Murders of women committed by men are being prosecuted more and more often as hate crimes around the world, but in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) this is not yet the practice. Last year, protest marches were held in several cities of BiH, demanding the introduction of a new criminal offense – femicide – in order to increase the penalties.
“Recently, we have really witnessed the cruelest and most brutal murders of women, not even pregnant women were spared. We had a case in Serbia, last year in Tuzla, a few years ago in our Bijeljina,” Mirzeta Tomljanovic from the Safe House in Bijeljina points out.
To treat the killing of women as a criminal offense of femicide, and not as domestic violence – is a demand that has been awaiting an answer from the authorities since the protest marches in 13 local communities in BiH last year.
“I think that the criminal legislation must be changed and that femicide must be included in the legislation in order to sanction the perpetrators because this will prevent future situations of femicide in BiH,” believes Vildana Dzekman from the “Cure” (“Girls”) Association.
While police statistics are getting darker and show that more and more women are exposed to violence and that younger women are involved, psychologists believe that femicide is a far wider phenomenon than what is presented to the public.
“It is somewhat of a phenomenon, an undesirable social phenomenon that has always existed, but in recent years there has been more and more talk about it. It is hatred against women and murder committed against persons of the female gender, just because they are female,” emphasizes psychologist Radmila Tubic.
“I think that as a society we are more concerned with the consequences, and there is little prevention. I think we should work on prevention from an early age,” says Mirzeta Tomljanovic.
The longest sentence imposed for femicide in BiH for the period from 2017 to 2021 is 30 years, and the shortest is a one-year sentence for attempted femicide. 31 perpetrators were sentenced to prison.
