ZAGREB, February 7, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday the debate on the Istanbul Convention in Croatia had acquired a different dimension, with part of the public approaching it from the gender ideology angle, and that soon one “will try to distinguish the trees from the wood.”
Greens member of the European Parliament Ska Keller asked him during a plenary in Strasbourg, “How come Croatia has not yet ratified the Istanbul Convention? How come this is even a matter of a debate to protect women from violence?”
Plenković said a part of the public debate had, unfortunately, “somehow acquired a different dimension,” such as the gender ideology debate which was trying to approach the substance of the Convention from another angle.
He said that in his opinion the Convention existed to prevent domestic violence, notably violence against women. He said he was “willing to debate this within the Croatian Parliament,” within political parties and in public, “and try to distinguish the trees from the wood” in the coming months.
The public consultation and the process of preparing the legislation to send to parliament is almost over, Plenković said.
He said the Istanbul Convention was initiated by Croatian experts in the Council of Europe and that Croatia signed it in 2013. He said he did not know why Croatia’s then Social Democratic government did not take the next steps towards its ratification even though it had two years to do so.
