Nomination of Heather Mills McCartney
for her generous support toCroatian people
An international organization called the "Women's eNews" is an independent daily news source covering issues of particular concern to women which they distribute daily via e-mail and post on their Web site. Every year they invite their readers to nominate individuals whose work for women has not received sufficient recognition. This year's nomination, called "21 Leaders for the 21st Century" has been submitted by me nominating the Croatian Women's Human Rights Group called "B.a.B.e." Specifically, I named Nevenka Sudar who works for B.a.B.e. www.babe.hr/eng Read about their latest work from Croatia in the article "16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women".
The second person I nominated is Heather Mills McCartney for her generous support to Croatian people and other needy countries with her work at "Adopt-A-Minefield" organization www.landmines.org
Among thousands of nominations, the final selections will be announced on December 31 on their Web site and e-mail news www.womensnews.org
Katarina Tepesh tepeshk@aol.com
16 days of activism against violence against women
Nov. 25th - December 10th 2003
PHOTO ALBUM of ACTION in ZAGREB
PHOTO ALBUM of ACTION IN SPLIT
Reports about Campaign from various Croatian towns
Croatian Women's Network celebrated November 25th as The International Day Against Violence Against Women and the beginning of the international campaign "16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women".
20 silhouettes of women killed by their spouses and partners in the course of the past year and a half were placed at main squares in Zagreb in order to show the seriousness of the problem of domestic violence and the necessity for the state and the society as a whole to treat this problem systematically and efficiently.
With questions: Why are they silent? Why are they not among us? we ask ourselves and all of us what has been done in order to prevent these crimes. The question Who is next? warns us and demands urgent action. The laws, no matter how imperfect they might be, exist, but the willingness to implement them on daily basis is still lacking. Social care centers, police, health care employees, courts have not succeeded in prevention of domestic violence. Without cooperation, long-term planning and agreements, there will be no substantial improvement.
Croatian Women's Network produced and shot a video named "Violence Against Women is a CRIME, what is the PUNISHMENT?" which will be broadcast on Croatian public television during 16 days. 2000 posters and 2000 postcards have also been printed and distributed. 20 silhouettes made from plywood were placed at public squares of various Croatian towns (Slavonski Brod, Zagreb, Karlovac, Virovitica, Pula, Zadar, Split, Virovitica, Vukovar and Osijek) as silent witnesses of murdered women.
Nobody builds monuments for women victims of violence, they do not receive medals for bravery. We can't let them be forgotten and at least for a day, for an hour, we shall make the citizens of Croatia think about the reasons why so many women and children have been deprived of the safety of their own homes, why do they have to live in it in violence until one day they are murdered because the society can not protect them.
This year the Campaign 16 days is coordinated simultaneously in 20 countries of the region. The project has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the Open Society Budapest and the Croatian Office for Human Rights and the Committee for Gender Equality.
