Madam Chair,
At the outset allow me to congratulate you Madam President for organizing this important debate. Croatia aligned itself with the statement made by the EU. We would therefore like to concentrate on the situation of gender equality and the empowerment of women in Croatia.
Croatian Constitution sets gender equality as one of its highest values. We have established strong national mechanisms and legislature aimed at achieving gender equality. Croatian Government is actively involved within the pan-European campaign of the Council of Europe in combating violence against women, including domestic violence.
In the past century women in Croatia have accomplished significant achievements. They gained political rights as the right to vote and have assured that their right to physical integrity is being protected. Now the time has come for women to start playing more important role in the political arena, side by side with their male colleagues. Let us not forget that power imbalance between genders leads to discrimination that we have all declared unacceptable.
Croatian newest National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality for the period 2006 – 2010 implements CEDAW Committee's concluding comments and introduces gender sensitive education. The Law on Political Parties contains a positive action measure, according to which parties are allocated 10 per cent more funds for each representative of under-represented gender.
Croatian educational system provides equal opportunities for children of both genders. Gender equality has been reached in primary education while in secondary and tertiary education women outnumber men.
The trend of women participating in executive authority showed a significant increase in Croatia. The percentage of women has tripled to 35% in executive authority and reached 21% in legislative one. There is growing number of women in leading positions in local and self-government and even more in corporate and business environment.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2006 by the World Economic Forum that measures size of gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women has ranked Croatia as sixteenth out of the 20 countries with the smallest gender gap.
Madam Chair,
Women's active participation at all levels of decision-making processes is essential for strengthening democracy and a society as a whole. Throughout the years we have witnessed significant improvements but the real gender equality is still a challenge in front of us.
Women and children are the main victims of armed conflicts. Therefore we want to see more women in the peacebuilding and peacekeeping process because in many crisis areas these processes have been accelerated when women were integral part of it.
It is notable that in 21st century the world is still counting its women-leaders in national and international communities in order to show that there are women in decision-making process and that their number is growing. Let us hope that in the near future we will eliminate the need for counting and debating on this matter because the common ideal of gender equality shall be reached.
This is the best legacy that we can give to our children; a world of equal opportunities for all.
Thank you.
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