She was speaking at the opening of a conference of ILGA-Europe, the umbrella organisation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex community of Europe.
"In line with the Constitution, it's my deep belief that the issue of human rights and the issue of minority rights should not be subject to the referendum," Pusic said when asked by a reporter to comment on the recommendation by the parliamentary committee on the Constitution that parliament call a referendum for December 1 on whether the Constitution should define marriage as a heterosexual union based on signatures collected by the "In the Name of the Family" initiative.
Pusic said that was the reason why representative democracy institutions were there to defend minorities which did not have enough hands to defend themselves by supremacy.
"At this moment, our Constitution does not defend minority rights from a referendum," although that would make sense, she said. "That's why it's up to Croatian citizens do defend everyone's civil and human rights, knowing that by defending the human rights of a minority, they are defending their own human rights as well."
Pusic said she would push for including in the Constitution a provision stipulating that minority rights could not be put to a referendum. "For the Constitution to have the function it must have, which is to protect minority rights, minority and human rights can't be put to a referendum, because in that case we will very quickly have the possibility to rescind all minority rights. However, a sufficient majority is necessary to change the Constitution."