While holding the chairmanship of the Council of Europe (CoE), Croatia will support the Istanbul Convention and place in focus its original purpose – the protection of women against violence, the Croatian Foreign Minister, Marija Pejcinovic-Buric, said at a news conference on Monday in Zagreb.

Croatia will take over the rotating six-month chairmanship of the Council of Europe from Denmark on May 18.

“When we take over the chairmanship in Denmark we will share our experience of the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the problems we have faced, and the questions that were, in our view unnecessarily, brought forward although they have nothing to do with the basic purpose and the aim of the Convention,” Pejcinovic-Buric said.

Considering there are countries which still have not ratified the convention, the Minister said one of the goals of Croatia’s chairmanship was to clarify Croatia’s and the Council’s view of the Convention.

The Convention was ratified in Croatia on April 13. Before its ratification in April, the conservative groups in Croatia called for the Convention to be rejected, claiming it would impose rules that went against traditional family values.

Other priorities of Croatia’s chairmanship were revealed at the news conference. The Foreign Minister said they would be the fight against corruption, an effective protection of the rights of ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups, decentralisation in the context of strengthening local government, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

“The final aim is to improve the international effort on the fight against corruption, the implementation of different conventions linked to battling corruption and to define the platform for further cooperation of government bodies for the fight against corruption,” said Pejcinovic-Buric.

The Council, founded in 1948, today has 47 members, i. e. all the countries of Europe save Belarus. Croatia joined the CoE in 1996.