Ratification of the Istanbul Convention Passed

In the Croatian Parliament, voting on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention began at noon, following a session on Wednesday that lasted more than nine hours. With 142 representatives voting in favor, 110 against, and two abstaining, the ratification of the Istanbul Convention was passed on Friday in the session of the Croatian Parliament.

The government rejected the amendment submitted by the SDP parliamentary group to delete Article 4. The Prime Minister explained the reasons for rejecting the amendment before the voting took place.

– The first reason is that international law has provided for the submission of interpretative statements, the second is the content of the interpretative statement, considering the public debate that the Istanbul Convention has provoked is necessary, required, and important, and the content has three elements, began Plenković.

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– The first is for Croatia to state what the essence of this convention is, which is the protection of women from violence. The second important determinant is that we clearly state that the Republic of Croatia believes that this convention does not impose any legal obligations to introduce gender ideology into its legal system or educational system. Such obligations do not arise from the convention, emphasized Plenković.

The third is, adds the Prime Minister, that this interpretative statement clearly states that the Government of the Republic of Croatia, after the Parliament ratifies this, considers that the convention is in accordance with the Constitution, fundamental values, and therefore we do not accept this amendment, concluded Plenković his presentation.

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Representative Arsen Bauk took the floor, stating that the interpretative statement is yielding to those representatives who are against ratification.

Voting on the amendment followed, but it did not receive enough votes.

During the debate on Wednesday, the majority of parliamentary groups supported the ratification, emphasizing that it is a civilizational step forward in the protection of human rights, but also warned about the politicization of the ratification of this convention in public.