Croatia

The 2008 Anti-Discrimination Law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in access to public and private services or to access to establishments serving the public. The Office of the Ombudperson for Gender Equality accepts and reviews citizen complaints of discrimination, and the Office for Gender Equality monitors, reports, and makes recommendations regarding human rights policies.

The Criminal Code was amended in 2006 to include provisions that criminalize violence and hate speech based on sexual orientation, and new provisions of the penal code, adopted in 2012, punish crimes based on gender identity. 

Although marriage is defined solely as a union between a man and a woman, the Law on Life Partnerships of Persons of the Same Sex, adopted in 2014, established civil unions for same-sex couples. Civil unions provide all legal and economic benefits of marriage except for the right to adopt children. However, a subsequent decision of the High Administrative Court in 2022 held that same-sex couples can jointly adopt.   Croatia does not require medical procedures, such as sterilization, surgical interventions, or hormonal treatment, as preconditions for legal gender recognition. However, it requires a mental disorder diagnosis, an assessment of time lived in the new gender identity, and a single civil status, forcing those who are married to get divorced​​. Intersex children are subjected to intersex genital mutilation, often without the informed consent of either the children themselves or their parents.   Public attitudes remain sharply divided, and the country has seen an increase in anti-LGBTIQ hate speech in recent years. Croatia ranks 63rd out of 175 countries on the Global Acceptance Index.

*Outright research indicates that the bodily autonomy of intersex people is not respected and protected in this country.