UPPER HOUSE PRESIDENT RETURNS FROM CAPE TOWN WOMEN CONFERENCE

( Editorial: --> 8488 ) ZAGREB, July 18 (Hina) - Only 14 out of 175 parliaments around the world have women as presidents which is why Croatia's position in this regard is increasingly important, the president of the Croatian National Parliament's House of Counties Katica Ivanisevic said in Zagreb on Saturday. Ivanisevic spoke to reporters at Zagreb's Pleso airport after returning from the fifth international conference of women presidents of parliamentary houses, which was held in Cape Town, South African Republic, between July 12 and 15. "When I first attended this conference, in Japan, nobody would hear about Croatia, I had to explain its historic path, the (Serbian) aggression and its aftermath (...) The second time, in Sweden, everybody was interested in the Danubian region, and in the South African Republic, thanks also to our soccer team, everybody knew about Croatia and all doors were open to us", Ivanisevic said. The latest conference discussed the improving position of women in world politics, and focused on ways of providing conditions in which parliamentary work could be adapted to women representatives. This is a "completely new approach", Ivanisevic assessed. Besides finding mechanisms for helping women enter politics, we must change the way parliaments now work and "adapt (this work) to conditions of the different way women live", she told reporters. The Cape Town conference ended with a declaration supporting all world organisations fighting for women's rights. (hina) ha 181553 MET jul 98