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Zagreb - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković on Wednesday extended his best wishes to the female members of Parliament and to all women in Croatia for International Women's Day, saying that there are still challenges in achieving full gender equality and equal opportunities.
"We have to continue raising awareness of the role and the importance of the position of women in society," Jandroković said at the start of the session of Parliament.
He said that equality between women and men is one of the fundamental values of Croatia's constitutional order and the basic postulate of civilisation. He noted that the present Croatian Parliament has the largest number of female MPs in its history -- 33.8 per cent, which is above the European and global average.
Jandroković said that women still face challenges, such as difficult family circumstances and unfavourable working and social circumstances.
He said that today individuals, and even whole societies, still have serious problems with the concept of women's equality and gender equality. "There are still places where only limited and minor roles are assigned to women," he said, adding that women do not have to prove to anyone that they are equally valuable.
Women and men have equal abilities, and it is necessary to continue working on ensuring equal opportunities, Jandroković said.
He strongly condemned any form of abuse and violence against women and called for making laws and public policies to address the existing shortcomings.
International Women's Day should be a reminder that we need to eliminate the reasons for which women may feel threatened, unequal or deprived of their rights. "We want to and have to take this road and we need to do it together," Jandroković said.