The bill on ratifying the Istanbul Convention was unanimously passed in government's session on Thursday morning (March 22), after which it will be sent to the 151-seat parliament for a vote, along with a statement designed to clarify the goals of the convention.
“The top political topic in recent days has been the Istanbul Convention,” said Prime Minister and leader of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Andrej Plenković, in the session. “We need to say a few things that seem important to me before the Croatian public takes stances on this topic,” he said, and added that “this convention has been adopted by the Council of Europe. Freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law – these are the four cornerstones of the Council of Europe.”
Various conservative groups, leaders of the Catholic Church, as well as some prominent HDZ party members had publicly disagreed with the ratification in recent weeks, mainly over concerns that the convention introduces “gender ideology” which they do not recognise, and the costs of funding its provisions.
Plenković explained that the convention, produced by the Council of Europe, was drawn up between 2007 and 2011, when HDZ was in power in Croatia, and was later signed by Croatia – but never ratified – during the Social Democrat (SDP) government in 2013.
“When HDZ was in power between 2007 and 2009 the work on drawing up the convention began. During the next HDZ government between 2009 and 2011 this work was completed. At the time of SDP government, it was signed. After the ten necessary national ratifications were done, it came into force, and since then it has been enforced in countries which had ratified it. SDP had three years to put the ratification bill to parliament. They never did it, and today they are pressuring the government to do just that. Sending the ratification bill to parliament is an expression of political intention of my cabinet, we are not doing this because of pressures, but because of this government’s programme, based on our firm belief that ratifying the convention would strengthen the legal and institutional framework for preventing domestic violence. The convention has been signed and ratified by 28 members of the Council of Europe, including 17 EU member countries,” Plenković said in the session.
Although some conservative critics of the convention claimed in public that the cost of implementing the convention could amount to 1 billion kuna per year (133 million euros), a report on Wednesday by the ministry for social policy said the planned cost associated with it would be 141 million kuna (18.8 million euros) over the next two years.
“Talks of financial obligations costing 1 billion kuna are not correct,” Plenković said, and added that “taking into account concerns of some sections of society – those who see some dangers in the convention – we decided to attach an interpretative statement to go along with it,” Plenković said.
