In the middle of May, 17 unemployed women ended the support group within the project "Empowerment of Unemployed Women for Active Participation in the Labour Market – Women´s Choice New Chance!" lead by CESI  in partnership with Croatian Employment Service– Branch office Zagreb, Moj posao.net and Institute for Labour Market Development with the support of European Union.

Through program People 2 People, and in co-operation with Forum Civil Peace Service – forum ZDF a study journey to Bruxelles was organised from 3rd to 6th May 2011 under the title "A Contribution of civil society to peace building in West Balkans". Peace activists from the territory of former Yugoslavia participated in this study journey, and Sanda Malbaša was a CESI representative.

On 5th and 6th May a conference "Homophobia in Schools in Eastern Europe" was held in Ljubljana in organisation of the Peace Institute, Department of sociology, University of Ljubljana, Legebitre (Ljubljana) and Institute for sociology (Hungarian Academy of Science) from Budapest. Nataša Bijelić (CESI),  Amir Hodžić and Gordan Bosanac (CMS, QueerZagreb) presented the work under title "Croatian Heterosexual Universe": Homophobia in Educational system".

Office for gender equality of the government of Republic of Croatia opened a public discussion on the Draft of Proposal of new policy for the promotion of gender equality 2011-2015 in duration from April 29 to May 6, which is subsequently extended up to May 11, 2011. CESI elaborated comments and proposals regarding new National policy and directed them to the Office for gender equality for consideration.

CESI representative Gordana Obradović Dragišić has participated in the TRIALOG Future Factory held in Vienna from 4 -5 May 2011.  TRIALOG is a project aimed to strengthen the civil society and raise awareness of development issues in the enlarged EU. For the first time participant from Croatia was invited, since one of the obligations of Croatia with joining the EU will be development aid and cooperation where CSO's will be also involved.

On April 26 in all regions of ex SFRJ (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) started the collection of million signatures for the support of foundation of independent international regional commission, REKOM. The Commission shall be in charge to establish the facts of all war victims from 1991 to 2001 on the territory of former Yugoslavia, as well as serious violation of human rights at the time of, after or in connection with these wars. REKOM's Proposal of Statute was adopted this year by the Fourth Assembly of the Coalition for REKOM, whose member is also CESI.

Polish organization Federation for Women and Family Planning organized a regional workshop on "How to respond to threats to reproductive rights in Central and Eastern Europe" in Warsaw in April. Representing CESI, Sanja Cesar attended the event where she presented a campaign for introduction of sexual education in Croatian schools and a civic coalition Stop risky sexual education.

On the eve of International Day of Roma in Zagreb, a news conference was held to present  the project "Better Perspective of Roma Women in the Labor Market". The project is implemented by the Croatian Employment Service - Regional Office Zagreb, and the partners are the City of Zagreb - City department for social care and people with disabilities, CESI and Association of Roma Women in Croatia "Better Future".

From March 2 to March 6, 2011, the second annual meeting of partner organizations in the GET project (Gender Issues in Europe Today) was held in the French city of Narbonne. The meeting was part of EU´s Grundtvig partnership program, and was attended by CESI representatives Anamarija Gospočić and Gordana Obradović Dragišić.

Certain unofficial sources lead us to believe that the implementation of the new Ombudsperson Law, drawn up by the work group appointed by the Ministry of Justice, will result in terminating the Office of the Gender Equality Ombudsperson. We at CESI are strongly opposed to terminating the Office of the Gender Equality Ombudsperson, and bringing sex/gender issues under the overall jurisdiction of the Public Attorney. We fear that the termination of the post of Gender Equality Ombudsperson would lead to a decline in the level of protection from gender and sexual discrimination.

The Zagreb branch of the Croatia Employment Service started a project entitled "Better perspective for Roma women on the labour market". The aim of the project is to empower Roma women, and encourage them to participate more actively in both the labor market, and society at large. Furthermore, a special center for providing support, advice and information called CASI "Romani" is being set up. CESI is one of the partner organizations on this project.

100 years after the first marking od Women's Day, the reasons for its foundation are more than reasonable. Women's Day is conceived as a day when women of all world would go out in the streets and demand their rights in the world of labour, politics and society. Although over these 100 years some of women's demands found their ways in laws, conventions and strategies, real women's life shows each day that we are far from equality.

On Thursday, 3^rd March 2011 the Organisation Poligraf of the Faculty of political science (FPZ) organised at FPZ a Get involved day– a presentation of organisations of civil society from various activity areas, which within their programmes foresee activities of involvement of citizens, especially the youth / students. At CESI stand students were able to meet programmes and activities they can involve.

We present joint opinion of the Croatian civil society organisations on the readiness of the Republic of Croatia  for the closing of negotiations in Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights: "It is our opinion that at this time – mid February 2011 – Croatia is not yet ready to close Chapter 23, given the Chapter's essence, i.e. ensuring adequate levels of the rule of law by means of an effective judiciary and human rights protection mechanisms. Namely, closing of Chapter 23 should mean that positive changes in the rule of law are irreversible, which is still not the case."

CESI's portal Libela.org which speaks about gender, sex and democracy celebrated two years of its activity in January this year, mostly thanks to devoted work and commitment of our co-workers, volunteers. During the two-year co-operation, most of volunteers expressed their wish and need for an additional education in the field of journalist/research work, and there was also a great interest for work in the field of feminist analysis of presentation of women in the media. Guided by that idea, we invited the well-known female journalists and activists to share their knowledge and experience with the  volunteers.