The Women's Network NGO on Saturday called the government to withdraw a bill on amendments to the Criminal Law out of public debate and that it be aligned with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.

“The Women’s Network of Croatia considers it to be unacceptable that the bill on amendments to the criminal law is omitting to align it with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence,” the NGO said in a press release.

The network notes that on 30 May a public debate was opened and ended on 14 June concerning the bill and that Croatia signed the Convention on 22 January 2013 and ratified it on 13 April this year and deposited it with the Council of Europe on 13 June.

“The fact that the Convention will enter into force in Croatia on 1 October this year does not justify failing to harmonise the bill on the criminal law with the provisions of the Convention which defines violence against women as a violation of women’s human rights and is aimed at abolishing violence against women committed by men as the most common form of domestic violence,” the NGO underscored.

One of the the obligations that results from the convention is that the crime of rape as a crime against sexual freedom should be defined exclusively as a situation in which there is a he lack of consent and not necessarily the use of violence by the perpetrator of the crime.