Kuća ljudskih prava Zagreb (House of Human Rights) and the Ombudswoman for the Republic of Croatia jointly organized a conference on the implementation of the international recommendations received by Croatia concerning the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The conference was held in Zagreb, on November 26, 2024, and was attended by several actors of particular relevance in the field of human rights in Croatia. The scope was to disseminate the content of both the Covenants and the relative recommendations among the general public.

The conference began with the introductory remarks by Tena Šimonović Einwalter, Ombudswoman for the Republic of Croatia, Ivan Novosel, program director of Kuća Ljudskih Prava Zagreb, and Vladlen Stefanov, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The three speeches focused primarily on the importance of raising awareness about human rights in Croatia among the general public, who is often unaware of all the rights and duties that descend from a country signing any international convention. In this sense, discussions and meetings only have sense when followed by the willingness to change reality, through a complete and thorough implementation of the suggestions raised by international monitoring bodies. Great emphasis has been placed on the primary role of NGOs as a bridge connecting the government and citizens in all spheres in which they are active. International monitoring bodies constitute the last, vital element in this process, because through their recommendations, they both assist governments to put international conventions into practice, while also giving more weight to NGOs' requests to improve the national system of human rights protection.

After the introductory remarks, the first panel discussed the recommendations on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), through the views of Katarina Coha, Tatjana Vlašić, Tatjana Holjevac, Lucija Mulalić, and Vesna Teršelič. The speakers began by enumerating the main areas of intervention as highlighted by the recommendations, these being: the quality of living of specific groups, such as Roma, Serbs, migrants, asylum seekers, and foreign workers; he need to strengthen independent institutions, like the Ombudsman, by granting them more funds; and the importance to improve the levels of coordination between all the stakeholders that are involved in the human rights sphere. 

People in Croatia are often affected by discriminatory practices in a wide range of spheres, including for example sports, education, politics, minorities, and so on. The situation of Roma people has been addressed by almost all guests, in response to the CERD recommendations, which have repeatedly mentioned the necessity to deal properly with Roma segregation in the country. Consequently, Katarina Coha (Government Office of Human Rights and National Minorities) has remarked that a change of course is absolutely needed to improve Roma’s living standards in Croatia: indeed, all involved parties (such as schools, involved ministers, psychologists, and local authorities) have traditionally adopted a fragmented approach to any Roma-related matter, in which stakeholders rarely look for an all-encompassing solution. A glaring example presented by Ms. Coha is the educational programs put together for Roma pupils: as an attempt to reduce dropout rates and encourage school enrolments, some funds have been allocated to help families cover travel expenses back and forth from schools. However, since this is only one element of a bigger problem, the impact of this measure was not as effective as they imagined. These elements also go hand-in-hand with housing problems and lack of basic services in settlements. 

The question of Roma arose again in discussions concerning hate speech and Croatia’s recent history. More specifically, the CERD recommendations explicitly mention the “dissemination of negative stereotypes against members of the Roma and Serb minority groups and non-citizens”, triggering a reflection on politicians and public persons’ responsibility in talking, because their words may cause higher levels of intolerance among targeted groups. Concerning Croatia’s difficulties in dealing with its past, Vesna Teršelič (head of Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past)  reflected not only on the trend of glorifying war criminals or “diminishing the magnitude of Croatian crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s”, but also on the historical revisionism of the events of the Holocaust, as well as of the genocide of Serb and Roma (and Jews) peoples during the Second World War.

The second panel focused instead on the ICCPR recommendations, with the contributions of Danijela Gaube, Dijana Kesonja, Kristijan Kevešević, Oriana Ivković Novokmet, Ivan Novosel, and Melisa Skender. Similar to the first discussion, this one began by enlisting the most problematic areas as well. In this case too, Croatia’s priorities include anticorruption, dealing with past, and hate speech. The most encouraging insights in terms of discussion regarded the government’s approach towards international recommendations, as mentioned by Ivković Novokmet (Executive Director of Gong-a). More specifically, she highlighted how the vague words chosen by recommendations make it easier for authorities to pretend that their implementation is complete, without effectively committing to make any change.

In this sense, the most important actor is definitely the Croatian Ministry of Justice, which, in the words of Novosel (Program Director of Human Rights House), is the responsible body to implement international recommendations systematically, not to mention their possible role in setting priorities in the country’s actions. The government should also be responsible to start a horizontal discussion with all relevant NGOs and to listen to their suggestions.

The whole conference was finally wrapped up by Tena Šimonović Einwalter, whose speech was a call to action to all those in the audience and, more broadly, to all Croatian citizens. She celebrated the fruitful discussion among all involved actors, but was also critical towards the government, which often neglects any report or request coming from independent bodies asking for more accountability. As an example, she mentioned that the Ombudsman report for 2023 is still under process, and the ones for 2022 and 2021 have not been discussed in the Parliament yet. Moreover, Šimonović Einwalter took the opportunity to advocate once again for more and better work to be done in the area of human rights, not only to ensure higher protection for endangered groups, but also to protect ourselves from the right wing of hatred against minorities.