ZAGREB, March 6, 2018 – After a special session of the Parliamentary Committee on Human and Ethnic Minority Rights that lasted nearly four hours on Tuesday and discussed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the so-called Istanbul Convention, a state secretary at the Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Ministry Margareta Mađerić was unable to say when the government would send the law on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention to parliament.
“We formed a task force, we took a number of steps and held two public debates. We are in the final phase, there is still some work to be done before we send it to parliament,” Mađerić said.
Asked if this would be done by parliament’s summer recess, Mađerić said: “We’ll see.” Asked if this would be done this year, Mađerić responded: “Once the work is done, MPs will make a decision on the ratification law.”
The Committee, however, unanimously decided to propose to the government to send to parliament the law on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention as soon as possible, and by the summer recess at the latest.
Apart from Committee members, the session was also attended by a large number of MPs, mostly from the opposition ranks, government representatives, as well as representatives of the ombudsman office and NGOs. Only a small number of ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MPs attended the session. Junior parties in the ruling coalition, mostly the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) and the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), believe the Convention needs to be urgently ratified to prevent violence against women and girls, as well as domestic violence.
Committee Chairman Milorad Pupovac of the SDSS said that, so far, 17 EU member states have ratified the Convention, adding that Luxembourg, Greece and the Czech Republic were expected to ratify it this summer, leaving Croatia in a group of seven countries that have not ratified the document.
