• Human Rights in Croatia

    Having closed EU membership negotiations and received a tentative date (July 2013), Croatia’s progress on human rights lags behind its commitments. The government’s reaction to the international war crimes conviction of two Croatian generals and its domestic handling of war crimes revealed continuing difficulties in coming to terms with the past. Croatia released a long-promised plan for deinstitutionalizing persons with intellectual or mental disabilities, but took little action to implement it. Despite the announcement of a plan to compensate Croatian Serbs stripped of property rights during the war from 1991-1995, Serbs faced continued obstacles to their reintegration back into Croatia.

  • Croatia: Don’t Force Change in Pride March Route
    May 31, 2012
    Authorities in the Croatian city of Split should permit the 2012 Gay Pride March on June 9, 2012, to end on the city’s waterfront as planned.
  • ICTY/Bosnia: Start of Mladic Trial Shows Persistence Pays
    May 14, 2012

    The opening of the trial of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander, is a salient reminder that justice catches up with those accused of atrocity crimes. Mladic’s trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide is scheduled to begin on May 16, 2012, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

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Croatia

  • Croatia: Don’t Force Change in Pride March Route
    May 31, 2012
    Authorities in the Croatian city of Split should permit the 2012 Gay Pride March on June 9, 2012, to end on the city’s waterfront as planned.
  • ICTY/Bosnia: Start of Mladic Trial Shows Persistence Pays
    May 14, 2012

    The opening of the trial of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime military commander, is a salient reminder that justice catches up with those accused of atrocity crimes. Mladic’s trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide is scheduled to begin on May 16, 2012, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

  • Gotovina Ruling Reaction Shows Croatia Has Yet to Come to Terms with the Past
    May 5, 2011
    Negative reactions to rulings from the Hague are par for the course in the Balkans. But the strong response in Croatia to the Gotovina ruling suggests a country struggling to come to terms with its past.
  • The Balkans Must Broaden Approach to Human Rights
    Feb 28, 2011
    For many in Europe, the western Balkans still evoke images of the brutal conflicts that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The legacy of those wars continues to shape European Union and US policy toward the region.
  • Balkans: Greater Commitment Needed on Rights
    Jan 24, 2011
    Efforts toward European integration for the Western Balkans are hampered by persistent human rights problems, Human Rights Watch said today. In its World Report 2011, Human Rights Watch documents human rights concerns in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Kosovo during 2010.
  • Letter to Croatian Prime Minister Ms. Kosor Regarding a Master Plan for Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Disabilities
    Jan 20, 2011
    Human Rights Watch and the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) are writing to express concerns about Croatia’s rate of progress in implementing its commitments concerning the human rights of persons with disabilities. In particular, we are concerned about the delay in adopting a deinstitutionalization plan and providing people with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities with options for housing and support in the community.
  • EU should press Croatia on disability rights
    Nov 18, 2010
    Croatia cannot be faulted for ambition -- but it is failing to make real progress.
  • Croatia: Greater Progress Needed on Rights
    Nov 10, 2010
    Croatia should carefully study the assessments of its human rights record expressed by the United Nations and the European Union on November 8 and 9, 2010, and accept and carry out their recommendations.
  • EU: Deliver Justice for Srebrenica
    Oct 25, 2010
    The European Union’s commitment to international justice will be measured by its willingness to pressure Serbia in the months to come to arrest the two remaining war crimes suspects.
  • Croatia: Locked Up, Limited Lives
    Sep 23, 2010
    Thousands of people in Croatia with intellectual or mental disabilities are forced to live in institutions that strip them of their privacy, autonomy, and dignity.
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