Women's organisations held coordinated protests in 17 towns and cities across Croatia on Monday, ahead of the country's National Day Against Violence Against Women (observed on September 22), calling for sweeping legal and institutional reform to protect women from gender-based violence. The demonstrations were sparked in part by the killing of a woman in the eastern town of Slatina on September 8, following years of reported abuse, and by subsequent remarks from Family and Social Policy Minister Alen Ruzic, who suggested the victim bore some responsibility because she had withdrawn protective measures — a statement activists condemned as reflecting a fundamental misunderstanding of domestic violence dynamics. Protesters, coordinated by groups including the Women's Network of Croatia, demanded a dedicated law on gender-based violence, standardised risk assessment procedures for femicide, mandatory specialist training for officials, and accountability for institutional failures — noting that 10 of the 19 women killed in Croatia last year were murdered by perpetrators already known to police.