1. The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of these persons' ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture and the media.

2. The Parties undertake to take appropriate measures to protect persons who may be subject to threats or acts of discrimination, hostility or violence as a result of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identify.

Paragraph 1.

• Narrative

From the jurisdiction of the Office for National Minorities of the Government of the Republic of Croatia

The state encourages co-operation between members of different ethnic, language, cultural and other communities. A ggod case in point is the co-operation between the associations of different national minorities in preparing the music and drama event entitled "Cultural Creations by National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia" held on January 24, 1998 to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 7^th anniversary of the recognition of the Republic of Croatia. During 1998, the associations of national minorities staged central performances of their cultural creative work to mark the same anniversaries and included in its preparation members of other national minorities in Croatia. This has created the conditions for a continuing co-operation between individual minorities and for the dialogue with the Government and the government bodies. More details of this are provided in the enclosed Ruling on the establishment of the Council of National Minorities. More details on the role of the media are provided in response to Article 9. In addition, co-operation between individual national minorities is reported at the local level.

From the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture:

Under the Resolution on the Adoption of Acts of the Council of Europe on the Freedom of Expression and Information, and in pursuance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (especially Article 38.), the republic of Croatia is under the obligation to encourage diversity and media pluralism.

Note: see also the response to Article 4. paragraphs 1. and 2.

• Legal

From the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia

Article 40.

"Freedom of conscience and religion and a free public expression of religious or other creed shall be guaranteed."

Article 41.

"All religious communities shall be equal before the law and separated from the state.

Religious communities shall be free, in keeping with the law, to publicly perform their religious services, establish and manage schools and educational establishments, other institutions, social and charitable organizations and shall in the pursuit of their activities enjoy the protection and the support by the state."

From the jurisdiction of the State Commission for the Relations with Religious Communities:

The Act on Holidays, Memorial Days and Non-working Days in the Republic of Croatia defines religious holidays as non-working days for which the salary is paid, which covers all Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions.

The Republic of Croatia and the Holy See have signed four agreements, ratified by the Croatian State Parliament, which regulate the parties' mutual relations and define the status of the Catholic Church in Croatia in a modem way. They include:

1. The Agreement on Legal Matters,
2. The Agreement on Co-operation in the Field of Education and Culture,
3. The Agreement on Pastoral Care of Catholic Believers, Members of the Military and Enforcement Bodies of the Republic of Croatia,
4. The Agreement on Economic Matters.

From the Constitutional Act on Human Rights and Freedoms and the Rights of Ethnic and National Communities or Minorities in the republic of Croatia

Article 10.

"Members of ethnic and national communities or minorities shall be free to organize information and publishing activities in their own language and script."

• State infrastructure

This area is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Office for National Minorities of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and the State Commission for the Relations with Religious Communities, each within its own competence.

From the Jurisdiction of the State Commission for the Relations with Religious Communities

Pursuant to Article 106., and regarding Article 41. Of the Constitution of the republic of Croatia, the President of the republic of Croatia has set up a State Commission for the relations with religious Communities and appointed its members.

Under this Ruling, the Commission is responsible for considering the regulation of relations between the state and the church, co-operating with the competent commission of the Croatian Bishops' Conference and representative sot other religious communities, as well as submitting Joint proposals to the state commissions and executive bodies.

• Policy and factual

From the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture:

The interests of national minorities are promoted through intensive distribution of information and a stronger presence in the media in order to ensure their equality, preserve their diversity and allow the distribution and exchange of information especially between members of dispersed minorities.

Radio stations in the Republic of Croatia, especially local radio stations, have been paying a lot of attention to national minorities and have broadcast a number of current affairs programmes in the languages of the national minorities. For more information on this, see the response to Article 9.

From the jurisdiction of the State Commission for the Relations with Religious Communities:

Following the democratic elections of 1990 and the passage of the new Constitution of the republic of Croatia, religious life and religious freedoms have acquired a legal foundation for their existence and their pursuit.

The position of the state is that the way the relations are regulated with the Roman Catholic Church, to which the majority of the Croatian citizens belong (approx. 80-90%), shall not and can not be at the expense of any other religious community.

It must be pointed out that the solutions provided by the mentioned agreements apply to other church and religious communities, regardless of the size of their respective congregations.

Some churches and religious communities have initiated and expressed the desire to go on to conclude an agreement on regulating the relations with the Croatian state, which remains to be done in the upcoming period.

The state of Croatia, through its State Commission, provides financial aid from the state budget (allocations for religious organizations) to those church organizations and religious communities which act in the general interest of the society at large. For more details on this, see the Policy section the response to Article 8.

The state of Croatia shall bear the cost of designing and publishing religious instruction manuals, in the same way as for other school textbooks.

Schools set up and run by churches and religious communities, which have the right to operate in public, their teachers, instructors, educators and other officials, as well as students, shall enjoy the same rights and obligations as those in the state schools, and shall receive financial support, in compliance with the legislation of the Republic of Croatia.

University-level schools established and run by religious the communities and affiliated with the University of Zagreb or any other university, shall be provided with financial means, same as other state schools at the university level.

The state of Croatia provides funding for the teaching staff, educators and other officials of the church and religious communities, as defined by the Croatian legislation on public institutes of higher education and schools.

Likewise, the state of Croatia shall, in a systematic way, contribute towards the renovation and preservation of the monuments of religious cultural heritage and works of art belonging to the churches or religious communities.

The state of Croatia shall repair the churches and institutions destroyed in the Homeland War.

The state acknowledges the historical and the present role of religious communities in the field of culture and education, especially the role of the Church in ethical and moral education of the people.

Following the 1990 free, democratic elections, the religious communities emerged from anonymity and established their presence in the public life, in the media and the social life. This was not difficult, given the fact that the Church, especially the Catholic Church during the communist regime, represented the only counterbalance to the communist regime and virtually the only power that preserved not only religious, but also the cultural and national identity.

It is obvious that the religious communities are independent from the state. The state treats religious communities as legal entities, without interfering with the way they are structured.

Freedom of thought and action is the key indicator that Croatia is keeping pace with the democratic countries of the Western civilization.

Paragraph 2.

• Narrative

The Republic of Croatia, as party to international documents in the field of human rights and minority rights, has built into its legislation and its practices suitable policies for the protection of individual persons against any type of discrimination, threats or any form of violence.

From the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior:

Based on the fact that the European Convention on Human Rights and other international documents regulating the field accept the security needs of all members and provide for the discretionary right of national governments to implement enforcement meausres in the interest of state security, with due respect for the guaranteed rights, the Croatian police bodies have embarked upon regulatory and structural changes and have initiated certain activities aimed at adopting the democratic standards, which is clearly reflected in the present achievements.

The results achieved in the field of the internationally guaranteed human rights are reflected in the small number of reported criminal offences registered with the police, as defined in the Croatian Criminal Law.

In keeping with the requirement of the three international acts (the Universal Declaration of the Rights of man, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture and other Types of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment) the Croatian penal legislation protects, by defining a special group of criminal offences, the rights and freedoms of man and the citizen.

• Legal

From the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia:

Article 15.

"Members of all nations and national minorities shall have equal rights in the Republic of Croatia.

Members of all nations and minorities shall be guaranteed the freedom to express their nationality, use their language and script, and cultural autonomy."

Article 39.

"Any call for or incitement to war, or resort to violence, national, racial, or religious hatred, or any form of intolerance, shall be prohibited and punishable."

Article 43.

"Citizens shall be guaranteed the right to free association for the purposes of protection of their interests or the promotion of their social, economic, political, cultural and other convictions and objectives. For this purpose, citizens shall be free to form political parties, trade unions and other associations, and to freely join or leave them."

Article 44.

"Every citizen of the Republic of Croatia shall have the right, under equal conditions, to participate in the conduct of public life, and be admitted to the public service."

From the Constitutional Act on Human Rights and Freedoms and the Rights and Freedoms of Ethnic and National Communities or Minorities:

Article 6. paragraph 1.

The Republic of Croatia undertakes to guarantee to all members of ethnic and national communities or minorities:

full observance of the principles of non-discrimination as defined by the international instruments in Article 1. of this Law.

It is necessary to quote, in addition, the provision of Article 109. of the Criminal Law, which is based on the quoted provision of Article 43. of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.

Breach of the right to association

Article 109.

"Whoever shall deprive a citizen of his or her right, or restrict his or her right to associate by forming political parties, trade union, or other associations as defined by the law with the purpose of protecting their interests or promoting social, economic, political, national, cultural or other convictions or goals, shall be fined or punished with imprisonment in the duration of up to one year."

From the Criminal law of the Republic of Croatia:

Breach of equality of the citizens

Article 106.

"(1) Whoever shall, based on differences in race, skin colour, sex, language, religion, political or other conviction, national or social origin, property, birth, education, social status or other properties, or based on the belonging to an ethnic or national community or minority in the Republic of Croatia, deprive a citizen of his or her right, or restrict his or her right or freedom of man and the citizen as defined by the Constitution, the law or any other regulation, or shall award benefits or privileges to citizens, shall be given a sentence of between 6 months and 5 years."

(2) The penalty under paragraph 1. of this Article shall be imposed on any person who shall deprive a person belonging to a nation, ethnic or national community or minority of the right or freedom, or restrict this right or freedom, to express his or her national belonging or to cultural autonomy."

Whoever shall, in defiance of the provisions regulating the use of language and script, deprive a citizen of his or her right to use his or her language and script, or restrict this right, shall be fined or sentenced to serving between 6 months and 5 years in prison."

Racial and other discrimination

Article 174.

"(1) Whoever shall, based on the differnce in race, sex, skin colour, nationality or ethnic origin, violate the fundamental human rights and freedoms recognized by the international community, shall be imposed a prison sentence in the duration between 6 months and 5 years.

(2) The penalty under paragraph 1. of this Article shall be imposed on any person persecuting organizations or individual persons for advocating equality atoll people.
Whoever shall publicly express or promote ideas about the supremacy atone race over another or shall disseminate racial hatred, or incite racial discrimination, shall be punished to serve between 3 months and 3 years in prison."

• State infrastructure

Under the jurisdiction of individual ministries.

• Policy

Supplied in the narrative part.

• Factual

From the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Croatia:

Complaints filed with the ombudsman are neither classified nor processed based on the complaining party's national identity, because the ombudsman works on the principle that all citizens are equal, and that the only matter that needs to be determined is whether or not the breach of or the threat to somebody's individual right is attributable to an illegal or irregular activity pursued by an administrative body or any body vested with public powers. The ethnic identity of the complaining party is considered only in those cases in which the complaining party may indicate that the breach of the individual right was exclusively caused by his or her ethnic identity. However, very rarely does the complaining party associate the breach of his or her right with his or her national identity; rather, they mostly associate the breach of the right with their age, property status or gender (women).

Following the investigation into the citizens' complaints filed in the course of 1996, it was found out that only 7 out of the 386 complaints involved harassment in the workplace, intimidation, stealing of cattle and similar instances of unacceptable treatment of members of national minorities. Granted, the bulk of the complaints (120) filed in that year involved the breach of property rights resulting from the application of the Act on Temporary Takeover and Management of Certain Property, especially the rights of the persons who left the Republic of Croatia during the military and police operation "Bljesak" and "Oluja". However, the breach of the property right was not suffered exclusively by national minority members; rather, it affected many members of the Croatian, i.e. the majority nation.

According to the processed, sorted out and analyzed data related to the citizens' complaints filed in 1997, it is obvious that the majority of the received complaints involes a breach of property and housing rights (588 - 42.06% of all complaints), especially a breach of the right of ownership of appartments and houses, which were, against the owner's will, used by other persons, based on the Act on Temporary Takeover and Management of a Property. However, in 1997, too, these violations of individual rights did not affect only persons belonging to a national minority but also those belonging to the majority, Croatian nation. 53 cases involved complaints filed over the alleged violation of rights pertaining to labour and employment, and only one person claimed his or her national identity was the cause of his or her ordeal. In 1997, 30 complaints involved a threat to the citizen's personal security, mostly in the area liberated in the military and police operations "Bljesak" and "Oluja". However, after a careful examination of each complaint, only 19 were found to be legitimate. Since 18 complaints were filed by citizens residing in the areas liberated by the police and military operations "Bljesak" and "Oluja", there were sufficient grounds to link them with the complaining party belonging to a minority community. It is important to emphasize at this point that the police authorities reacted promptly in all the cases and took suitable measures to protect the citizen's rights.

As was previously pointed out, in 1997 the ombudsman received 18 complaints involving the threat to personal security of citizens belonging to a national minority.

Regarding the obligation of the republic of Croatia as party to the Framework Convention to undertake suitable measures to protect the persons who may be exposed to threats or subject to discrimination, animosity or violence based on their national, cultural, language or religious identity, it was concluded, following a careful analyses of the filed complaints and the actions taken in their connection, that the competent state bodies had reacted promptly and had taken appropriate measures, thus preventing potential violence and protected the endangered persons, and launched legel proceedings against the offender. This is manifest in the following cases:

Case study (P.P. - 305/97 dated 03.04.1997.): Information about a potential clash between the new settlers in the village of Podudbina and its previous settlers returning to their homes reached the ombudsman through M.G. from the Croatian Anti-war Campaign.

Measures taken: A fax was immediately sent to the Korenica Police Quarters, reading: "We have received information about the potential clash between the indigenous inhabitants-returnees to the village of Podudbina, in the territory covered by your police quarters, and the new settlers. According to our information, Mr. M.R., himself a returnee, filed a complaint with your police quarters, following last night's verbal clashes between the mentioned citizens.

However, there are some indications pointing to a high likelihood that the clashes may continue in the course of this evening or night, and may assume tragic proportions. In the authority of the ombudsman and with the purpose to protect human dignity and fundamental freedoms, I request that you undertake all the available measures in order to ensure the returnees' safety, and that you send us an early notification of the measures you have taken."

Outcome of the case: Chief of the police station informed the ombudsman by telephone that security measures had been stepped up and that major clashes had been averted and confined to verbal excesses.

Case description (P.P. - 630/97 dated 16.06.1997.): The Ministry of the Interior received a letter, and the ombudsman received a copy thereof, from house representative Milorad Pupovac. The representative cites cases from the municipality of Sunja invpolving the battering of P.A. and Lj.K. at their home in Blinjski Kutu, as well as M. and Lj. M. He reports information about houses being set on fire in the territory of the municipality of Majur, and requests comprehensive information about the reported cases.

Measures taken: The Ministry of the Interior - the police stations in Kostajnica and Sunja - were sent Mr. Pupovac's letter and were requested to provide information as to the measures that were taken in response to the given warning in order to protect the security of the persons and property.

Case outcome: On July 16, head of the police quarters in the Sisacko-Moslavacka County, sent to the ombudsman a letter with a detailed account of the measures taken. Perpetrators had reportedly been identified and charges had been pressed against them.

Case description (P.P.-258/97 dated 20.03.1997.): The ombudsman was approached, through the Civil Committee for Human Rights & the Women's Group of Porec, by D.C. and I.B.C., residents of Porec, seeking assistance in the pursuit of the right to peaceful and dignified life following daily exposure to threat to their family's personal safety. The husband reports that Mrs. I.B.C. had approached, with a letter dated February 21,1996, the minister of the interior directly, seeking his assistance following the failure of the officials of the police station in Porec to provide the requested protection. Details of the case indicate that the C. family had moved to Porec from Osijek in 1993; Mrs I.B.C. is of Montenegrin nationality, born in Zagreb on May 21, 1955, where she was raised and had lived before moving to Osijek. Mr. D.C. holds a college degree in architecture; for some time he fought in the war as a Croatian soldier, and was later employed in Porec. The C. family has two under-aged children. After the S. family had moved into the apartment below theirs, they started being exposed to harassment and deprived of their right to use the common areas of the shared apartment building. The most serious threat came from Mrs. M.M. of Porec, who, as a real estate agent, sold to the S. family the apartment they lived in. The threats peaked when D.C. was assaulted in his own apartment on February 11, 1997, with his own under-aged children witnessing the assault. Every instance of harassment was immediately reported to the competent police authority, but the only response received until that point was that the police was unable to do anything.

Measures taken: The Ministry of the Interior was asked to provide information on whether investigation had been launched into the case following the complaint filed by Mrs. I.B.C., what was the outcome of the investigation, and whether any measures had been taken pertaining to this case of endangered personal safety. Futhermore, the County attorney was asked to investigate the evidence cited in the complaint and to initiate due legal proceeding in order to curb and punish socially dangerous acts involving injury or threat to life, especially given that the serious threat directly affected under-aged children, and not only their parents. Namely, an analyses of the case suggests that Mrs. I.B.C. and her husband, D., were victims of criminal acts which are prosecuted ex officio.

Case outcome: A letter dated April 2, 1997, sent by the county attorney, informs the ombudsman that the request was referred to the municipal attorney in Porec, on suspicion that M.M. had committed against more than one person the criminal offence of endangering safety as per Article 1. Paragraph 2 of the penal law of the Republic of Croatia.

Case description (P.P. - 217/97 dated 11.03.1997): The Knin-based office of UNHCR reported the case of S.J., resident of Bukovica, district of Knin, a returnee of the Serb nationality. On November 26 and 27, 1996., she was assaulted twice in her family's house, on which occasion unknown persons inflicted on her a serious physical injury, which led to her being treated at the hospital in Zadar.

Measures taken: On March 18,1997, a letter was sent to the Ministry of the Interior, requesting that the allegations made in the complaint be investigated and the ombudsman's office notified about the findings, and that measures be taken to allow the complaining party to return to her home and be protected from further assaults.

Case outcome: On April 2, 1997, a report was received from the Ministry of the Interior, confirming that S.J. had indeed been assaulted and had suffered serious bodily injuries inflicted on her by unknown perpetrators, against whom charges had been pressed with the municipal office of the state attorney in Zadar, over the criminal offence of inflicting serious bodily injury as per Article 40 of the penal law of the Republic of Croatia. At the same time, the police had taken all due measures in order to protect S.J. and all other citizens of Bukovica. Since that time, it was reported, S.J. had been residing in her home, enjoying full safety. In that region, the police had taken intensive measures to protect the entire population. This report was brought to the attention of UNHCR-Knin, and the ombudsman received a letter on April 15, 1977, in which UNHCR thanked him for the actions taken to deal with the case.

From the competence of the Ministry of Justice:

1995, 1996 and 1997 statistics show that 8 persons were legally convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for inciting racial hatred, dissention or intolerance.

From the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior:

The efforts made by the police in its day-to-day activities in order to avert the withholding or restriction of the citizens' right to equality are reflected in the fact that only two such criminal offences were perpetrated in the 1995 - 1997 period, both in 1996.

We particularly emphasize the fact that, in the given period, i.e. from 1995 to 1997 not a single criminal offence involving racial or other discrimination was reported.