7 | - Número: 004 | 1 de Novembro de 2014

Conclusion – a call for ratification Excellencies, Dear colleagues, Dear friends,

There was a time when we urged member states to ratify the Convention, so to speak, in the interest of the Convention. We could not wait for the Convention to enter into force and its mechanisms to enter into action.
Now that stage is over. The Convention has entered into force and it will soon walk on its own two feet. I strongly encourage this parliament to ratify the Istanbul Convention because it will make a difference in the fight on violence against women. It’s in the interest of all actual and potential victims of gender-based violence of this country.
Croatia has taken a wide range of measures on violence against women and relevant provisions can be found in a number of pieces of legislation:

- the Act on Protection against Domestic Violence, of course. But also the

— Gender Equality Act — Anti-discrimination Act — Criminal Procedure Act — Law on Compensation for Victims of Crime — Witness Protection Act — Law on Police Duties and Powers

Croatia adopted a National Strategy for Protection against Domestic Violence, a Protocol for Action in Cases of Domestic Violence and a Protocol for Action in Cases of Sexual Violence.
Croatia must be proud of the work Dubrawska Simonovic made co-chairing the CHAVIO meeting during the drafting of this Convention.
This means:

Firstly, that there is a strong political will to fight this scourge.
Secondly, that the legal framework and the policies already in place take the country very close to the standards of the Convention. That is why I call on Croatian leaders and particularly on my colleagues members of parliament to make use of this political will once again, and to take the final step. Don’t waste any more time. You owe it to the victims of violence in this country. Ratify the Istanbul Convention. The words we’ve just heard from the two highest authorities of Croatia, the President of the Republic, Ivo Josipovic, and the President of the Parliament, Josip Leko, supporting the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, have to mean something, and must have consequences.
The entry into force of the Istanbul Convention calls us all to go beyond the words, and take immediate and tangible actions to ensure that its vision becomes a reality. Not in the future. But NOW. I like to quote myself, as a final message:

“A relationship without freedom is like to be arrested at home, with or without electronic purse. A country where so many citizens do not enjoy freely their rights has a serious democratic deficit. Cannot be considered a full democracy, but perhaps a half-democracy! It is on behalf of those women that had not the right to speak, on behalf of those women and their children, sons and daughters, humiliated and offended on every forgiven black mark, on every open scar, on every broken bone, on every stolen minute of their lives, that we are here, today, available to this combat, and break loudly the SILENCE in pieces, at the central square of our indignation!”

__________