The papper deals with the structure, purpose and tasks of civil defence of the Republic of Croatia. The right to organize civil defence is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. The structure and operations of the system are more in detailed defined by Law on the Civil Protection System who also served as the main source for the reasearch. The importance of the civil protection system is that citizens are guranteed help and safety in case of a disaster. For reasearch purposes served the Homeland security system act as well as regulations of head of administrative bodies. It is explained how the the system is activated from the lowest level ie local, regional and so on all the way to the state level. A link has been taken notice of among the system of civil defence with the public service, who is also explained and it was pointed out on the similarities between those services using the comparative method. The topic of civil defence is current given the state of the world caused by the COVID-19, but also regardless the pandemic we are witnessing the increasing number of threats both natural and human caused. Participants in the system are listed, how they appointed and what abitilites they must have to participate in taking action in case case of a crisis situation. Although citizens in the system are viewed as passive participants, in the paper it is explained how they can contribute to the system, by their own education and by participating in excercises. The paper deals with the activities of civil protection participants on the territory of the Republic of Croatia but also the world under the EU Mechanism. The Civil Protection Mechanism although it is a relativly new organization of the European union it has been shown as an excellent response of the Union to disasters. The author has pointed out the problems that the system of civil defence encounters and possible solutions, with the emphasis being placed on preventive actions of the system but also of citizens.