Encouraged by recent events, disgusted by the shameless false promises and the spread of false information, we once again address the issue of ratification of the Istanbul Convention.
Not so long ago in 2014, President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović clearly called for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on her Facebook profile, on the occasion of marking the International Day against Violence Against Women. "When I become the President of the Republic of Croatia, I will fight fiercely for gender equality. I also call for the acceleration of the ratification process of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, or the Istanbul Convention. I wonder why Croatia is not yet among those countries that have ratified the convention, why victims of gender-based violence are not protected according to the standards of this convention, and I once again call on everyone to really tackle this problem." she said above photos in which she poses smiling with several dozen women.
The president's "fierce fight" sounds like this today: "It is my duty as President of the Republic to appeal to the content of the Convention that does not cause public controversy implement it in our state system as soon as possible (...) I therefore call on the government to implement the key obligations of the Convention without delay about which there is no dispute, which includes additional funds in the state budget (...)". In other words, President Grabar Kitarović not only failed to fulfill her pre-election promise, but 3 years after strongly supporting the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, she is subject to the influence of right-wing clerical circles and, thanks to her uncritical approach, calls into question the ratification of that key document in the fight against violence against women.
But she's not the only one: "It is necessary to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the so-called Istanbul Convention) as soon as possible. Most European countries have ratified it and the issue is Why hasn't Croatia done this yet?" HDZ members asked themselves in the 2014 election year. "We call on Minister Milanka Opačić to prepare the Convention for ratification in Parliament as soon as possible!" they unanimously said. However, once they sat in the management chairs, ratification was absent. What is waiting now? Do they also have problems with "controversies"?
And the "controversy" seems to be caused by the concept of gender, which right-wing, conservative groups have claimed was "deemed" in the Istanbul Convention.mentioned 24 times". Given that our working hours are long over, tomorrow's lunch is being cooked in a large pot, and fortunately we have an outlet and internet access in the kitchen, we decided to help them with the word count.
- Prevention (25 mentions)
Ex. Article 15, paragraph 1 "Parties shall ensure or strengthen appropriate training for relevant professionals working with victims or perpetrators of all acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, on prevention and detection of such violence, equality between women and men, the needs and rights of victims, as well as ways prevention secondary victimization."
- Support (25 mentions)
Ex. Article 16, paragraph 3 "The Parties shall ensure that security, support and human rights of victims are of primary importance, and that, where appropriate, these programmes are established and implemented in close coordination with specialized services providing support victims."
- Protection (51 mentions)
Ex. Article 18, paragraph 1 "The Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to protection all victims from any further acts of violence."
- Gender ideology (0 mentions)
Ex. N/A 🙁
We are exhausted from counting, and if you also want to help women victims of violence by counting individual words of the Istanbul Convention, you can do so via the following link: https://goo.gl/ZZeL4g
Finally, we would like to emphasize once again that despite the fears of the named part of the population about the "chaos" that would occur if the term "gender" were introduced into legislation, the term itself already exists in Croatian legislation; it is mentioned in the Gender Equality Act, the Anti-Discrimination Act, the Life Partnership Act, the Volunteering Act, the Electronic Media Act, the State Registry Act, and men still defecate in men's toilets, women in women's (except during Saturday crowds in clubs), we still call our mother "mama" (or "mater" if we are from Dalmatia), and not "parent 1", "gender re-education through the way children dress in kindergartens" It exists only in the minds of those for whom their own frustrations are more important than protecting women from violence, and the sun still rises in the east.
