Stalni predstavnik RH pri Ujedinjenim narodima, veleposlanik Neven Jurica održao je 3. ožujka 2008. godine govor na 52. sjednici Komisije o statusu žena. Hrvatska se na istoj sjednici pridružila izjavi EU-a. Vlada RH je izašla i sa nacionalnom izjavom da pridaje veliku važnost pitanjima ljudskih prava, posebice pitanjima ženskih prava.
STATEMENT BY
Ambassador Neven Jurica,
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Croatia
to the United Nations
Commission on the Status of the Women
Fifty-second Session
Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women
and to the twenty-third special session of the General
Assembly entitled "Women 2000: Gender equality,
development and peace for the twenty-first century"
United Nations, New York
3 March, 2008
Mr. Chairperson,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to extend my gratitude to you, Mr. Chairperson, and the other members of the Bureau, as well as to the Secretariat of the Division for the Advancement of Women on the preparation of this session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Croatia has aligned itself with the EU Statement and at this point I would like to make some additional remarks on issues that are of particular interest to us regarding the priority theme under consideration.
Croatia welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women and the valuable recommendations contained therein.
In the last decades we have witnessed important progress in the development of global commitments on gender equality and women's empowerment. Commitments on financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women have been made at the international level, including in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as, other policy documents adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995), the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (2000) and the Millennium Summit (2000). They should be applied as mutually reinforcing documents.
In its discussion on the resources required for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, the Beijing Platform for Action emphasized that funding had to be identified and mobilized from all sources and across all sectors. A review undertaken in 2005 on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action has however shown that budgetary allocations to national machineries for the advancement of women were insufficient or had decreased.
Gender perspectives were also incorporated into the Monterrey Consensus, which highlighted the importance of a holistic approach to financing for development, including gender-sensitive development, and stressed the critical need for reinforcing national efforts in building capacity for gender budget policies.
Mr. Chairperson,
Gender budgeting entails the incorporation of a gender perspective into all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality. Although global commitments for pursuing gender budgeting have long been under way, and some progress has been made, it is evident that adequate resources for achieving gender equality have not been systematically allocated.
Gender budgeting is one of the most important prerequisites for the empowerment of women and one of the most important goals in attaining full equality of women and men is the improvement of the status of women in the labor market. Women are still segregated in certain sectors and comprise the majority in occupations such as the textile industry, education, public administration, and social activities, while the proportion of women in the business sector does not exceed 30% and the number of women on management boards in the public and private sectors is extremely low. It must also be mentioned that, according to the research we have conducted, women on average earn 20% less than men.
On the national level, there is an ongoing discussion concerning possible improvements to the gender sensitive budget analysis. In order to strengthen the position of women in the business sector the Government of Croatia, in cooperation with local government bodies and NGOs, is conducting various programs to foster the economic empowerment of women. The adoption of a national strategy for the development of women's entrepreneurship is also envisaged.
One of the goals of our action plan, which encourages the development of small and medium size enterprises, includes the creation of conditions for the quick inclusion of women as a target group and the allocation of loan subsidies. A couple of years ago the Ministry of the Economy, Labor and Entrepreneurship started to develop a project aiming at strengthening women entrepreneurs by providing them with credit subventions and business grants.
We feel that in order to systematically and effectively measure the progress made, further development of statistical methodology and sex-disaggregated data and indicators is required. Our National Policy for the Promotion of Gender Equality envisages that statistical data on cases of gender discrimination in employment and work, disaggregated by sex, will be systematically collected. The Croatian government has also started the comprehensive process of amending the Gender Equality Act.
Also at the national level, Croatia has been actively conducting the Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence under the slogan “There is no justification for violence”. In this regard, we are joining the Secretary-General's campaign to combat violence against women.
We consider that the allocation of significant funding is also necessary to address the root causes of violence against women and girls. Croatia has recently adopted a new National Strategy for Protection from Family Violence for the period of 2008-2010 that entails a number of measures and funds for their implementation, including measures for the employment of victims of family violence and incentives for their employers, financial support to organizations dealing with the prevention of family violence, as well as, measures for the psychosocial treatment of the perpetrator.
Allow me to assure you that Croatia will continue to actively participate in the constructive debates of this session.
Thank you.
Priopćenja
