Croatia

Overview

Homosexuality has been legal in Croatia since 1977. The status of same-sex relationships was officially recognised in 2003 under the Law on Unregistered Cohabitations. In 2014 Croatian Parliament voted the Life Partnership Act which grants LGBT persons same rights as heterosexual couples, without the right to adopt children. Croatia has an academic community which is dedicated to the research to LGBT and Gender studies. 

• An overview of rights and legal acts by ILGA Europe [in English].
• Country ranking by ILGA Europe [in English].

Academic Institutions

• Centre for Women Studies is the first non-institutional educational centre in Croatia. It was founded by a group of feminists, theorists and scholars, peace activists and artists in 1995. The Centre provides an interdisciplinary program and expert knowledge on women’s issues and is a meeting point for academic discourse, artistic practice, activist engagement.
• The Centre for Youth and Gender Studies is part of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb.

Resources

Books

• Bilić, B. (2020). Trauma, Violence, and Lesbian Agency in Croatia and Serbia: Building Better Times. Springer Nature.
• Bilić, B., & Radoman, M. (2019). Lesbian activism in the (post-)Yugoslav space: Sisterhood and unity. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bilić, B., & Kajinic, S. (2016). Intersectionality and LGBT activist politics: Multiple others in Croatia and Serbia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bilić, B. (2016). LGBT activism and Europeanisation in the post-Yugoslav space: On the rainbow way to Europe. (Palgrave studies in European political sociology). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Fejes, N., & Balogh, A. (2012). Queer visibility in post-socialist cultures. Bristol: Intellect books.
• Hassenstab, Ramet, Hassenstab, Christine, & Ramet, Sabrina P. (2015). Gender (in)equality and gender politics in Southeastern Europe: A question of justice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Mlinaric, M. (2017). Dissense über sexuelle Differenz in Serbien und Kroatien eine qualitative Dispositivanalyse postjugoslawischer Massenmedien (2009-2013) und quantitative Sekundärdatenauswertung der European Values Study (2008) zu Homophobie im Westbalkan. (Forschungen zu Südosteuropa ; Band 15). Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Mole, R. (2021). Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe. London: UCL Press.

Dissertations

• Kahlina, K. (2013). Sexual Politics of Belonging: Sexual Identities, Nationalism, and Citizenship in Post-Yugoslav Croatia. (Unpublished doctoral theses). Central European University.

Periodicals

Selected articles

• Antulov, S.,  Bertoša M. (2011). “Beyond Morality.” Discourse on Homosexuality in Croatian Newspapers from the Sociosemiotic Perspective: Comparison of Two Periods, sic Vol.1(2).
• Butterfield, N. (2017). Imagined Rural/Regional Spaces: Non-Normative Sexualities in Small Towns and Rural Communities in Croatia. Journal of Homosexuality, 65(13), 1-25.
• Bonfiglioli, Kahlina, & Zaharijević. (2015). Transformations of gender, sexuality and citizenship in South East Europe. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 43-47.
• Kahlina, K. (2015). Local histories, European LGBT designs: Sexual citizenship, nationalism, and "Europeanisation" in post-Yugoslav Croatia and Serbia. Women's Studies International Forum, 49, 73-83.
• Kuhar, R. Playing with science: Sexual citizenship and the Roman Catholic Church counter-narratives in Slovenia and Croatia. Women's Studies International Forum, March-April 2015, Vol.49, pp.84-92.
• Sagasta, S. (2001). I. Lesbians in Croatia. European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol.8(3), pp.357-372.
• Vuletic, Dean. (2013). Out of the homeland: The Croatian Right and Gay Rights. Southeastern Europe,  Vol.37(1), pp.36-5.

Repositories

• Croatian Digital Dissertations Repository [in Croatian and English].
• Croatian Digital Theses Repository [in Croatian and English].
• Institute for Social Research in Zagreb repository [in Croatian and English].

Data and statistics

• Croatia hate crime data by OSCE ODIHR [in English].
• European LGBT Survey, 2012. FRA Europe [in English].
• State-Sponsored Homophobia report - latest edition, includes maps and dataset, ILGA Europe - a world survey of sexual orientation laws + older editions [in English].

Reports

• Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex People in Croatia covering the period of January to December 2020. ILGA Europe [in English].
• ECRI - Country monitoring in Croatia. Reports, 1998 - 2021 [in English].
• ILGA-Europe's submissions to Progress Reports of the European Union [in English].
• Life on the Margins: Survey Results of the Experiences of LGBTI People in Southeastern Europe. World Bank Group, September 2018 [in English].
• Violence against lesbians, gays and bisexuals in Croatia: research report by Aleksandra Pikić, Ivana Jugović / Lesbian group Kontra, 2006 [in English].

News portals

• CrOL LGBT Newsportal [in Croatian].
• Libela -  portal o rodu, spolu i demokratiji [in Croatian].
• Vox Feminae [in Croatian].
• Gay u obitelji [in Croatian].

Digital libraries and archives

• Croatian historic newspapers - the portal that provides access to digitised Croatian newspapers from the collections of National and University Library in Zagreb and other heritage institutions in Croatia [in Croatian].
• Croatian Web Archive [in Croatian].
• National Digital Collections - contains digitised manuscripts, documents, photograps, maps and more from the collections of National and University Library in Zagreb and other heritage institutions in Croatia [in Croatian].

Organisations

• Dugine Obitelji NGO for LGBT persons who would like to become parents [in Croatian].
• ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey is a Regional Association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer organizations from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. [in English].
• Iskorak, Civil Society Organisation offering psychological support and free legal aid to LGBT persons [in Croatian].
• Lesbian Group Kontra  is a feminist non-governmental organization working on lesbian human rights. It was founded by women who were feminist activist groups and founders of first lesbian group in Croatia – Lila Initiative (1989). Their Library owns over 800 books and 100 films, see their LGBT book catalogue and film catalogue [in Croatian, English].
• Lori Lesbian Organisation in Rijeka​ [in Croatian, English].
• TransAid an Association for the protection of Trans rights [in Croatian].
• Zagreb Pride is a queer-feminist and anti-fascist organization committed to activism for solidarity and equality. [in Croatian, English].

Other resources

• Centre for Civic Initiatives in Porec [in Croatian].
• ERA - Online Resource Centre [in English].