Emphasising that violence against women is widespread and that it occurs both in developed and underdeveloped countries, Buchhorn warned that abuse of women had far-reaching consequences, undermining the families and the community as well as damaging the human and economic development.
The World Organisation is giving support to governments, civil society associations, citizens and individuals in their efforts to stop violence against women, he said.
According to him, the "Living Life Free of Violence" campaign is designed to bring awareness to the public on the issue of violence and to encourage citizens, especially victims, to report domestic violence.
Buchhorn urged men to stop thinking that violence in the family was a private matter.
Domestic violence is gross violence of human rights, and therefore men should be engaged in the struggle against domestic violence, the UN representative said.
The Zagreb chief of police, Tomislav Buterin, said that the aim of the campaign, conducted from 8 to 24 November, was to make the public sensitive to the need that domestic violence must be reported.
Buterin said that Croatia had developed a legislative and institutional framework for the struggle against domestic violence, but the public awareness had not been developed enough.
Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic said the city had set up its first institution for providing accommodation to domestic violence victims in 2007. Unfortunately, that shelter is not enough and more shelters for domestic violence victims need to be built, he said.
Activists said at another news conference in Zagreb today that despite many changes, Croatia still needed a higher number of services and agencies to work with domestic violence victims.
One third of Croatian women have been exposed to some form of violence in family, heard the news conference at which findings of a research on protection of rights and assistance to victims and witnesses of domestic violence were presented.
The research was conducted throughout Croatia from April to October 2010 by the government's gender equality office and the feminist nongovernmental organisation called "Women's Room - Centre for Sexual Rights".
The research covered 572 respondents, of whom 183 were victims/witnesses of domestic violence and 389 workers in shelters, public institutions and civil society organisations.
Presenting the findings, the co-ordinator of the above-mentioned NGO, Maja Mamula, said that Croatia needed another 700 places in shelters, according to Council of Europe recommendations.
Currently 19 shelters offer slightly over 300 places.
Mamula warned that Croatia had only one shelter for victims of sexual abuse.