The conference "Women's Participation in the Labour Market - A Social Benefit" was held in Zagreb on Thursday as one of the official events of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The NGO said in a statement that the political leadership was absent from the conference and that civil society organisations also did not attend, nor were they involved in its preparation.
None of the organisations dealing with women's rights, either from Croatia or abroad, participated in the preparation of the conference. Representatives of the European Women's Lobby, Europe's largest network o women's organisations, did not have a chance to speak individually or at any of the panels, as a result of which the issue of women in the labour market was not presented through experience from European and national practice and through direct work with women, the statement said.
Women's Network called on the government to take the messages from the conference seriously and incorporate them into public policies and strategies. It said that the Croatian presidency should be aligned with the EU's fundamental values such as gender equality, and the first step towards this goal should be adoption of a national gender equality policy, which is five years late.
The NGO said that a proposal for an EU gender equality strategy would be unveiled in March and that it expected the Croatian government to actively support the document given that Croatia is holding the EU presidency in the first half of this year.
Women's Network also called for ratification of the International Labour Organisation's Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, and stressed the importance of ensuring conditions for the full implementation of the Istanbul Convention in cooperation with women's organisations, primarily by providing funding for the unobstructed and independent work of women's shelters and counselling centres.