ISO: HRV *************************************************************************** The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Secretariat. *************************************************************************** AS WRITTEN FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN S T A T E M E N T BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE HOUSE OF COUNTIES OF THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA H. E. Katica Ivanisevic 4 -15 September 1995, Beijing Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to express our gratitude for the extraordinary contribution of the UN Secretariat to the organisation of this conference. I wish to thank particularly the People's Republic of China and the city of Beijing for their kind hospitality. I believe that the very fact that the conference is taking place in the country with the largest number of women in the world and that it is attended by so many participants from the whole world will contribute to its success and particularly to the preparation of inefficient action plan, directed towards the well-being of all women in the world and thus of the entire human community. The face of our world is getting every day more and more beautiful. This beauty has been enhanced by continued efforts aimed at solving the problem of the developing countries and particularly by the development of democracy and the protection of human rights of every individual. However, this beautiful face has deep and ugly scars on it, provoked by wars and violations of human rights, especially of women. The biggest part of this Fourth World Conference on Women and Action Plan for "Equality, Development and Peace" is devoted to the "scars" on the face of our world and the need to erase them. The Republic of Croatia itself bears the burden of many scars due to the war aggression. As a new democratic state, it is developing in very difficult and complex conditions. Problems connected with democratic changes and the transition to market economy are accompanied with the resistance to Serbian aggression and the occupation of a part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Croatia. War atrocities mainly hit women who lost their homes, became widows or single mothers, or who were exposed to horrible forms of maltreatment. On the basis of tragic war experience, we wish to point out that peace is a pre-condition for each action directed towards the well-being of mankind. Therefore, the Republic of Croatia advocates the strengthening of all mechanisms of the international community for the maintenance and establishing of world peace. Woman as mother and source of life has to take on a special role in the protection of each life on planet Earth - the role of the protector of peace. Madam President, The Government of the Republic of Croatia has appointed the National Committee for the preparation of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which has prepared the National Report of the Republic of Croatia. The Report states in which spheres of life the status of women is good and where additional efforts have to be made to change the unsatisfactory state. We are very content because in the period between the adoption of the national report and this conference, significant progress has been made towards the realisation of defined national priorities. One of the most important is the recent liberation of the largest part of the occupied territory of the Republic of Croatia, which has created conditions for return of families who were expelled from their homes by force. The right of refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes, embodied in numerous international documents and the Action Plan for Equality, Development and Peace to be worked at this conference, is beginning to be realised in the Republic of Croatia. It should be pointed out that Croatia was providing for 400,000 internally displaced persons and refugees during and after the war, which was almost 10 S0 of its total population. At the same time, a large number of people from Croatia has sought refuge in other countries. I wish to use this opportunity to thank, in the name of my Government, all countries and international organisations and different humanitarian organisations, which have helped in providing for refugees and internally displaced persons from Croatia, and ask their further help, but now in their return and the economic reconstruction of the liberated areas. The return of internally displaced persons and refugees will not be easy. Many mothers and women have lost their dearest, and many do not know anything about the fate of disappeared persons. 210,000 houses have been destroyed, and it is necessary to reconstruct people's homes in order to enable their return. The war has had a negative impact on all components of natural demographic trends in Croatia. Since 1992, the natural growth rate has been negative, minus 1.0 per thousand, which indicates a process of depopulation. It is influenced in the long run by emigration. I have to point out that the most tragic consequence of the war in Croatia are 15,000 persons killed and disappeared, from which the majority were civilians, 27,000 wounded and more than 6,000 persons who were physically and mentally maltreated in camps. The most tragic are the sufferings of children in the war in Croatia. According to the data, which are still incomplete, 248 children were killed, 52 disappeared, 901 were wounded (86 with permanent disability), 4,273 children lost one of their parents, 54 both parents, and the parents of 936 children have disappeared. The war in Croatia and the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina has introduced a new international term: "ethnic cleansing". It is a euphemism for genocide which includes a planned-out strategy of terror, force, killing and forceful expulsion of people from their homes with a view to create ethnically homogenous territories. A particularity of this war have been cruel and large-scale crimes against some ten thousand women. They have been victims of a special form of war crime, systematic and planned rape, which was condemned by the international community and we hope that it will be explicitly condemned in the document of this conference. We resolutely demand that the International Tribunal for War Crimes punishes the perpetrators of these crimes, as well as those of all other war crimes. The successful liberation of the majority of occupied areas of the Republic of Croatia enables the government to concentrate on removing the consequences of the aggression, reconstructing the devastated country, organising the return of internally displaced persons and increasing the standard of living. The post-war reconstruction requires the engagement of all available human resources, where women have the possibility of assuming the crucial role. 51,5% of 4,784,000 inhabitants of Croatia(according to the 1991 Census) are women. From the total of 1,811,084 active population, 775,786 or 42% are women. In order to integrate women into social development and reconstruction fully and on equal basis, it is necessary to adjust the entire society to the changed role of women. What I have said is confirmed by the growth of women's organisations, which testifies to the awareness of the need of women to influence their position and fate. Madam President, We are witnessing the global change of the position and role of women. The change ranges from the woman in need of protection against discrimination to the woman as an equal participant and originator of changes. The goal of this process should be the elimination of any discrimination based on sex, and achieving full equality irrespective of sex. With regard to the rights of women, the Republic of Croatia in its legislation, applies the highest standards in conformity with the requirements of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international and European instruments in the field of human rights. The Croatian women are de jure equal to men. However, the de facto situation is not satisfactory. In this connection one should take into account the fact that the war has engaged women in fields other than the political struggle for equality. The results of the parliamentary elections 1990-1992 came out unfavourable for women, setting their share at merely 4,7 % of the seats(presently 5,4 %). In the representative bodies of the local self-government women are hardly present. The situation within the Croatian Government is almost identical, which only serves to confirm that the level of the political decision-making is essentially disproportionate to the share of women among the voters. The abovesaid indicates the need for strengthening the mechanisms for securing equal participation of women in all spheres of public life in order to make the de facto position of women match their de Jure position. Starting from the strategic objectives of the Republic of Croatia as outlined in the National Report for the next period in connection with enhancing the position of women, we can point out the following most urgent tasks: - Liberation of the remaining occupied parts of the Republic of Croatia primarily by peaceful means, and their integration in the legal and economic system of the state, which is the major prerequisite for peaceful and free development of Croatia and the return of stability to the region. - Care for the victims of war by making possible the return of the refugees and internally displaced persons. Special care should be provided for widows and military and civilian women disabled in the patriotic war. - Establish the fate of all persons missing during the war, so that their wives, mothers and sisters, who have been searching for them for more than three years now, can exercise their right to their return or their right to correct and accurate information about their fate. - Negative natural population growth rate should be met with an active population policy, with full respect for women's rights, including the reproductive rights of women. It is necessary to interdependently co-ordinate demographic processes, development processes and environmental protection in order to secure the meeting of the needs of the present generation without endangering the future of the generations to come. - In order to prevent the feminization of poverty, it is necessary to include the most vulnerable categories of women, like rural and urban women of single-parent families, older women, unemployed women, internally displaced women and women refugees, in special social programmes oriented towards enhancing their position. - Within the framework of the democratic changes it is necessary to act in the promotion and realisation of women's human rights in order to achieve their equal position interrelation between men and women, and to enable women to fully develop their working and creative potentials. In this connection the Republic of Croatia has initiated a process of amending and supplementing its positive legislation. In drafting family, health-care, labour and welfare legislation, the prevailing direction is to maintain the internationally recognised and adopted standards for the elimination of the discrimination against women, to bring them in line with the European standards as established by the Council of Europe, and to introduce new measures for enhancing the position of women. The drafting of new legislation offers an opportunity to develop additional mechanisms and establish institutions for the implementation, protection and monitoring of the exercise of women’s rights. The elimination of various forms of discrimination based on sex is only the first step towards establishing equality. Parallel, the equality of women should be promoted in all spheres of social life, with a special role for the education of women and development of the awareness of new social relations between the sexes based on equality. We are set to envisage measures and institutions for developing the awareness of the role in and contribution of women to economy and the need to include them in the decision-making bodies, and develop institutional mechanisms to promote the enhancing of the social position of women. It is also necessary to develop mechanisms and measures for bringing career and family life in harmony with each other. Measures should been visaged to allow for the whole life of a woman, taking into consideration different sex roles and family obligations. It is necessary to promote equality of both sexes in all spheres of life, especially within family, and protect the rights of women and children within family. For the realisation of the abovesaid, it is necessary to develop instruments, within various legislation, for supporting families and bringing the career and family life in harmony, for instance by allowing for flexible working hours for certain jobs, as well as part time jobs. The position and role of women in society is clearly indicated by the number of women holding high political and public offices. In this connection we do tend to encounter more and more women, but it is necessary to promote an even greater participation of women in the political life and public affairs. The role of women is slowly but constantly changing towards their equal participation in all spheres of social life, with simultaneous change in the position and role of women within families. These changes are in the long run directed towards achieving an ever more beautiful face of the world we live in, to the benefit of every individual and every woman. Thank you. Starting from the strategic objectives of the Republic of Croatia as outlined in The National Report for the next period in connection with enhancing the position of women, we can point out the following most urgent tasks: - Liberation of the remaining occupied parts of the Republic of Croatia primarily by peaceful means, and their integration in the legal and economic system of the state, which is the major prerequisite for peaceful and free development of Croatia and the return of stability to the region. - Care for the victims of war by making possible the return of the refugees and internally displaced persons. Special care should be provided for widows and military and civilian women disabled in the patriotic war. - Establish the fate of all persons missing during the war, so that their wives, mother and sisters, who have been searching for them for more than three years now, can exercise their right to their return or their right to correct and accurate information about their fate. - Negative natural population growth rate should be met with an active population policy, with full respect for women's rights, including the reproductive rights of women. It is necessary to interdependently co-ordinate demographic processes, development processes and environmental protection in order to secure the meeting of the needs of the present generation without endangering the future of the generations to come. - In order to prevent the feminization of poverty, it is necessary to include the most vulnerable categories of women, like rural and urban women of single-parent families, older women, unemployed women, internally displaced women and women refugees, in special social programmes oriented towards enhancing their position. - Within the framework of the democratic changes it is necessary to act in the promotion and realisation of women's human rights in order to achieve their equal position in relation between men and women, and to enable women to fully develop their working and creative potentials. In this connection the Republic of Croatia has initiated a process of amending and supplementing its positive legislation. In drafting family, health-care, labour and welfare legislation, the prevailing direction is to maintain the internationally recognised and adopted standards for the elimination of the discrimination against women, to bring them in line with the European standards as established by the Council of Europe, and to introduce new measures for enhancing the position of women. The drafting of new legislation offers an opportunity to develop additional mechanisms and establish institutions for the implementation, protection and monitoring of the exercise of women’s rights.