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Zagreb - Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Friday, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, that there must be zero tolerance towards all forms of violence against women.
At the beginning of the parliamentary session, Jandroković called on MPs to observe a minute of silence in tribute of women victims of violence all over the world.
He reminded that the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is observed on 25 November in memory of 25 November 1960, when in the Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo had three women - the Mirabal sisters - killed, while they were returning from a visit to a prison where their husbands were incarcerated.
They then became a symbol of national and women's resistance to the dictatorship, and in 1999, the UN officially confirmed November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, he said.
Jandroković warned that according he UN, half of all murdered women died at the hands of their current or former partners.
"It is a terrible and devastating fact, which clearly shows that it is a global problem. It is evident that we still have a lot of work to do - both in terms of awareness and prevention," he said.
Jandroković said that he would personally continue to use the parliamentary platform to draw attention to this deeply disturbing phenomenon, because any form of violence is unacceptable.
"Tolerance towards all forms of violence against women can and must only be zero," he stressed.