Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman 25 February 2020 in Geneva attended the 43rd of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Croatia is a dedicated defender of human rights and condemns all violations of them. Croatia’s role in the global protection of human rights is well known. Topics such as economic empowerment of women, eradicating poverty and social exclusion are at the forefront of the Croatian EU presidency. Croatia is especially focused on children’s rights, notably fighting child poverty and protecting children from violence. The Croatian presidency priorities in the area of human rights were also one of the topics of a meeting with High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. In today’s world filled with challenges, where human rights and multilateralism are being increasingly violated, Croatia strongly supports the work of the High Commissioner and its office.
Tracing the persons missing from the Homeland War, currently 1871 of them, is of the utmost importance for Croatia. Grlić Radman opened a photo exhibition by Sandra Šimunović called "Portraits of Sadness", depicting disturbing stories about the Homeland War missing. Shedding light on their fate is one of the Croatian Government’s priorities.
The minister also took part in a meeting of the Conference on Disarmament, at which he underlined the importance of effectively complying with all international and regional agreements on disarmament. He stressed Croatia was ready to become a full-fledged member country of the Conference.
During his stay in Geneva, Grlić Radman held talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, underlining the very good bilateral relations bolstered by the success of the Working Group on Croatia-Ukraine Cooperation.
The minister also met with WTO Deputy Director-General Karl Brauner. The two officials discussed the upcoming 12th WTO ministerial conference in Nur-Sultan, at which Croatia will take part in preparing the EU’s position on how to overcome the crisis currently plaguing the organization, as well as all the issues on its agenda. This year, Croatia is marking the 20th anniversary of WTO membership.
The WTO headquarters saw a presentation of Croatian wines and other products organized by the Permanent Mission to the UN, Jelsa Tourist Board, Croatian Winemakers Association and Vino Dalmacije (Dalmatian Wine).