Women’s organizations across Bosnia and Herzegovina called for protests on Friday warning of violence against women and their increasingly frequent murders, under the slogan "no to femicide".

The call is spreading on social networks, and it is shared by women's associations and activists who referred, among other things, to the horrific murder of a woman from the north-western city of Bihac, whose killer, her husband who suffocated her, was not caught immediately but is still successfully in hiding. They also recalled that, according to unofficial and incomplete statistics, over 60 women have been killed since 2017.

They demand the following from BiH authorities:

– Introducing the legal definition of femicide,

– Introduction of femicide as a criminal offence in all laws and by-laws,

– Urgent harmonization of criminal laws with the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) and revision of penal practices,

– Ensuring prevention and protection against violence against women through competent institutions and multi-sector protocols,

– Consistent application of the law in cases where there is death as a result of domestic violence, that the perpetrator be judged according to the provisions of the law, which will establish a more severe punishment.

The protests are planned in Bihac, Banja Luka, Gracanica, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Zenica and Stolac.