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An Effective Remedy before the Courts

Many Serb returnees in Croatia are elderly villagers who are unable to seek enforcement of their rights before the courts because they are often poorly educated and lack the resources to obtain professional assistance from lawyers.

Faced with the continued unauthorized use of Serb agricultural land in the Benkovac area, returnees are refraining from initiating legal proceedings against the occupants, partly because they cannot afford lawyers to assist them.¹⁴⁰ A returnee to his family house in Knin faced a similar problem:

When, in September 2004, the temporary occupant was leaving my house, a dozen people were helping him loading furniture—my furniture—onto a truck. I was standing there and watching how my things go. The police were there, but they asked me, “Are you sure these are your things?’’ I have not sued anybody, because I don’t have money for a lawyer.¹⁴¹

The Croatian government has drafted a law on legal aid, which is expected to be adopted by the end of 2006. Under the draft, any person in need of free legal aid is required to turn to a county office to get an authorization that the person is entitled to legal aid.¹⁴² The expense of traveling to a county office and a complicated application procedure may discourage those in need of legal aid from requesting it.¹⁴³

The draft law also provides that owners of property and immediate family members of the owners are not entitled to such aid.¹⁴⁴ As a result, many returnees may not qualify for free legal aid. Although most Serb returnees depend upon basic agricultural work or small pensions to survive, they usually own a house. The draft law does envisage free legal aid to persons not fulfilling the property requirements if “the reasons of justice so demand.”¹⁴⁵ It is unclear, however, whether this general provision will be applied in such a way as to encompass returnees.