Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor opens gender equality seminar

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity Jadranka Kosor opened 23 September 2008 a seminar on the strengthening of the national institutional gender equality mechanisms through the education of coordinators in state administration bodies. The two-day seminar was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and the Croatian Government’s Gender Equality Office, with financial assistance from the Swedish Fund for the Support of Institutions in Croatia.

Opening the seminar, Deputy PM Kosor told all attendees that the National Gender Equality Promotion Strategy, Gender Equality Law, and Anti-Discrimination Law would continue to be the basis for their activities. He pointed out that there is a strong political will in the Government to implement these documents and that even PM Ivo Sanader himself unequivocally supports equal representation of women in political life. Deputy PM Kosor also pointed out that the Government would continue to support gender equality promotion, asking of the gender equality co-ordinators to maintain their active engagement in that area.

She reminded about yesterday’s National Day of Combating Violence against Women, drawing attention to the unacceptable practice of not speaking up about the violence against women unless the case in point is extreme.