Recommendations
The International Conference Women in Politics: Strategies for Achieving Gender Equality, organized by CESI – Center for Education, Counseling and Research, with the support of the French Embassy in Croatia and in cooperation with the associations Babe, Domine, Delfin and the Center for Civic Initiatives-CGI, was held on November 5, 2010 in Zagreb. The conference was organized with the aim of stimulating discussion on participatory democracy and increasing and encouraging women's participation in decision-making positions, especially in politics in the context of the upcoming elections. It was attended by 91 participants from non-governmental organizations, parliamentary parties, trade unions and institutions. The topics of the conference were women's participation in decision-making positions in political and public life, participatory democracy, gender equality in the local community and strategies for women's empowerment and participation in "electoral races". The speakers were representatives of institutions, activists and politicians from France, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a result of the extensive discussion and exchange of experiences of the participants, recommendations were made for increasing women's political participation. The recommendations are intended for political parties, public authorities and the media and will be used in future activities that will take place as part of the election campaign for the next parliamentary elections in Croatia.
Recommendations to political parties
- Develop a strategy for the inclusion of women in the party and develop an action plan to achieve balanced representation of women and men.
- Introduce gender quotas in party statutes.
- Encourage the establishment, empowerment and operation of women's party organizations at all levels of the party.
- Organize and encourage education of party members on gender-aware politics and gender equality.
- Develop gender-sensitive party programs.
- Condemn and sanction sexist and discriminatory statements by individual party members.
- Avoid stereotypical portrayals of women in public communication and political campaigning.
- Promote gender equality as a fundamental social value.
Recommendations to the authorities
- Incorporate a gender perspective into the development and implementation of public policies and implement gender-sensitive policies.
- Create gender-sensitive budgets at all levels.
- Ensure financial and material conditions for the work of institutional mechanisms for the promotion of gender equality.
- Ensure equal representation of women and men in public bodies.
- Provide financial support for the implementation of campaigns and actions aimed at improving the position of women in society.
- Respect and promote gender-sensitive statistics.
- Promote gender equality as a fundamental social value.
- Develop an analysis of women's economic power that will include information on women's property ownership.
Recommendations to the media
- When creating programs, care should be taken to ensure an equal representation of women and men in program content.
- Avoid creating "ghettoized" shows in which the position of women is exclusively discussed and discussed by women.
- Support campaigns and actions to improve the position of women in society.
- Promote gender equality as a fundamental social value.
