Rada Borić has been reelected to the Croatian parliament. The 2024 Croatian parliamentary election took place on April 17th, and Rada, along with her green-left platform MOZEMO, gained ten seats in the parliament.
Rada is a feminist linguist, activist, and director at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb who has coordinated One Billion Rising across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia since the campaign launched in 2012.
She was a member of Parliament in the last term, and after two years she handed over her mandate to Ivana Kekin. She is a representative in the City Assembly of the City of Zagreb and president of the Board for Gender Equality.
“The ten of us – 8 women and two men – will be a strong barrier in the defense of democratic values, since the newly formed ruling coalition consists of the old right wing party and the new far right party openly advocating for far right politics – thus we will face the decline of human rights and women’s rights, including the right to abortion, as well as the rights of the national minorities, LGBTIQ+ people and the media,” stated Rada. “The parliament has 151 members, and only 37 women – among them are 8 from Mozemo, but we are all committed to defend human rights. In the very first session of the parliament we have already attacked the new Government’s plan that made concessions to the demands of the extreme right. No pasaran!”
Prior to One Billion Rising, Rada has been a pillar of the V-Day movement, producing benefit performances across Europe. Rada is a member of the Initiative for the Women’s Court for Former Yugoslavia, regional coordinator of V-Day, the global movement against violence against women, and a member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative Advisory Board.
In 2012 she was elected vice-president of the European Women Lobby (representing Women’s Network Croatia). In 2013, the Croatian President awarded her with the decoration Order of Danica Hrvatska for her work on promoting women’s human rights.
She has been active on the civil scene for 30 years – she is a co-founder of numerous women’s and peace organizations and initiatives, and a member of numerous international networks, including the European Women’s Lobby, the largest network of women’s organizations in the EU, of which she was vice president, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Mediterranean Women Mediators Network and is a regional coordinator of One Billion Rising. In 2010, Forbes Magazine named her one of the seven most powerful feminists in the world.
She is the author of the first Finnish-Croatian-Finnish dictionary, for which she was awarded the Order of the Knights of the White Rose of Finland by the President of the Republic of Finland. In 2013, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipović, awarded her the Order of the Croatian Knitter for her special contribution and protection of women’s rights in Croatia.
In her first term in Parliament, she dealt with and will deal with gender equality, human rights, the promotion of anti-fascist values and peace policies, and the care of workers, elderly people, refugees and asylum seekers.
Please join us in congratulating Rada!