ZAGREB, March 21, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that the Presidency of his HDZ party had supported the ratification of the Istanbul Convention by a majority of votes. "The vote was 19 to six. The government will continue the process of adopting the law to ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on preventing violence against women," Plenković told the press after a four-hour meeting of the HDZ Presidency.

ZAGREB, March 20, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the agenda of his cabinet this week would most probably include the item on ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence alongside with an accompanying interpretative declaration.

ZAGREB, March 19, 2018 - Health Minister Milan Kujundžić said on Monday that the Istanbul Convention on the prevention of violence against women contained a small problematic issue in connection with gender ideology, however, this was not crucial given that the document was primarily focused on the protection of women and prevention of domestic violence.

ZAGREB, March 19, 2018 - Commenting on a call by some members of the HDZ party on the party leadership not to ratify the Istanbul Convention, HDZ secretary-general and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said that public and intra-party discussions on the matter had to be based on arguments, underlining that large and election-winning HDZ branches, such as those in Osijek-Baranja, Dubrovnik-Neretva and Split-Dalmatia counties, supported HDZ leader and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's policy.

Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader Ivan Vrdoljak on Saturday called for accelerating the reform processes in the country, saying that this year's priorities were the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the implementation of the curricular reform.

"All HNS lawmakers will support the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, and as for the reforms, it's time we shifted into fifth gear," Vrdoljak told a press conference in the spa town of Tuheljske Toplice, about 50 kilometres northwest of Zagreb, where the HNS convened to discuss the latest European Commission report on Croatia and define activities the party would undertake to accelerate the reforms.

Vrdoljak recalled that the HNS had unanimously supported the Istanbul Convention in 2015 as a coalition partner in the government of SDP Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, noting that the SDP thought at the time that ratification should be delayed because "the time was not right."

ZAGREB, March 17, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday there was no need for a referendum on the Istanbul Convention within his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, stressing that the main purpose of the convention was to protect women against violence and domestic violence.

ZAGREB, March 16, 2018 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said on Thursday that his party would support the ratification of the Istanbul Convention only if it was ratified in its integral form, without any reservations, expressing support for the fight against violence against women and discrimination on any grounds.

ZAGREB, March 15, 2018 - Activists of the civic initiative "Truth About the Istanbul Convention" said at a news conference on Thursday that they were launching a campaign for a referendum at which Croatians would say if they want the national parliament to refuse to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the so-called Istanbul Convention.

ZAGREB, March 14, 2018 - Once the Istanbul Convention is "cleansed" of contentious stipulations implying gender ideology, the Church will support its ratification, however, regardless of the procedure, full support must be provided to domestic violence victims, the president of the Croatian Bishops' Conference (HBK), Zadar Archbishop Želimir Puljić, said in Sarajevo on Wednesday.

ZAGREB, March 14, 2018 - Members of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) parliamentary group and government ministers from the HDZ, led by party president Andrej Plenković, met in Breznica, in Varaždin County, on Tuesday evening to discuss, as the central topic, plans to ratify the Istanbul Convention.