Equality Before the Law

The legal obligation imposed on young people – but only if they are men – to serve a term of compulsory military service remains one of the last explicit examples of sex discrimination in Croatian law.

Furthermore, those who have served in the military become members of the Assigned Reserve and may be conscripted for up to 30 days annually for additional military service. When the calling-up of recruits is not in effect, men are legally obligated to register at their local Defense Bureau when they turn 18 years of age, thereby becoming members of the Unassigned Reserve of the Armed Forces.

The provisions of the Defense Act, as well as the Government’s legislative proposal which would once again initiate the calling-up of recruits for compulsory military service or basic military training, not only plainly discriminate men by limiting their freedom and imposing obligations on them based on their sex, but also disparage the contribution of women in the Armed Forces by disregarding their individual capability.

Men and women serve alongside each other in the Croatian Armed Forces as professional soldiers and voluntary recruits on an equal footing, contributing to the security and defense of the Republic of Croatia. This is proof that both men and women are capable of military service in the Armed Forces.

The Government’s plan to reintroduce compulsory military service for men, while keeping it voluntary for women, implies that only men are capable of fulfilling the needs for which conscription is being reintroduced, while women may, if they happen to wish so, merely join in. In this way, harmful stereotypes are not only perpetuated but enshrined into law.

The Croatian Constitution defines national defense as the duty of all citizens capable of military service. The only exceptions are those deemed unfit for service – such as Prime Minister Plenković himself. Women currently serving in the Armed Forces prove every day that they are fully capable of contributing to the defense of the nation.

To be perfectly clear, this Initiative does not call for extending to women the obligations currently imposed on men, nor those that the Government’s proposal would further expand. On the contrary, we demand that the Government stop assigning compulsory duties to one group of citizens solely on the basis of sex. If the legislature requires a group of citizens to report to a Defense Bureau, undergo physical examinations, register for and perform military service or alternative civil service in the case of conscientious objection, those obligations cannot be imposed based on sex.

The Constitution guarantees equality before the law, ensures that every person enjoys rights and freedoms regardless of sex, and upholds equality of the sexes as one of the highest constitutional values and a cornerstone for interpreting the Constitution itself. We cannot be equal before the law if a group of citizens is required to perform military or government service simply because they are members of a particular sex.

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