ZAGREB, June 11 (Xinhua) -- A conservative group which launched a campaign to abolish the Istanbul Convention that was recently ratified by Croatian parliament claimed on Monday that it had collected enough signatures to call a referendum about the issue.
The group "The Truth about Istanbul Convention" announced that it has collected 377,635 signatures, which is more than ten percent of the registered electorate and enough to call a referendum under Croatian constitution.
Kristina Pavlovic, one of the group leaders, said that the signatures would be submitted to the Parliament next week for an official recount.
She complained that almost 200,000 voters couldn't sign the initiative. The major of Rijeka, the third-biggest Croatian city, as well as some other majors, didn't allow the group to collect signatures in their cities, arguing the initiative wants to undermine rights of some citizens.
On April 13, with 110 "yes" and 30 "no" votes, Croatian parliament ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention.
Critics of the convention claimed that the convention was promoting the so-called "gender ideology" and that it affects basic traditional and cultural legal aspects of Croatian society.
By January, the convention had been ratified by 24 countries. European countries that have not ratified the convention include Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Britain and Moldova.
