did not get what he believes belongs to him.
“Violence is a problem deeply rooted in all spheres of our society. The unit of measurement for the normalization of aggression and violence in our lives is the time spent in aggressive and violent relationships and relations – business, private, family, friendly, partner. A healthy form of behavior implies recognizing violence in all its shades, because violence is a multidimensional construct, and setting clear boundaries and leaving such relationships,” she states.
She adds that people resort to violence when they are powerless to convert their inner fears, frustrations, or other emotions in accordance with their own capacities.
“Simply put: a man who will beat and kill a woman is a coward. A coward is like a beast that attacks when it senses weakness. Weakness can mean economic, emotional, existential dependence on a partner, or any other weakness in relation to a partner. Given the prevalence of all forms of violence against women, these cowards know very well how weak the system is and how many of their ‘accomplices’ are in high positions in society. Physical abusers are, in 99 percent of cases, also psychological abusers, who use manipulation aimed at making you feel as if you are losing your mind. You feel as though you don’t know where arguments begin, where they end, or why. You don’t know where the tangle starts or ends, and you constantly try to unravel and understand the resulting entanglement,” she said.
Kucuk adds that an abuser can also be a person who was abused by their environment or peers and then finds their victim in a woman.
“Abusers are raised; during upbringing, someone adopted a violent pattern of behavior that was neither adequately addressed nor adequately sanctioned. He observed the treatment of a father toward a mother or toward others. To all victims of violence, I want to say that there is always someone who will understand them, who will love them, and protect them. Be brave, leave violent relationships, whoever that abuser may be in your life,” she concluded, Klix.ba writes.
