Invisible Barriers for Women in Political Parties

Vjesnik

10 February 2005

The Croatian Women Network accused the political parties in Croatia of violations of the Law on Gender Equality and demanded special measures that would obligate the parties to dedicate 40% of their Electoral Lists to women.

As the Network reminds, Article 15 of the Law provides that the registered political parties accept the action plan for equal representation of men and women in the party bodies every four years. The action plan also refers to equal presentation in the candidate lists and in the bodies of local and regional government.

The Chief Coordinator of the Women Network, Bojana Genov, emphasized that the women face invisible barriers when trying to participate in political affairs. For that reason, commissions were established on district level, which include representatives of the NGO sector.

“We demanded from the Ombudsman to demand from the political parties to report on their past efforts directed at gender equality”.

The Women Network invited the women voters to review the candidate lists in future elections most carefully.

“The lists without women candidates don’t deserve our trust. If political parties fail to respect their own lists, we don’t believe they will observe their own promises”, said Biserka Momcinovic from the Centre for Civic Initiatives from Porec.

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