CROATIA: Support to Gender Equality (Twinning)

Objective:

The objective of this project is to develop institutional capacities in Croatia for coordinated implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national and international gender equality principles and to raise public awareness and trust into the capacities of the Republic of Croatia to protect citizens from gender-based discrimination.

The project thus comprehensively targets the Croatian national institutional mechanism for gender equality, which consists of the Governmental Office for Gender Equality, the Gender Equality Ombudsman, the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality, coordinators for gender equality in state administration bodies and offices as well as local (municipal/towns and county) committees for gender equality. In addition, the project aims at strengthening the efficiency of the Croatian judiciary related to gender-based discrimination and will hence also closely cooperate with the Judicial Academy.

Building on its previous general anti-discrimination Twinning project in Croatia, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) supports the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in implementing the project in partnership with the Croatian Governmental Office for Gender Equality as main beneficiary.

Expected outcomes:

• Public awareness on gender equality and human rights protection raised through public campaigns and active involvement of the media
• Establishing gender sensitive public administration
• Level of activity and visibility of members of the national institutional mechanism within their institutions increased
• Cooperation of the national institutional mechanism for gender equality and other relevant stakeholders strengthened
• Professional capacities, competences and knowledge of the judiciary in the area of implementation of the gender equality legislation and their efficiency increased

The kick-off event of the project took place on 24 May 2016 in Zagreb. In February and March 2017, gender equality trainings for judges were conducted. Based on the materials and experiences of the trainings, a manual for judges and legal practitioners on “Gender Equality Law in Practice” has been compiled and published. (see document attached)

You can find more general information in the project flyer in the attachment below and on the website of the Croatian Governmental Office for Gender Equality.