Eurosceptics are die-hard rightists filled with irrational fears about the onset of a new Yugoslavia in which the Croatian language, identity, history and holy ground will be left to the mercy of the big EU players. Thus an almost unanimous consensus on joining this supranational entity is disrupted by some mindless, uninformed rightists, while other voices are hardly heard. Partly because they do not exist, and partly because it is not in the interest of the ruling political elite and their pet dog media machinery.

On this occasion Stipe Ćurković, Hrvoje Jurić, Mate Kapović and Boris Postnikov speak for H-Alter.

▼ if you are interested in learning about the work of non-governmental organizations that promote human rights,

apply for training at the Clinic for the Prevention of Discrimination organized by the Center for Women’s Studies.
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Participation requirements:
completed secondary education, a sent application and a letter of motivation, and willingness to participate in the entire program from April to July 2012.

The application should contain:
name, surname, occupation and contact info (address, e-mail and telephone number)
the applicant’s short CV
a letter of motivation (1-2 standard pages) with an explanation why you want to participate in the training
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Applications are to be sent by email: ad-acte@zenstud.hr by April 9, 2012.

Answers to any of your questions may also be obtained by telephone: +385 (1) 48 72 406. The contact person is Jasminka Pešut. For more about the AD ACTE project, see: http://zenajevise.net/.

MORE ABOUT THE CLINIC:

Training/educational program: Clinic for the Prevention of Discrimination

Head: Snježana Vasiljević
Executers: Mario Vinković and Ivana Radačić

Provides an insight into various research issues and perspectives in the field of equality, diversity and anti-discrimination. At the center of the module are different concepts of discrimination and anti-discriminatory public policy measures. The consideration of discrimination will also include multiple discrimination and a special focus will be put on considering sex-, racially-, ethnicity- and religion-based forms of discrimination. The module will pay special attention to feminist approaches to discrimination and to the issue of human rights in the international legal order, as well as insights into non-institutional practices in the protection from discrimination, especially sex or ethnicity based.

The AIM of the training/educational program
To raise the participants’ awareness about the prevalence and harms of discrimination, to introduce them to the laws that are in force and the possibilities of existing legal protection as well as direct protection from discrimination in the framework of civil society organizations. Furthermore, the aim is to encourage critical thinking and linking theoretical issues with personal experiential knowledge, and to provide an insight into the causes of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination, but also into the different social policy measures in that field (on a global, European and national level), and into the consequences of discrimination on the individual and the community. The participants will acquire knowledge on the causes of discrimination and will be given a chance to connect what they have learned with the basic experiential insights into anti-discriminatory mechanisms and practices.

Thematic sections:
1. Discrimination – the concept, meaning and forms 2. The theories and concepts of equality 3. Feminist approaches to discrimination 4. Women’s rights in the international legal order 5. Discrimination in the labour market 6. Social policies and the labour market (a gender and racial discrimination overview) 7. The concept and meaning of multiple discrimination

Work mode:
The program consists of two interconnected parts, the theoretical and the practical. The theoretical part lasts seven weeks and includes 7 double sessions and 2 workshops. The practical part consists of 20 hours of volunteer work in one of the non-governmental organizations that deal with the protection from discrimination.

Dynamics and intensity
Lectures will be held once a week, Mondays, starting from April 16 2012. The program is free.

They were recognized for their non-violent struggle for women’s safety and women’s human rights and for participating in peace- and democracy-building work. The award was also intended to emphasize the important role of women in building peace and democracy.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first democratically elected president in Africa. Since her inauguration in 2006, she has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women. Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections. She has worked since to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war. In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the Arab Spring, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.

So far, only 12 women have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Bertha von Suttner, Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan, Mother Theresa, Alva Myrdal, Aung San Suu Kyi, Rigoberta Menchú, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Wangari Maathai.

The advocacy campaign of the Center for Women’s Studies Ad Acta – Stop Gender Discrimination on Electoral Lists with the slogan “There are More Women” is part of the two-year project AD ACTE – Anti-Discrimination ACtions Towards Equality of women and men, which is implemented in partnership with the CEE Network for Gender Issues and in collaboration with the Serbian National Council, with financial support from the European Union and the Office for Gender Equality.

The press conference will be moderated by Jasminka Pešut from the Center for Women’s Studies, and the campaigns will be presented by:

Zorica Siročić, Center for Women’s Studies,
Tajana Broz, CESI,
Mirjana Kučer, Domine.

Following the parliamentary elections at the end of last year, we are faced with a lower number of female representatives in Parliament and the second lowest result since the introduction of the proportional representation system in 2000. This is a consequence of an inconsistent implementation of regulations which are supposed to ensure adherence to the principle of balanced representation in politics and a frivolous understanding of participative democracy. Finally, it is a consequence of power relations in politics, which men are not yet ready to release from their grip.

We know that women’s participation in political decision-making is a prerequisite for the implementation of any public policy that contributes to changing the unequal position of women and men in society and is able to respond to women’s needs. The Gender Equality Act stipulates quotas and even prescribes monetary sanctions if less than 40% of women or men are represented on the lists. That Act was passed for the second time in 2008. It was first passed in 2003, but without the necessary qualified majority, since it was a fundamental law which works out the constitutional values. The 2008 Act prescribed that through three mandates the proportion of women represented in political bodies of decision-making on the local, regional or national level be adequate to the representation of women in the general population of the Republic of Croatia, which is 52%. These provisions may at first glance seem almost ideal, and that is probably one of the reasons why no one takes them seriously, why not one sanction has been imposed, or why the Electoral Commission has not, since the passing of the Act, returned even one list. So the question is, what is the use of the Gender Equality Act and the quota provisions?

Further, this means that the Political Parties Act needs to change, because the parties must be democratized, and also the Electoral Law, which must clearly prescribe the application of quotas. Ahead of us are the EU Parliament Elections and we need the experience of our colleagues from other EU countries, because a real threat exists that among 12 representatives from Croatia, not one will be a woman. Electoral quotas for women in politics are not questionable, except for those who do not have enough experience and have not, during their political career, faced the process of creating electoral lists and allocating party and government functions.

The parliamentary elections in 2007 and 2011 and the local elections in 2009 have shown that politics is still a desirable place of social power that belongs to men. Meanwhile, for two years Croatia has had a woman prime minister. Jadranka Kosor was not elected but put in that position by the Prime Minister who had resigned from office. In the previous presidential elections, a woman, Vesna Pusić, achieved great results and had the best program. All the more, it is interesting that the position of women in politics, but also in society in general, has not improved. On the contrary, we are facing not only stagnation but a sort of regression of women’s rights (the closing down of shelters and counseling centers for women victims of violence, the abolition of funding for employment programs for women as a particularly vulnerable group, the passing of the law on medically assisted fertilization, smaller representation of women in parliament, etc.)

In late December, a new coalition Government of, so to say, the Center-left, was formed, in which only 4 out of 22 ministries are headed by women. One of the Deputy Prime Ministers and the Minister of Social Policy and Youth is a woman, Milanka Opačić. The other three women are Vesna Pusić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mirela Holy, the Minister of Environment and Nature Protection, and Andrea Zlatar Violić, the Minister of Culture. It is interesting to note that all three, aside from holding doctoral degrees, are known as declared feminists and collaborators on numerous feminist projects and campaigns. Mirela Holy is an advocate of eco-feminism and has, along with Domine and other European Feminist Initiative members, participated in the seminar “Women and Politics: Are women’s rights possible to debate in the political sphere?” in Alexandria in September 2010, organized by the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and the Swedish feminist organization “Kvinna till Kvinna”.

Feminist organizations in Croatia, but also women politicians and party members are facing the challenge of putting the issue of women’s rights back on the political agenda and preventing yet again, for who knows which time, the repression of women from the political scene by using platitudes such as a lack of qualified female politicians or women’s interest in politics. No matter how gender-sensitive men in politics are, they can hardly represent Croatian women, who are in all fields, in both public and private spheres, in the subordinate position. In a difficult economic situation, gender equality and women’s rights are of secondary importance as political issues. Serious politicians take care of serious socio-economic issues, and women will somehow find their place in the kitchen, in the home, in social and family care. Except if they decide that politics does concern women! Because they have learned a long time ago that only they themselves can fight for their rights!

Source: Domine.hr

11:00 – 11:30 Participant registration

11:30 – 11:45 Rada Borić, executive director of the Center for Women’s Studies, Zagreb
The organizers’ introduction

11:45 – 12:05 Astrid Thors, Swedish People’s Party, Finland
Finnish women, first in the world to be MPs, still need a women’s parliamentary network

12:05 – 12:25 Sonja Lokar, CEE Network for Gender Issues, Slovenia
You cannot bring back a missed opportunity!

12:25 – 12:45 Josip Šipić, Economic Institute, Zagreb
Right-wing parties’ politics of motherhood

12:45 – 13:15 Discussion

13:15 – 14:00 Lunch Break

14:00 – 14:20 Ana Lovrin, president of the Justice Committee of the Croatian Parliament
Gender policies of HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) with a special focus on the party’s program in the forthcoming general elections

14:20 – 14:40 Gordana Sobol, president of the Gender Equality Committee of the Croatian Parliament
The Social Democratic Party’s approach to gender policies

14:40 –15:00 Tajana Broz, CESI – Center for Education, Counseling and Research, Zagreb
Gender (un)awareness of party programs

15:00 – 16:00 Conclusion and discussion

Moderator: Marjeta Šinko, Center for Women’s Studies / Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb

The roundtable is part of the project AD ACTE – Anti-Discrimination ACtions Towards Equality of women and men, implemented in partnership with the CEE Network for Gender Issues from Slovenia and in collaboration with the Serbian National Council.

Q: How would you comment on one of the lowest percentages of women in Parliament in Croatian history, which is far below the EU standards? Do you think that in Croatia there is still gender based discrimination? How is that form of discrimination usually manifested?

A: I think that the under-representation of women in all government bodies and on all levels of decision-making is very problematic from several aspects, including the symbolic level from which the message is sent, and testifies to the omnipresence of patriarchy in our society. I believe that sex discrimination still exists all around us, and it manifests itself, apart from the problem of under-representation of women in almost all social spheres, as different forms of violence against women, workplace discrimination and human rights violations.

Apart from the need to change the cultural patterns in order to abolish gender stereotypes which are particularly evident in criminal procedures against sexual assaults, we need many other law reforms. I believe it is unacceptable to sanction domestic violence as misdemeanor, for which the maximum sentence is 90 days in prison (while in practice a fine is usually imposed instead), even in the cases of severe and repeated violence, as was the case with a recent murder in Zagreb which was preceded by a misdemeanor procedure against the perpetrator.

In my study of rape verdicts of the County Court in Zagreb I came across a case where the woman was a victim of brutal domestic violence for years, and more than ten times this violence was treated as a misdemeanor before it was brought before the Municipal Court, when the woman spoke about the rapes for the first time – over 30 instances, for which the Country Court had given a conditional discharge.

Source: Queer.hr