RWLSEE Croatia

Gordana Sobol MORANA PALIKOVIĆ GRUDEN LOVORKA MARINOVIĆ MELITA MULIĆ TAMARA VUKICEVIC
Gordana Sobol

Gordana Sobol

RWLSEE Steering Committee Member, Former Member of parliament, Minister without Portfolio, Chairwoman of the Parliamentarian Committee on Mandate and Immunity, Croatia

Gordana Sobol has a long standing political career in her commitments to foster democracy in her country and beyond as well as in supporting women empowerment. She has held positions of minister and Member of Parliament in different terms.

She was as born in 1961, in Rijeka. She graduated Psychology at the Faculty of education, University in Rijeka. However, her work experience has focused on politics. From 1993 – 2000 she worked as Secretary General of Social Democratic Party. She is the member of Croatian Parliament since 2000. She is a prominent politician and advocate for women empowerment. She served as Minister without portfolio in the Government of the Republic of Croatia in the period 2002 – 2003. From 2001 to 2011 (except the period she served as Minister) she was the President of the Croatian Parliament Committee for Gender Equality. Since 2011 she is the President of the Credentials and Privileges Commission of the Croatian Parliament, and member of the Committee of Labor and Social Partnership, and member of the Committee for Internal Policy and National Security. She is also Members of the Committee for Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System. 

She has participated in numerous seminars and conferences as a guest lecturer in different topics related to human rights, particularly women’s rights. She works with numerous Non-governmental organizations, she is the member of the Croatian psychological Association, Association for the assistance and education of the victims of mobbing, Croatian Association of Business Women – KRUG, President of the Council of Women’s Group – Korak – Karlovac, and the President of the Croatian Synchronized Swimming Federation. She is member of the Steering Committee of the Regional Women Lobby for Croatia.

MORANA PALIKOVIĆ GRUDEN

MORANA PALIKOVIĆ GRUDEN

RWLSEE Member, Vice president of City Assembly of city of Zagreb, Member of the Committee for social services, Vice-President of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Croatia

Morana Palikovic Gruden was born in 1943, in Zagreb. She graduated at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Political Science. Her career started at the biggest publishing house in Croatia -“Vjesnik” where she worked a variety of jobs, including journalists, marketing and editors posts. When she gathered experience, she decided to become an entrepreneur. In 1994, she founded, published and worked as editor in chief of women’s magazine Working Women (Zaposlena žena). Between 1986 and 1990, she was a member of the Parliament as representative of the Trade Union of Printing Workers and Journalist. Since 2001, she is an active member of The Croatian People’s Party – Liberal Democrats. After local elections in 2001, she decided to turn professional politician especially active at the municipal level. Her positions were Deputy Mayor of Zagreb, President of the City Assembly of Zagreb, and City Assembly representative (from 2005 to 2009). She is former Vice President of City Assembly of City of Zagreb and member of the Committee for Social Services. As a person of various career experience, especially interested in woman’s rights issues, she is acting as mediator between government’s institutions and NGO’s working on opening space for dialogue and cooperation between those two entities. Currently she is Vice-President of the Croatian Olympic Committee and President of the Scatting Federation, Chairwoman in Women in Sport Commission.

LOVORKA MARINOVIĆ

LOVORKA MARINOVIĆ

RWLSEE Member, President of Center for New Initiatives, International Consultant for gender equality and migration, Croatia

Lovorka Marinović is an international consultant for gender equality and migration. She is also a president of Center for New Initiatives, CEE Network for Gender Issues Regional Program Manager and member of International Bord, coauthor of several researches and books, producer of engaged documentaries, theatre plays and TV spots, and trainer in Croatia and abroad.

As gender and migration expert she was engaged by Medicines du Monde on assessment needs and improving protocols addressing cases of sexual gender based violence among women and children migrants and refugees in Croatia. Mrs. Marinović participated in the first  civil society consultation on the development of a NATO/EAPC Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related Resolutions and was  engaged by REC/EBRD in consultations on EBRD Gender strategy. As international consultant engaged by UNDP and Government of Montenegro to assess the national policy and assist in drafting a new Action Plan for Gender Equality in Montenegro she was engaged by EC TAIEX as independent expert  on strengthening gender equality institutional mechanism. She initiated and coordinated establishment of Croatian national policy and strategy on trafficking in human beings, and is member of working group for preparation of the first Croatian National Action Plan on Gender Equality. She is also one of the founders of Stability Pact Gender Task Forces, member of several international expert groups for gender equality and for migration

MELITA MULIĆ

MELITA MULIĆ

RWLSEE Member, Expert on Strategic Communication - European Commission TAIEX Project in Western Balkans; Professional Diplomat; Former Member of Parliament, Croatia

Melita Mulić earned a Master’s degree in Contemporary European Studies in 2005 at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. 

She worked as a career diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, from 2005 and she was responsible for various tasks. She was Head of the Section for Communication Support to the Accession Negotiations Process, and once Croatia joined the European Union Ms. Mulić was engaged as a national expert on the twinning and TAIEX projects of the European Commission. 

She was a Social Democratic Party (SDP) representative in the City Assembly of the City of Zagreb from 2009 to 2013, the Chair of the Gender Equality Commission and a member of the City of Zagreb Commission on Protection against Domestic Violence. Ms. Mulić was a member of the Croatian Parliament (SDP) from 2012 to 2016, where she also served on the Committee on Human and National Minority Rights, the Gender Equality Committee and the Croatian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the oldest European international organization for the development of democracy and the protection of human rights. 

She was Secretary General, member of the Presidency and Vice President of the Social Democratic Women’s Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia, from 2007 until 2018. 

She has completed professional development courses in diplomacy, public policy and the development of democratic societies at various institutions, including the Council of Europe and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

She serves as Adviser to the President of the Republic of Croatia for Human Rights and Civil Society from February 2020.

TAMARA VUKICEVIC

TAMARA VUKICEVIC

Tamara Vukicevic is Activist for Human Rights and Peace and Member of ACWAY Youth Association

She is a student at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, where, currently in her final year of study.

Since the beginning of her studies, she has been involved in the work of the CroMSIC Medical Student Association, and since 2020, as a Local Officer for Human Rights and Peace, she has advocated and actively advocated for the rights of vulnerable groups in society.

She is a member of the board of the Josip Sruk Sekularist Foundation and the Protagoras Association, for the protection of the rights of non-religious persons and the promotion of non-religious understanding of the world, where she actively participates and advocates for the rights of religious minority communities and secularism.

Since 2021, she has been a member of the international ACWAY (Common Word Among the Youth) Association, where she promotes interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

He is an active member of the SDP and the SDP Youth Forum, where he participates in elections and accompanying activities.

She is a member of the Ocean Knowledge Youth Association and the Green Window Forum for Sustainable Development, where she also works as an educator.

She attended the Summer School of Social Democracy (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) and the School of Social Justice (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung), training for human rights education for LGBTI people in schools (LORI), European Green Activists Training (Forum for Sustainable Development Green Window) and Regional Academy for Women Leadership and Mediation (RWLSEE).

She was born in Split in 1997, where she completed elementary education and high school.