Organized by the European Commission, Biljana Borzan, and the FEMM Gender and Gender Equality Committee (Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament), on May 6th 2017, panel “Women’s Body as a Field of Political Fight in Croatia” was held.
The panel was held in the area of Kino Europa in Zagreb in the context of the Constitutional Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the law regulating the right to abortion (the Act on Health Care Measures to Obtain the Right to Free Decision-Making on Children) and other events related to the current situation of abortion availability.
In front of the European Parliament and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Biljana Borzan, Member Irtaxe Garcia Perez, Coordinator of the Committee, Liliana Rodriges, Member and Julie Wark, Member, were speaking. From the perspectives of feminists, activists and members of various civil society organizations, Josipa Tukara and Paula Zore in front of the Feminist Collective – fAKTIV, Bojana Genov in front of Women’s Network Croatia, Sandra Benčić in front of the Center for Peace Studies and Sanja Cesar in front of CESI – Center for Education, and research. Gorjana Gjurić, pediatrician, Karolina Leaković, president of the SDP Women’s Forum and Ivana Radačić, Ivo Pilar Institute, were also present at the panel.
The audience was moderated by Zrinka Vrabec – Mojzeš, a journalist.
The aim of the panel was to discuss the female body as a field of political struggle, sexual and reproductive rights and health in Croatia. Through their presentations, exhibitors reviewed the shortcomings and the risks of abolishing or diminishing the current prescribed legal rights that regulate the right to access to safe, legal abortion and also important elements that a new law should encompass. Exhibitors offered a cross-section of the field of active advocacy and struggle to retain the right to vote and various actions and demonstrations recently organized, such as the Night March – March 8th, 2017.
