Zagreb - Parliament on Thursday observed a minute's silence on the occasion of the National Day of Combating Violence Against Women in honour of Gordana Oraškić, Hajra Prohić, Ljiljana Hvalec and other women victims of violence.
Remembering 22 September 1999, when three women were killed and one was wounded by a man during a divorce hearing at the Zagreb Municipal Court, Speaker Gordan Jandroković said there was no justification for such violence.
"Tolerance of all forms of violence against women can and must always be only zero," he said.
Such violence does not concern just an individual or family members but is a societal problem which demands lasting work on improving all available response mechanisms, he added.
Jandroković said that since the National Day of Combating Violence Against Women was declared, legislation was adopted that encouraged society and institutions to deal with this problem and to cooperate and take action.
"When we talk about implementing the legislative framework for action and protocol in a case of violence, people are once again the key, experts for recognising, preventing and taking action in cases of violence," he said.
At the same time, he added, we all share the responsibility for attempting to conceive even more effective mechanisms and for continuing to point to the seriousness of the situation.
Women MPs laid 12 white roses on the speaker's platform in honour of the 12 women killed this year.