Constitutional Law On The Rights of National Minorities in The Republic of Croatia
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Roldy AzkaryaConstitutional Law On The Rights of National Minorities in The Republic of Croatia
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Roldy AzkaryaAntonija Petričušić *
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in
the Republic of Croatia
I. I
is article explores the disposition of the new Croatian Constitutional Law on the Rights
of National Minorities (hereinafter “the Constitutional Law” or “the Law”)1 adopted on
December . e legislation previously governing the protection of minority rights
was politically an extremely controversial and much-discussed law, and was amended
and suspended quite a number of times in its existence of just over ten years. e adop-
tion of the Constitutional Law was one of Croatia’s international obligations upon entry
into the Council of Europe (CoE),2 as well as an imperative for implementation of the
European Union Association and Stabilization Agreement.3 Even at the Law’s drafting
phase, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (hereinafter “the Venice
Commission”) concluded that it constituted “an important step forward in the protection
of national minorities in Croatia. It provides a comprehensive and coherent framework
for further legislative and regulatory action in the field of minorities’ protection”.4 e
Law was drafted on the blueprint of the Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities (FCNM), and therefore applies the most generally accepted stan-
dards in minority protection.
* Researcher at the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen, Italy. e author wishes to thank her colleagues
Emma Lantschner, Francesco Palermo and Jens Woelk for their useful comments to a draft of this article.
1 Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia in Croatian language
can be found in the Narodne Novine (hereinafter “Official Gazette”) 155/2002.
2 e Republic of Croatia joined the CoE on 6 November 1996. For the text of the Law, see the Minority
Rights Information System (MIRIS) at http://www.eurac.edu/miris.
3 Croatia signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union on 29 Octo-
ber 2000. is policy combines the development of privileged political and economic relations with the
countries in the region, supported by substantial financial assistance.
4 Report adopted by the Venice Commission at its 47th Plenary Meeting (Venice, 6-7 July 2001) CDL-INF
(2001) 14, at http://www.venice.coe.int/.
European Yearbook of Minority Issues Vol , /, -
© Koninklijke Brill NV. Printed in the Netherlands.
Antonija Petričušić
e objectives of the present article are: first, to introduce briefly some background as
to the need for minority protection in the Republic of Croatia and, second, to comment
on the provisions of the new Constitutional Law. In this light, the article sets out to ana-
lyze the normative provisions of the Law, identifying the improvements of the new Con-
stitutional Law that endow Croatian minorities with better conditions for participation
in public life, both on the local and regional levels. e conclusion reached is that the new
Law indeed has created new institutions for minority participation, but since among the
majority population the need for minority protection in Croatia is still not perceived as a
necessity, its implementation will most probably fall short when it comes to realization of
the prescribed rights. Finally, the article points out the shortcomings and possible incon-
sistencies in the Law. Applying predominantly a descriptive method, it analyzes certain
provisions of the Constitutional Law and points towards the provisions of related by-laws
that prescribe minority protection. At the same time this article takes into consideration
the obligations that the government has undertaken to apply in the implementation of
minority rights granted by the Law, noting that some deadlines set in the new Constitu-
tional Law have not yet been met.
II. C F M P C
In when independence from the Socialistic Federal Republic Yugoslavia was declared,
Croatia had a noteworthy minority population, comprising % Serbs, .% Bosniaks,
.% Hungarians, .% Italians, .% Slovenes, .% Czechs and several other numeri-
cally smaller ethnic groups. Even though the historically troublesome Italian minority
inhabiting the western coastal part of the country manifested no separatist attempts in the
newly established state, Serbs making up the majority in Krajina, the southeastern region
of the country, found the country’s declaration of independence and sovereignty threaten-
ing to their existence. Armed by the federal military, Serbs established the breakaway state
Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK) inside Croatia and took control of about one-third of the
country. RSK comprised of the region surrounding the city of Knin in which Serbs con-
stituted a majority, but also the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Sirmium,
where Serbs were not a numerical majority but gained the dominance over the territory in
. Backed by the Yugoslav army, by the end of Serbs controlled almost one-third of
Croatia until spring and summer when some parts of the RSK were regained by Croa-
tian authorities through military actions, while the he region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja,
and Western Sirmium was peacefully incorporated into the constitutional and juridical
system of the Republic of Croatia. Croatian authorities were accused for the ‘ethnic cleans-
ing’ of approximately , Serbs that left Croatia in following military actions
when the Croatian army regained control in Krajina, out of which only approximately
, have returned.5 Post-conflict migration of Serb population probably resulted as a
fear on the side of Serb minority population after Croatian territory was returned to the
5 e official data of the Croatian Government Office for Expellees and Refugees. See http://www.vlada.hr/.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
state control. Government’s position is that Serbs have left Croatia after being organized by
their leaders and before Croatian troops arrived. Nevertheless, the lack of official efforts to
stop the expulsion of the Serb population in that time put the burden of responsibility on
the Croatian state. Results of the census indicate the sharp drop of the total number
of persons belonging to national minorities who constitute .% of the population, half of
the total number, while nowadays Serbs constitute ,% in the total population.6
Ethnic minorities in Croatia are primarily entitled to the protection of human rights
prescribed by the Constitution. e Constitution7 established the Republic of Croatia as
“a nation-state of the Croatian people and a state of the members of other nations and
minorities who are its citizens: Serbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Ger-
mans, Austrians, Ukrainians, Ruthenians and others.” In the preamble of the Constitution,
minorities are guaranteed equality with citizens of Croatian nationality plus the realiza-
tion of their rights as members of national minority groups. Article of the Constitution
stipulates that “members of all nations and minorities shall have equal rights” and they
“shall be guaranteed freedom to express their nationality, freedom to use their language
and script, and cultural autonomy.” All constitutionally prescribed rights (civil and politi-
cal freedoms along with economic, social and cultural rights) are guaranteed regardless
of a citizens ethnic background. Everyone is constitutionally guaranteed the right to
freedom of association for the purposes of protection of interests or promotion of social,
economic, political, national, cultural and other convictions and objectives.8
e Constitution guarantees the right of every citizen, under equal conditions, to take
part in the conduct of public affairs, and to have access to public services.9 e political
participation of minorities stipulated in the Constitution, is additionally prescribed by
both the new Constitutional Law and more comprehensively by the amendments to the
Law on Elections for the Representatives in the Parliament of Republic of Croatia (here-
inafter “Electoral Law”). e Constitution prescribes the Croatian language and the Latin
script as the official ones to be used.10 However, in individual local units, other languages
6 According to the official results of the census, Croatia has a total population of ., represent-
ing a % decrease of the total population since . Ethnic Croats represent approximately % of the
total population in comparison to % ten years ago. e total number of persons belonging to national
minorities was announced at .%, half of the total number. e most drastic reduction in this regard
was seen within the Serb minority, which now only represents .% of the total population, representing
a two-thirds decline since . Many people of mixed Serbo-Croatian marriages now prefer to register
themselves as Croats, which may be another reason for a sharp drop of their numbers since the last census.
e results of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe census are available on the website
of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, at http://www.dzs.hr/.
7 e Constitution of the Republic of Croatia has been amended on several occasions. Official Gazette 56/1990,
135/1997, 8/1998, 113/2000, 124/2000, 28/2001, 41/2001, 55/2001. For example, the Constitutional Law on
Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Official Gazette, No. 135/97) acknowledges
the existence of ‘autochthonous national minorities’ instead of ‘other nations and minorities’. e latter term
was introduced in the first Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Official Gazette 56/1990).
8 Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, Article 43(1).
9 Ibid. Article 44.
10 Ibid. Article 12.
Antonija Petričušić
and Cyrillic or other scripts may be introduced into official use along with the Croatian
language and the Latin script under conditions stipulated by a special law.
Religious freedoms, which are related to minority rights, are prescribed in Article
of the Constitution which states the equality of religious communities before the law
and the secularity the state. Religious communities are free, in conformity with the law,
to perform religious services publicly, to open schools, educational and other institutions,
social and charitable institutions and to manage them, while at the same time are entitled
to the protection and assistance of the state.
Even though Croatian independence was recognized by the majority of the interna-
tional community during the first months of , Croatia had to provide assurances on
the protection of human rights relating to national minorities, which it subsequently ful-
filled when it promulgated the Constitutional Law on Human Rights and Freedoms and
the Rights of National and Ethnic Communities or Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
(hereinafter “the former Constitutional Law on Minorities”).11 Some minority rights and
freedoms have been additionally regulated by special by-laws. In the Croatian parlia-
ment passed the Charter on the Rights of Serbs and Other Nationalities in the Republic
of Croatia,12 guaranteeing that “all nationalities in Croatia enjoy legal protection against
any and all activities which may endanger their existence, and have the right to respect,
self-preservation and cultural autonomy.”
In late September , as a consequence of the military operations that reincorpo-
rated parts of the occupied territory,13 parliament ‘temporarily’ suspended provisions of
the former Constitutional Law on Minorities relating to the Serb minority while general
provisions and provisions relating to political participation of smaller minority communi-
ties remained in force. e CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution in April
calling on the government to “adopt a Constitutional Law revising the suspended
provisions of the Law in compliance with the recommendations made by the Venice
Commission and taking into account new realities, by the end of October at the
latest.”14 On May , the Croatian parliament amended the former Constitutional
11 Constitutional Law on Human Rights and Freedoms and the Rights of Ethnic and National Communities
or Minorities in the Republic of Croatia, Official Gazette 65/1991, 70/1991, 27/1992, 34/1992, 68/1995,
105/2000. e Croatian Constitutional Court ruled in one of its decisions that “one of the important aux-
iliary functions of the Constitutional Law was to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights
into Croatia’s legal system in 1991, six years prior to Croatia’s ratification of the European Convention
for Human Rights.” Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, U-I-745/1999, 8
November 2000.
12 Charter on the Rights of Serbs and Other Nationalities in the Republic of Croatia, Official Gazette 31/
1991.
13 e General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Peace Agreement)
signed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 13 November 1995,
brought an end to the conflict in the region and provided for the reestablishing of Croatian sovereignty over
the region of Eastern Slavonia. at was integrated in .
14 Resolution no. 1185 (1999) honouring of obligations and commitments by Croatia, April 1999. , at thhp:
//www.coe.int/. For further reference see also “Background Report on Constitutional Law on National
Minorities of the OSCE Mission to Croatia”, August 2002, at http://www.osce.org/croatia/.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
Law on Minorities reintroducing some suspended provisions relating to the proportional
representation of the Serb minority, but annulling the vast majority of provisions relat-
ing to minority self-government. Nevertheless, renewed government efforts to introduce
a draft Constitutional Law into parliament were terminated several times. In late April
, parliament considered a revised Constitutional Law, but when its draft was exam-
ined by the Venice Commission it found that “the draft Constitutional Law, as such, did
not seem to offer an adequate response to the political needs of minorities in Croatia.”15
Finally, after several delays, the new Constitutional Law was passed in December .
In accordance with Article () of the Constitution, emphasizing the importance of the
issue of minority protection, “the organic laws regulating the rights of national minorities
must be passed by the Croatian parliament with a two-thirds majority vote of all repre-
sentatives.”16
III. C C L
A. Basic Provisions
1. Non-Discrimination Principle (Articles 1-4)
In its very first provision the Constitutional Law reaffirms the country’s commitment to
a number of international instruments dealing with human rights and minority protec-
tion, undertaking an obligation to respect and protect the rights of national minorities
and human rights, the rule of law and all the other highest values of its constitutional and
international legal system, with respect to all its citizens. Croatian legislation is mainly
in accordance with international standards set for minorities since Croatia has ratified a
number of international documents that deal with minority protection.
Article contains a non-discrimination clause, following the reiterated intention of
the legislator to commit itself to respect for the ratified international documents.17 is
provision clarifies the fact that rights prescribed by the Constitutional Law are to be
applied equally18 to everyone. In accordance with Article , minority rights and freedoms
15 Opinion on the Croatian Constitutional Law Amending the Constitutional Law of 1991, adopted by the
Venice Commission at its 43rd Plenary Meeting (Venice, 16 June 2000) CDL-INF (2000) 10, at http:
//www.venice.coe.int/.
16 “e other laws which elaborate the constitutionally-defined human rights and fundamental freedoms, as
well as laws that prescribe the electoral system, the organization, authority and operation of government
bodies and the organization and authority of local and regional self-government shall be passed by the
Croatian Parliament by a simple majority vote of all representatives”. Article 82(2) of the Constitution.
17 is provision derives from Articles 14 and 17(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.
18 e Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia in one of its rulings decided on the principle of
equality related to national minorities in Croatia. Relying on both the Constitution and the FCNM, the
Constitutional Court stated that “it is evident that the application of the principle of equality does not
always provide for sufficient protection. If the principle of equality was immediately applied alone, ... the
special characteristics and specific interests of the minority national and ethnic communities in the society
would be neglected, which might, in certain cases, lead to discrimination. erefore, the exclusive individual
protection, limited to the protection of classic fundamental rights of individuals, is no longer considered
Antonija Petričušić
are an inseparable part of the democratic system of the Republic of Croatia and enjoy
necessary support and protection, including positive measures that national minorities
should benefit from.
According to Article every citizen of the Republic of Croatia is entitled to the right
to express freely that s/he is a member of a national minority in the Republic of Croatia;
the right to exercise, alone or together with other members of the national minority or
with members of other national minorities, the rights and freedoms stipulated by this
Constitutional Law and other minority rights and freedoms stipulated by special laws.
e Law forbids any discrimination based on affiliation to a national minority. Members
of national minorities are guaranteed equal treatment before the law, before the courts and
equal legal protection. Furthermore, the preservation of minorities is secured in a way that
the Law forbids the undertaking of measures which would change the proportion among
the population in the areas inhabited by persons who belong to national minorities and
which are directed at hindering the exercise of or restricting the enjoyment of minority
rights and freedoms. e Constitutional Law and special laws construct the exercise of
certain rights and freedoms depending on the numerical representation of members of
national minorities in the Republic of Croatia or in one of its areas.
2. Definition of a National Minority (Article 5)
Article aims at defining the persons who have specific ‘constitutional’ rights enshrined
in the new Constitutional Law. A ‘national minority’ is, in the sense of this Constitutional
Law, a group of Croatian citizens whose members have been traditionally settled in the
territory of the Republic of Croatia, and who have ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/or reli-
gious characteristics which are different from those of other citizens, and who are guided
by the wish for the preservation of those characteristics. According to the definition, the
concept of national minority - i.e. benefiting from certain rights endorsed by the Con-
stitutional Law - is restricted to citizens of Croatia. For this reason the definition was
criticized by the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), because it “can
be particularly problematic when it works in tandem with Croatia’s Law on Citizenship,
since the Law imposes stricter eligibility criteria for naturalization of non-Croats than
Croats (such as a five-year period of continuous residency).”19 Furthermore, the Law
restricts the definition of a national minority to groups that are ‘traditionally settled’ and
it is unclear which minorities currently residing in the country should be considered to
belong to this category and which should be excluded from the Constitutional Law’s
guarantees.
sufficient. In accordance with that, the application of the principle of positive discrimination contained in
Article 15, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, points at the detachment from the strictly individual concept
of the protection of minority members in Croatian society, i.e., at the acceptance of the constitutional and
legal concept of minority rights as the collective rights of minority communities.” Ruling Constitutional
Court of the Republic of Croatia, 12 April 2001. U-I-732/1998.
19 See Background Report of the OSCE Mission to Croatia on Implementation of the Constitutional Law
on the Rights of National Minorities (CLNM) and Related Legislation, at http://www.osce.org/croatia/.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
e new Constitutional Law on Minorities, contrary to the former one, does not
contain a provision stipulating the groups of Croatian citizens which constitute national
minorities. Previously, specific national minorities were defined as such by the Constitu-
tional Law on Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia,20 those being
Serbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, and
Ruthenians, while at the same time some minority groups, that were numerically bigger
although not considered to be “autochthonous national minorities”, were not mentioned
in the text of the Constitution (among them Bosniaks, Albanians and Slovenes). e
Venice Commission welcomed the abolition of the list of minorities in the new Law, but
noticed that a list of minorities is still mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution
itself. e Commission warned in some of its remarks on the amendments to the Consti-
tution of Croatia that listing minorities “runs contrary to the practice generally advised by
both the CoE and the HCNM, as it tends to create legal problems related to the protec-
tion of the rights of minorities (in particular, those that may exist in fact but do not appear
on the list) that far outweigh the political benefits gained from the recognition of specific
minority groups, which may be better accomplished at the moment when minorities seek
to claim the exercise of a specific right.”21
3. Bilateral Cooperation and Realization of Minority Rights (Articles 6-8)
Prescribing bilateral cooperation, the Law in Article stipulates that the Republic of
Croatia may conclude international agreements with other countries whereby it shall reg-
ulate the issues of the rights and freedoms of members of national minorities within the
Republic of Croatia. Nevertheless, when officials conclude international agreements they
should create and promote the conditions necessary for the preservation and develop-
ment of the culture of members of national minorities, and the preservation of significant
components of their identity; i.e., their religion, language, tradition and cultural heritage.
So far, Croatia has concluded bilateral agreements on the protection of minorities with
Hungary and Italy, while Croatia is in the process of negotiation with Serbia and Monte-
negro.22 A treaty on friendship and co-operation with Romania contains also a provision
on the protection of minorities.
e effort of the legislator to preserve the intellectual-cultural heritage of minorities is
stipulated in Article guaranteeing that the Republic of Croatia shall ensure the exercise
of special rights and freedoms of members of national minorities, enjoyed individually
or collectively. All of those rights are more thoroughly discussed in the following articles
of the Constitutional Law. Article states that provisions of this Law and the by-laws
regulating minority rights have to be interpreted and applied with the purpose of respect-
ing the members of national minorities and the Croatian people, and the development of
20 Supra note .
21 Draft opinion on the Amendments of November and March to the Constitution of Croatia,
adopted by the Venice Commission on 29 June 2001,CDL (2001) 69, at http://www.venice.coe.int/.
22 For more information see Arie Bloed and Peter van Dijk, Protection of Minorities through Bilateral Treaties.
e Case of Central and Eastern Europe (e Hague, Boston, London, ).
Antonija Petričušić
understanding, solidarity, tolerance and dialogue among both the majority population and
the minorities. Later in Article , it is prescribed that the rights of national minorities
determined by international agreements, which according to the Constitution are a con-
stituent part of the internal legal system of the state, may be neither changed nor cancelled
when interpreting the provisions of the Constitutional Law.
B. Minority Rights and Freedoms
1. Use of Minority Language and Education in Minority Language (Articles 9-11)
Members of national minorities are guaranteed, in accordance with Article , the right to
use their first name and surname in the language which they use, and to its official recog-
nition for them and their children through its entry into the registers of births, marriages
and deaths as well as in other official documents, in compliance with the regulations of
the Republic of Croatia.23 ey also have the right to have the form for their personal
identification card printed and filled out in the language and script which they use. Article
prescribes that members of national minorities are furthermore entitled to the right
to freely use their language and script, privately and publicly, including the right to dis-
play signs, inscriptions and other information in the language and script which they use,
in compliance with the law. Article prescribes the right for minority members to be
educated in the language and script of the respective national minority. e education of
members of a national minority shall be conducted under the conditions stipulated by a
special law on the education in the language and script of national minorities.
Special measures adopted by the state to actively implement minority language educa-
tion rights to the maximum of their available resources are expressed in two special laws, one
of them being the Law on the Use of Language and Script of National Minorities24 (herein-
after “Minority Language Law”) and the other the Law on the Education in the Language
and Script of National Minorities25 (hereinafter “Minority Education Law”). ese laws
were passed in ,26 prescribing that persons belonging to national minorities, like others,
have the right to establish and manage their own private educational institutions.
e Constitutional Law foresees the possibility of establishing school institutions
with education in the language and script of a national minority for a smaller number of
pupils than the number which is stipulated for state school institutions, and in this way
promotes education in the minority language. e curriculum in the language and script
of a national minority shall contain subjects related to a specific aspect of that national
minority (its mother tongue, literature, history, geography and cultural achievements).
However, pupils educated in the languages and scripts of national minorities have the
23 Law on Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Official Gazette, /, /.
24 Law on the Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities, Official Gazette 51/2000.
25 Law on Education in the Language and Script of National Minorities, Official Gazette 51/2000.
26 ese two laws were passed only after moderate political establishment gained power in January . One
of the first declarations after the election was the promise that the country will accept the return of ethnic-
Serb refugees who were driven out of their homes in .
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
obligation to learn the Croatian language and Latin script.27 Teachers conducting educa-
tion in the language and script of a national minority should originate from members of
that national minority and should have an excellent command of its language and script.
Teachers that do not originate from the national minority may be allowed to conduct
education for minority pupils as long as they have an excellent command of the minor-
ity language and script. Universities are encouraged to organize the training of teachers
teaching in the minority language and script in subjects relevant to the mother tongue,
literature, history, geography and cultural creativity of a given national minority.
2. Use of Minority Language in Administration and Preservation of Identity (Articles 12-16)
Article deals with the equal official use of the language and script of national minorities
in local self-government units, but only when members of a particular national minor-
ity comprise at least one third of the population of a given unit. is is one of the rights
whose implementation depends on the results of the census. e equal official use
of the minority language and script must be stipulated by the statute of a local or regional
self-government unit in compliance with the provisions of the Minority Language Law.
e latter law regulates the other conditions and manner of the official use of the lan-
guage and script used by members of a national minority in representative and executive
bodies and in procedures before both administrative bodies of local self-government units
and regional self-government units. is by-law also regulates the procedure before the
state administration bodies of first instance, the procedure before judicial bodies of first
instance; the procedures conducted by the state prosecutor’s office and notaries public, and
legal entities having public authorities. e Advisory Committee on the Framework Con-
vention (ACFC) considered that the numerical threshold for the obligatory introduction
of minority language in contacts with municipal and town authorities, as stipulated by
the Minority Language Law, is high and “uncertainties persist since it is unclear whether
this obligation applies to municipalities and towns where the persons belonging to a
given national minority constitute an absolute majority of the population or whether it is
enough that persons belonging to a specific minority constitute a relative majority.”28
Article opens an obligation for self-administration units to take care of the pres-
ervation of traditional names and signs and the giving of names of persons and signifi-
cant events in the history and culture of a national minority in the Republic of Croatia
to settlements, streets and squares in the areas traditionally, or to a considerable degree,
populated by members of national minorities. e Minority Language Law as well as the
Law on Local Self-government Units and the statutes of those units are required to stipu-
late the measures providing for the preservation of the linguistic elements of minorities, as
well as for the safeguarding of their culture and political and cultural figures (Article ).
Minorities are allowed to use insignias and symbols of national minorities and to
celebrate their national holidays (Article ). e Law on Holidays, Memorial Days
27 Article of the Law on Education in the Language and Script of National Minorities.
28 See para. of the opinion of the ACFC, adopted on April , at http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_
rights/Minorities/.
Antonija Petričušić
and Days off in the Republic of Croatia29 stipulates that national minorities may display
appropriate signs and symbols of national minorities along with the official use of signs
and symbols of the Republic of Croatia. When the national anthem and a solemn song of
a national minority are being performed, the national anthem of the Republic of Croatia
shall be obligatorily performed beforehand. Local self-government units and regional self-
government units shall be obliged to stipulate by the statute the official use and manner
of use of the flag and symbols of national minorities.
For the purpose of preservation, development, promotion and expression of their own
national and cultural identity, members of national minorities may establish associations,
endowments and foundations, as well as institutions for the performance of public infor-
mation activities, cultural, publishing, museum, archival, library and scientific activities. e
basis for the aforementioned right can be found in Article of the Constitution which
provides for the formation of minority associations, while at the same time the regulations
of the Law on Associations30 entitle members of national minorities to establish trading
companies, institutions, associations, endowments and foundations, religious communities,
political parties in the same manner and under the same conditions stipulated by law to
which other Croatian citizens are entitled to those rights. e favourable stipulation of the
Constitutional Law is the obligation prescribed for local self-government units and regional
self-government units to participate in the financing of activities of the aforementioned
minority associations, according to their financial possibilities. is rather vague provision
does not actually provide for an appropriate funding of minority associations. Furthermore,
since the article does not directly refer to any of the specific laws, it is not very likely that
minority associations, endowments, foundations or institutions will benefit from it.
Article prescribes the set of rights that facilitates cross-border cooperation of
minorities.31 e Constitutional Law encourages minorities to keep in contact with the
people of their ethnic homeland and prescribes the right to maintain contacts with kin-
states, stipulating that members of national minorities, their associations, national minor-
ity councils or representatives shall freely maintain contacts with the nation with which
they share the same ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/or religious characteristics and with
juridical personality with the seat in the area of the state of that nation that handles the
fields of education, science, culture, publishing and humanitarian activities. is kind of
29 Article 3 of the Law on holidays, memorial days and days off in Republic of Croatia stipulates that Citizens
of Republic of Croatia who celebrate Christmas on January 7, those of Islamic religious affiliation during
the days of Ramazan bayram and Kurban bayram as well as those of Jewish religious affiliation in a days
of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have the right to be absent from work. However, this Law does not
prescribe the right to be absent from work for the non-Muslim, and non-Jewish population in Croatia and
therefore does not treat equally all minority groups living in Croatia. Law on Holidays, Memorial Days and
Days off in Republic of Croatia. Official Gazette 33/1996, 96/2001, 13/2002.
30 Law on Associations, Official Gazette 70/1997, 88/2001.
31 Compare for example similar provisions in Article of the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms
of National Minorities of the Serbia and Montenegro and Article ()(a) of the Constitution of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Existing norms prescribing the right to interact with compatriots constitute an adequate
framework for the maintenance of relations between minorities and kin-states in the region.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
cooperation is subjected to certain special treatment, since minority associations, national
minority councils and representatives are allowed to receive from the state bodies of the
kin-state without paying the custom duties and in a limited number of copies newspapers,
magazines, books, movies, videotapes, recordings which they may use for their needs and
which they can distribute to members of a national minority without paying compensa-
tion. e associations of members of national minorities may organize guest performances
by professional and amateur cultural and artistic groups and may organize other cultural
and art performances and exhibitions which contribute to the enrichment of the culture
and identity of a national minority. In such cases, foreign persons participating in the
conduct of performances and exhibitions shall not need a work permit.
3. e Role of the Media in Promotion of Minority Issues (Articles 17-18)
e Constitutional Law foresees that the laws and implementing rules which regulate
the activities of public information, the production and broadcasting of radio and televi-
sion programmes, education, museum, archival and library activity and the protection and
preservation of cultural assets, should create conditions for the acquaintance of all citizens
of the Republic of Croatia, especially of children and young people, through the content
of educational work and through obligatory, as well as optional educational subjects, with
the history, culture and religion of national minorities.
Radio and television stations at the national, regional and local level have the task to
promote understanding for the members of a national minority (Article ). Furthermore,
they are obliged to produce and/or broadcast programmes intended for the information
of members of national minorities in their specific language.32 It was noted that the recent
changes in the Law on Croatian Radio-Television (HRT)33 constituted “a clear step for-
ward towards an acceptable legal framework for the transformation of HRT into a genu-
ine public service broadcaster.”34 is recent reform of Croatian media legislation provides
the basis for the democratic organization of both a public service and private broadcasting.
Nevertheless, a recent study funded by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) pointed out that HRT pays insufficient attention to “important post-war
issues such as refugee return, treatment of minorities and human rights.”35 Additionally,
32 In practice implemented this legislative provision has been implemented by a weekly one-hour information
program for national minorities ‘Prizma’, that is broadcast on Sundays in the national television. e pro-
gram is produced in minority languages with subtitles in Croatian. However, coverage of minority issues still
not a regular component of news programmes, as reported recently in a monitoring programme conducted
by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO). See “Politics in HTV Programming,” at
http://www.hho.hr/english/politicsonhtv.htm. HTV has, recently informed the OSCE Mission in Croatia
that it envisions having regional studios broadcast programmes in minority languages by the latter half of
. See OSCE Mission to Croatia Background Report Implementation of the Constitutional Law on
the Rights of National Minorities (CLNM) and Related Legislation, at http://www.oce.org/croatia/.
33 Law on Croatian Radio-Television, Official Gazette 25/2003.
34 “OSCE sees progress in draft law on Croatian Radio-TV”, 18 December 2002, at http://www.osce.org/
croatia/.
35 Ibid.
Antonija Petričušić
media enterprises have an important role in the production and broadcast of programmes
which stimulate and improve the preservation, development and expression of the cultural
and religious identities of national minorities. Members of national minorities should
become acquainted with the work of their councils and their political representatives
through media. With regard to this, media enterprises (press, radio and television) are
obliged to enable the minority associations and institutions to participate in the creation
of programmes produced for national minorities. However, this provision does not make
clear whether only the state-owned media enterprises are obliged to publish programmes
produced for national minorities or if it is the obligation of all of media enterprises.
4. Political Participation of Minorities (Articles 19-22)
e political participation of minorities in Croatia36 has been guaranteed as a right since
.37 e new Constitutional Law represents the foundation for political participation
of national minorities by guaranteeing a certain number of seats in the parliament and
in the bodies of local self-government to minorities. e Constitutional Law provides a
possibility for minorities to elect a minimum of five and a maximum of eight of their rep-
resentatives to parliament in the special electoral units. However, the implementation of
this right has not been completely prescribed in the Constitutional Law. is has been left
to be prescribed by the new electoral law which inter alia regulates the election of minority
representatives to the Croatian parliament.38
Members of national minorities, in accordance with Article of the Constitutional
Law, constituting more than . % of the total population of the Republic of Croatia are
36 In accordance with the Law on Elections for the Representatives in the Parliament of Republic of Croatia
(Official Gazette /) members of national minorities who constituted more than % of the population
of the Republic of Croatia on the basis of the census, had the right to be represented in parliament in
accordance with their share of the total population. ose rights, together with Serb minority self-govern-
ment, originally granted by the Electoral Law in the areas where Serbs formed majority of the popula-
tion (those administrative units were called kotarevi, and there were two of them: Glina and Knin) were
annulled in September . Amendments to the Electoral Law made in October provided for a total
of eight minority representatives in the parliament. (Official Gazette /). In October amend-
ments to the Electoral Law (Official Gazette /) specified that the five representatives (for minorities
constituting less than % of population) would be distributed as follows: Italians, Hungarians, and Serbs
each entitled to elect one, Czechs and Slovaks together are entitled to one, and Ukrainians, Ruthenians,
Jews, Germans, and Austrians together are entitled to one. is scheme for minority representation was
implemented in the parliamentary elections and shaped the current assembly. e Electoral
Law reintroduced proportional representation in parliament, government and supreme judicial bodies for
minorities that account for more than % of the population. However, the law provided that implementa-
tion of this provision would be suspended until after the official results of the census and therefore had
neither concrete effects on the formation of the assembly, nor on the formation of other official bodies.
37 Minorities were guaranteed political participation by the former Constitutional Law on Minorities passed
in , and by later Electoral Laws. For further information see Snezana Trifunovska (ed.), Minorities in
Europe. Croatia, Estonia and Slovakia (e Hague, ), -.
38 e amended law regulating the election of representatives to the Croatian Parliament did include the
requirements put forward by the Constitutional Law on Minorities regarding their right to political repre-
sentation. It was passed on April 2003, published in the Official Gazette 53/2003.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
guaranteed a minimum of one and a maximum of three representative seats for the mem-
bers of that national minority.39 e Serb minority is the only one satisfying the threshold
of .% of the population, as reflected in the census, guaranteeing it the political
participation stipulated in the Constitutional Law. e other minorities are guaranteed
in accordance with the Constitutional Law the right to elect a minimum of four repre-
sentatives. e amendments of the Electoral Law prescribed five parliamentary seats for
this group of minorities, granting them the collective right to elect representatives who
in some cases would represent several minority groups. In accordance with this provision,
Italian and Hungarian minorities are each guaranteed one seat for their representatives
while one representative will represent Austrians, Bulgarians, Germans, Jews, Roma,
Ruthenians, Ukrainians and Vlahs, while Czechs and Slovaks together will elect one.
Members of Albanian, Bosniak, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Slovenian minorities will
elect a common representative.40
Members of national minorities have the right to representation in the representative
bodies of local and regional self-government units (Article ).41 If at least one member
of a national minority is not directly elected to the representative body of the self-govern-
ment unit in which the minority forms more than % and less than % of the population,
the number of members of the representative body of the self-government unit should be
increased by one member, and the member of a national minority who was not elected ini-
tially but has gained the most votes will be considered elected. Where a national minority
constitutes at least % of the population in the local self-government the Law prescribes
proportional representation in the representative body of the unit.
In order not to exclude those members of minorities that did not register in the last
census (held in ) due to the fact they had left the territory of Croatia as refugees in
, the official census results on the number of members of national minorities in a local
39 e exact reason the extreme rightist parties denied their support to the amended Electoral Law centers
around the fact that Serbs are given the right to have three political representatives. e rightist parties
claimed that Serbs should be given a right to elect one representative to parliament, while eventually, in
accordance with the turnout; they would have a chance to elect additional representatives. If this proposal
was accepted, the so called non-fixed quota system would be applied for the election of Serb representatives.
e number of additional minority representatives elected would be determined through the following for-
mula: the number of voters of the Serb national minority that participated in the election would be divided
by the average number of voters required to elect one member to parliament.
40 Although the earlier versions of the draft of the Constitutional Law contained an option which provided
a dual vote for minorities for the election of minority representatives to parliament, the draft submitted by
the government to parliamentary procedure in July 2002 eliminated this dual voting option.
41 Units of local and regional self-government have the constitutional right (Article 135 of the Constitution),
within the limits provided by law, to regulate autonomously by their statutes the internal organization and
jurisdiction of their bodies and accommodate them to local needs and potentials. In performing the affairs
within their jurisdiction, units of local and regional self-government are subjected only to the review of their
constitutionality and legality by the authorized governmental bodies (Article 136 of the Constitution). e
system of regionalization of Croatia is set by the Law on Local and Regional Self-government, Official
Gazette /. is law prescribes that cities and municipalities are local self-government units, while
counties (županije) are regional self-government units. ere are twenty self-government units and the
capital of Croatia is also given the status of one.
Antonija Petričušić
or regional self-government unit shall take into account possible changes registered in the
last confirmed voters’ list of that unit prior to each election that takes place in the regional
self-government units. is adjustment was proposed by the Venice Commission,42 the
ACFC43 and advocated by Serb political parties.
Article stipulates the possibility of the self-government units, in which members of
national minorities do not constitute the majority of the population, to determine by their
statutes that members of national minorities should be elected to the representative body
of the respective units resulting from their share in the total population of the unit.
In Article it is stipulated that minority members are ensured proportional repre-
sentation in the executive bodies of self-government units. Until the Constitutional Law
was passed, providing for the proportional representation of minorities in the represen-
tative bodies of self-government units, the Article Law on Election of the Members
of Representative Bodies of Local and Regional Self-government Units44 (hereinafter
“Electoral Law for Self-government Units”) had been prescribing minority participation
in the executive bodies of those self-governments. However, this provision has never been
applied, even though it is supposed to happen within days after the census results are
published.45
e members of national minorities are additionally ensured representation in the
state administration and judicial bodies, taking into account acquired rights and the share
of members of national minorities to the total population at the level at which the state
administration or judicial body is established. Article contains a kind of ‘positive-dis-
crimination’ measure in view of the fact that when there are several candidates with equal
qualifications the minority member applicant is to be selected for the vacancy in the state
administration’s and self-government unit’s posts.
C. Councils and Representatives of National Minorities in Self-Government Units
e Constitutional Law has introduced institution of national minority councils, minority
self-governments in which each minority represented in the population of the self-gov-
42 See para. of the opinion adopted by the Venice Commission on 6 November 200, CDL-AD (),
at http://www.venice.coe.int/.
43 See para. of the opinion of the ACFC, adopted on April , at http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_
rights/Minorities/.
44 Law on Election of the Members of Representative Bodies of Local and Regional Self-government Units,
Official Gazette 33/2001. e Constitutional Law has prescribed in article () that the nomination and
election of minority members of the representative body of the local and regional self-government units
should be done in accordance with this by-law.
45 Consolidated Opinion on the Law on the Election of Members of Local and Regional Self- Government
Units of Croatia, adopted by the Venice Commission at its th Plenary Meeting in Venice - March
, published on March . “A serious failing of this Law is that, while it provides, under Article ,
that the statutes of local and regional authorities shall determine the number of seats to be held by ‘Croatian
citizens, members of ethnic and national communities or minorities, in accordance with the proportional
share of their members in the total population of the unit’, there is a remarkable absence of clear provisions
governing how such a composition of the relevant bodies is actually to be achieved.”
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
ernment unit is entitled to vote for his/her minority member’s council. ese national
minority councils were qualified by the Venice Commission as “a significant aspect
inspired by the Hungarian model with some territorial aspects as well.”46 e Commis-
sion has noted that the institution of minority councils embodies “a viable and adequate
substitute for the abolished special status regime provided for by the Constitutional law
in and never implemented.”47 e right of minority members prescribed in Article
to elect their representatives to the national minority councils within self-government
units has implications for the improvement, preservation and protection of the place of
national minorities in society.48 is right facilitates minority participation in public life
and management of local affairs. Elected minority councils can make proposals to local
government bodies on how to improve the situation of minorities and can propose candi-
dates for local offices. At the same time, governments at the local and regional levels are
obliged to consult these councils with regard to acts affecting the rights of minorities.
Article provides the right of national minorities to elect a national minority council
for the self government units in which they constitute at least .% of the population. In
the self-government units with less than members of national minority inhabitants,
a minority representative will be elected instead of the council, and have the latter’s role
in the respective self-government unit. e Law furthermore stipulates that groups are
entitled to propose candidates as members of these councils and as minority representa-
tives. Elections for the councils are direct and done by secret ballot, while the provisions
of the Electoral Law for Self-government Units are appropriately applied in both election
procedures and other issues related to the councils elections. Members of the councils
each serve a four-year mandate. Article () also contains the adjustment clause which
is used in determining of the number of members of a national minority in order for the
mandate of the national minority councils to be carried out. e adjusted census results
that have registered voters for the election of members of representative bodies of local
self-government units are to be applied in the elections. e first elections for minority
councils were held on April, for less than half of the councils and rep-
resentatives to which minority groups were entitled ( councils and representatives
respectively). Prior to the elections for minority councils, the government was accused of
providing a less-than-adequate level about the importance of these elections as well as
less-than-adequate level of support to the minority organizations that were expected to
nominate their candidates’ lists.
e organizational issues concerning the national minority councils prescribed in
Article established councils as non-profit legal persons responsible with their total
46 See para. of the report adopted by the Venice Commission on July 200,CDL (2001) .
47 Ibid. See also supra note .
48 Similar institutions have been already introduced in the neighbouring countries. For example, self-govern-
ing ethnic communities for the members of Italian and Hungarian minorities have been established by the
Slovenian Law on Self-governing Ethnic Communities. e National Councils of National Minorities
with the purpose of exercising rights of self-government regarding the use of language and script, educa-
tion, information and culture whose establishment was prescribed by the Law on Protection of Rights and
Freedoms of National Minorities of the Serbia and Montenegro (Article ).
Antonija Petričušić
property for their obligations. Article stipulates the duty of national minority council
members to elect a president for each council by secret ballot. Each national minority
council elects in addition a deputy to the president, who replaces him in his absence and
in all situations when he is prevented from performing his duties. Article prescribes
that all members of the national minority councils should perform their duties voluntarily
and wisely.
Provisions as contained in Article on the responsibilities of councils functioning in
self-government units specify that they are authorized to propose improvements of both
the position of a national minority within the state or within the self-government unit
itself. Council are empowered to submit proposals of general acts concerning minorities
to the legislative bodies of their respective self-government units. e councils further-
more propose minority candidates for posts in state administrative bodies and bodies
within self-government units. Moreover, the councils have the right to be informed about
minority-protection related issues which the working groups of the representative bodies
of self-government units discuss in their sessions. e Councils also provide opinions and
proposals regarding programmes on radio and television stations on the local and regional
level tailored especially for national minorities or other programmes dealing with minor-
ity issues. e bodies of self-government units are obliged to prescribe in their legal acts
the deadlines, methods and procedures that put into effect the aforementioned rights of
these councils.
Article () concerns matters relating to the participation of minorities on a local
level through the consultative role of national minority councils. e authorities of self-
government units have an obligation to seek opinions from these councils when they draft
any law that concerns the rights and freedoms of national minorities. If a national minor-
ity council considers a general act by a self-government unit or some of its provisions to
be at odds with the Constitution, the Constitutional Law or some of their by-laws, it is
obliged to inform the Ministry of Justice and Administration immediately. Concerning
the same issue, the councils have a duty to inform the authorities of their respective self-
government units as well as the National Minorities’ Committee (Article (-)).
Article prescribes the possibility of establishing the co-ordination of the national
minority councils founded in the same or different local or regional self-government
units. Councils are encouraged to interact for purposes of conformation and promotion
of mutual interests. Each of the respective councils can authorize the co-ordination of the
national minority councils to undertake the execution of rights belonging to those coun-
cils in accordance with Article of the present Constitutional Law. If more than half of
the national minority councils of regional self-government units agree on the founding
of this co-ordination, these councils are thus considered to have established the co-ordi-
nation of national minority councils at the national level. is co-ordination of national
minority councils at the national level is entitled to take decisions, with the consent of the
National Minorities’ Committee, on the insignias and symbols associated with national
minorities and on the manner in which holidays of national minorities are celebrated.
e minority representative performs his/her duties using both the Croatian language
and Latin script in correspondence, as well as both the language and script used by the
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
national minority that has elected him. Any official communication from the minority
representative should contain the emblem of the self-government unit for the area where
he was elected. e law also stipulates the responsibilities of the minority representative
(Article ).
D. e National Minorities’ Committee
e other institution newly introduced institution by the Constitutional Law is a National
Minorities’ Committee49 (hereinafter “the Committee”) for the purpose of facilitating the
participation of minorities in the public life of the country (Article ). It should discuss,
propose, regulate and resolve issues related to the exercise and protection of minority rights.
erefore the Committee is expected to co-operate with competent state and self-govern-
ment units, national minority councils and/or minority representatives, associations of
national minorities and nongovernmental organizations dealing with minority rights. It
submits opinions and requests to parliament and to the government and co-operates with
all government bodies and the bodies of the international community regarding minority
protection. is constitutes an improvement since the preceding institution responsible
for the same matters was not obliged to include any minority members.
e Committee pursues international co-operation in the issues of interest for national
minorities in the Republic of Croatia. e Committee fosters cooperation with institu-
tions within Croatia dealing with national minority issues as well as with the competent
bodies of kin-states of Croatian national minorities. e National Minorities’ Commit-
tee distributes funds provided in the budget for the needs of national minorities.50 e
beneficiaries of the funds are asked to submit annual reports to the Committee on their
operating costs as subsidized by the state budget. e Committee informs the government
and the parliament about the expenditures of the minority organizations. If the Commit-
tee fails to pass a decision on the allocation of funds within days of the adoption of the
state budget, the government is obliged to pass such a decision.
e composition of the Committee shall reflect the identities of all national minorities,
their specific qualities, historical values; ethnic, cultural and every other diversity, taking
into account the proportion of a particular national minority within the total population
of Croatia. Since the Committee does not have legal personhood similar to that provided
for local and regional national minority councils and therefore is granted limited compe-
49 In May 1997, the Government agreed with the Venice Commission to establish a Council of Ethnic and
National Communities or Minorities in the Republic of Croatia, with the purpose of creating a counselling
body in which minority representatives could regularly meet with the government. e first Council was
constituted on January 23, 1998. In the first years of its existence it has been very passive in the imple-
mentation and promotion of minority rights. e Council for National Minorities can be considered as its
successor.
50 Similar competences are conferred in Serbia and Montenegro to the Federal Fund for National Minorities
that allocates financing activities from the budget related to the improvement of the status and develop-
ment of cultural creative work of national minorities. See Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of
National Minorities of the Serbia and Montenegro, Article ().
Antonija Petričušić
tences and given merely a consultative role (Article ())51 its actual power is dubious.
e working programme of the Committee, its financial plan and the annual financial
statement of its funds must be published in the Official Gazette in order to demonstrate
that the Committee allocates appropriately the funds provided in the budget (Article
). e government is in addition obliged to establish the Expert Office of the National
Minorities’ Committee,52 which could be treated as a successor to the Office for National
Minorities. Until the Expert Office will be established its duties will be carried out by the
Government’s Office for National Minorities (Article ()). 53
E. Implementation of Minority Rights
e means of implementation of the rights to which minorities are entitled are laid down
by Articles -. However, some of the prescribed rights in order to be realized require
financial resources from the budget of the state or self-government units. For example,
Article () stipulates that the state budget and the budgets of local and regional self-
government units shall provide funds for co-financing programmes of radio and television
stations which minority groups own and for programmes produced for national minori-
ties, in compliance with their economic possibilities. Financial support will be distributed
according to the criteria established by the government, upon the proposal of the National
Minorities’ Committee. Article furthermore stipulates the responsibility of the self-
government units to provide funds for the work of the minority councils. On a voluntary
basis, the self-government units are encouraged to provide the funds necessary to carry
out the specific activities proposed in the councils’ working programmes. e article also
provides for the possibility that funds may be granted from the state budget for the exer-
cise of specific programs of a particular national minority council.
e rights guaranteed in the Constitutional Law are exercised in accordance with by-
laws which must be proved compatible with the general provisions as established in the
Constitutional Law itself. erefore two special laws regulating both education and the
use of minority language and script are directly relevant to the implementation of Articles
51 is lack of governing power of the National Minorities’ Committee was criticized by the OSCE HCNM
and the Venice Commission. See OSCE Mission to Croatia Background Report Implementation of the
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities (CLNM) and Related Legislation, at http//:
www.osce.org/croatia/. Also see Opinion on the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities
of Croatia, adopted by the Venice Commission at its th Plenary Session (Venice - March ),
CDL-AD () , at http://www.venice.coe.int/.
52 Decree on the Expert Office of the National Minorities’ Committee. Official Gazette 77/2003.
53 e Office for National Minorities served as a consultative body of the Government of Croatia with the
principal role of providing expertise regarding policy undertaken in respect of national minorities. is
was established by government decree in December 1990, prior to Croatia’s international recognition as
an independent state. It is remarkable that representatives of minorities were not involved in the concrete
work of the Office, even though the Office dealt with minority issues. is was corrected in the new Con-
stitutional Law, and although the members are about to be elected, it was prescribed that the president of
the National Minorities’ Committee shall also be the Head of the Expert Office. Decree on the Office for
National Minorities, Official Gazette /200.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
- of the Constitutional Law. e provisions of Article of the Constitutional Law
have been in force since the day on which the Electoral Law came into effect ( April
). e other relevant by-law is the Electoral Law for Self-government Units which
must be applied when electing minority councils.
Even though the elections for minority councils were finally held almost two months
later than the text of the Constitutional Law had foreseen, they constituted the actual
implementation of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities and cre-
ated a basis for the participation of minorities in political life at local and regional levels.
e low turnout of voters for minority councils could negatively impact the legitimacy of
their elections. e OSCE Mission has urged the government to organize additional elec-
tions in areas where they were not held, warning that the next time minority organizations
should be given more time for the preparation of campaign.54
It is prescribed in Article () that the representative bodies of self-government units
have to be filled by an appropriate number of members of national minorities within
days of the Constitutional Law entering into force in all those self-government units with
on-going mandates, and where the right to representation of members of national minori-
ties has not been implemented in accordance with Article of the Constitutional Law.
Elections for minority representatives in those self-government units in which minori-
ties are under-represented should happen after such self-government units adjust their
respective statutes to prescribe the exact number of minority representatives for each of
their units. OSCE’s Report on the Implementation of the Constitutional Law has noted
that the clarification by competent government bodies is needed in a manner so that
particular guarantees can be implemented, such as minority representation in the state
administration and judiciary.55
Article establishes the time framework for the formation of the institutions estab-
lished by the Constitutional Law. It imposes certain obligations on the government to
appoint members of the National Minorities’ Committee, its president and deputies
within days of the day on which the Constitutional Law comes into effect. In addition,
the Law provides for the possibility that even if elections for the members of national
minority councils had not taken place within the days (by March ), the govern-
ment itself is obliged to appoint five members of the Committee. is was indeed done
on March 56 and five members of the Committee appointed by the government
54 e OSCE Mission was concerned about low voter turnout at minority elections in Croatia, 19 May 2003,
at http://www.osce.org/croatia/.
55 See OSCE Mission to Croatia Background Report Implementation of the Constitutional Law on the
Rights of National Minorities (CLNM) and Related Legislation, at http://www.osce.org/croatia/.
56 Minority organizations, religious communities and members of national minorities propose candidates
that are distinguished in cultural, scientific, professional or, religious spheres. From this group the govern-
ment has appointed following individuals, members of respective minorities: Aleksandar Tolnauer ( Jewish),
Sinisa Tatalovic (Serb), Zef Mirdita (Albanian), Sead Berberovic (Bosniak), Dragutin Lalovic (Montene-
grin). In addition, the Government appointed the following minority representatives in the Parliament
as members of the Council: Zdenka Cuhnil (Czech); Milan Djukic (Serb); Borislav Graljuk (Ukrainian),
Furio Radin (Italian), Tibor Santo (Hungarian). Pronouncement on the Appointment of the Members of
the National Minorities’ Committee. Official Gazette /2003.
Antonija Petričušić
together with the five current elected minority representatives in the parliament consti-
tute the current National Minorities’ Committee. Seven additional Committee members
have to be nominated by the not yet operational local and regional minority councils. e
Committee held its constitutive session on April , . Its members are each expected
to serve a four-year mandate. e Committee has a president (Aleksandar Tolnauer) and
two deputy presidents. One of deputies must be coming from the Serb minority (Sinisa
Tatalovic). e Expert Office of the National Minorities’ Committee has not yet been
formed. Until the Expert Office is established, the responsibilities of the expert body
serving the Committee shall be performed by the Office for National Minorities of the
government of Croatia. It is however expected, according to the information from the
Government’s Office for National Minorities, that the Expert Office will start performing
its duties at the beginning of the year . According to the head of the Government’s
Office, the main reason for this delay is the Expert Office’s lack of financial resources.
Articles and lay down the supervision of the implementation of the Constitu-
tional Law. e governmental bodies (meaning competent ministries and the Office for
National Minorities) are obliged to supervise the implementation of the minority rights
and freedoms. e government co-ordinates the work of governmental bodies in issues
related to minority protection and has the obligation to submit to the Croatian parliament
an annual report on the implementation of the Constitutional Law and on the expendi-
ture of funds provided for in the state budget for the needs of national minorities. Cor-
respondingly, the Committee is required to submit to parliament or to its working body
responsible for the exercise of the rights of national minorities,57 a bi-annual report on the
issues which fall within the scope of its activities and a quarterly report on the expenditure
of funds provided for in the state budget for the needs of national minorities.
e councils and minority representatives in the self-government units are entitled to
request the supervision by the competent government bodies of the implementation of
the Constitutional Law and special laws regulating minority protection in the self-gov-
ernment units in which they function. e national minority councils and minority repre-
sentatives, as well as the Committee itself have the right to file a constitutional complaint58
before the constitutional court of the Republic of Croatia if they are of the opinion that
the rights and freedoms of national minority members, stipulated by the Constitutional
Law and special laws, have been violated. However, the exercise of this right requires an
amendment of the Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court since the current pro-
57 e Committee on Human Rights and the Rights of Ethnic and National Communities or Minorities is
a parliamentary body that proposes laws concerning human rights issues, monitors the implementation of
ratified international legal acts which stipulate the protection of human rights, and promotes the realiza-
tion of human rights entitled to minorities established by the Constitution and laws. is parliamentary
body should propose measures for the realization of minority rights, should assist in signing bilateral and
multilateral treaties and programmes of international cultural, educational and other cooperation when this
is of special interest to a particular minority.
58 Each constitutional complaint should be submitted in compliance with the provisions of the Constitutional
Law on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, Official Gazette 99/1999, 29/2002, 49/2002.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
visions do not provide for the right of non-legal persons (such as the National Committee
is) but only legal and physical persons to submit a constitutional complaint.59
Article of the Constitutional Law addresses the redundancy of certain provisions of
extant special laws regarding minority protection. As a result, Article () of the Minority
Language Law 60 ceased to be valid the day that the Constitutional Law came into effect.
Moreover, the provisions of both Article 61 and Article 62 of the Electoral Law for Self-
government Units regarding election of minority representatives to bodies of local and
regional self-government units ceased to be applied.
IV. C
Proper accommodation of minorities has been Croatia’s long-standing commitment to
the international community. e Constitutional Law, which was passed in December
, contains a number of provisions that guarantee the full respect of the rights of
ethnic minorities in Croatia and contributes towards building a comprehensive frame-
work for the protection of national minorities. e Law ensures proportional representa-
tion for minorities in the Croatian parliament, in the representative bodies of the local
self-government units and in the state administration and judicial bodies.
e achievement of minority participation at local level is realized through the
establishment of the national minority councils, and the regional and local minority self-
governments that each minority is entitled to organize. Another achievement of the new
Constitutional Law is the National Minorities’ Committee, a specialized consultative
body dealing with minority issues. e improvement of the present Constitutional Law
is demonstrated in the obligation of the government to take into account the percentage
of members of particular national minorities within the total population of the country
when appointing new members to the National Minorities’ Committee.
e change in the number of national minorities in relation to the total population of
Croatia over the last decade has influenced the exercise of the rights of certain national
minorities. e census results are relevant for the determination of the number of
minority members who are able to participate in political life. Nevertheless, the Consti-
59 See OSCE Mission to Croatia Background Report Implementation of the Constitutional Law on the
Rights of National Minorities (CLNM) and Related Legislation, at http//:www.osce.org/croatia/.
60 e provision that was abolished does not modify any of the acquired rights to use the language of a
national minority. It was simply eliminated because it had implication for the previous Constitutional Law
on National Minorities that ceased to be valid with the promulgation of the new Constitutional Law, in
accordance with the principle lex posterior derogat legi priori.
61 e abolished provision stipulated that the number of members of the representative body from among the
ranks of the members of national minorities shall be determined by the statutes of self-government units, in
compliance with their proportional share in the total population of the self-government unit.
62 is removed article stipulated the proportional representation of the minority members in the units of
self-government units. is provision is laid down in detail by the provisions contained in the new Consti-
tutional Law in the Article .
Antonija Petričušić
tutional Law prescribed the adjustment of the census data.63 e major critique of
the Serb politicians was in the drafting period of the new law when they claimed that many
Serb refugees were not given a chance to register in the census, as the census applied the United
Nations methodology of census taking, according to which only those citizens who have not
been absent from a country for more than one year are listed among the population of the
country. It was therefore essential that the Constitutional Law prescribed that the official
census results on the number of members of national minorities in a local or regional
self-government unit shall conform to the possible changes registered in the voters’ list of
the respective units prior to each election for the minority representatives in representa-
tive bodies of self-government units and for national minority councils. Realistically, the
minority issue in Croatia is linked with the return of the Serb minority population in the
Eastern Slavonia and Krajina regions.64 Realizing the need to speed up the refugee return
process, Croatian president Stjepan Mesić has decided to encourage the process of return
by proposing a trilateral agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia
and Montenegro. e aim of the trilateral agreement would be the expression of govern-
ments’ willingness to foster refugee return. Unfortunately, recent attempts to sign the
agreement have not had the desired results since the three presidents have failed to agree
on the issue of the abolished tenancy rights of the returnees. However, the presidents have
announced that the declaration might be signed after legal experts have been consulted
on this disputed issue.
In the last couple of years, the “improvements in the statements and attitudes of the
government vis-a-vis the protection of national minorities” were acknowledged by the
ACFC.65 ose improvements have resulted in “certain positive developments in the leg-
islative sphere”66 and the new Constitutional Law definitely follows this line of progress.
However, no matter how technically advanced this law might be, it will not have any
effects if it is not consistently implemented on all levels of government, particularly in
areas where minorities form a significant part of the population. e Constitutional Law
provides a comprehensive and coherent framework for supplementary legislative and
63 It is still however unclear what methodology will be used and which body will be responsible to adjust the
census results to the voters’ lists (citizens and older have passive and active voting right). e amend-
ments to the Local Election Law did not provide any clarification on this issue.
64 e former High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der Stoel pointed out that “the right of
return to one’s place of origin and home, both voluntarily and in conditions of safety, is of fundamental
importance. e primary responsibility lies with the state of origin to create and ensure conditions of return.
e right of return also has a bearing on regional peace and security since the prolonged displacement of
large numbers of persons can be destabilizing. Of course, conditions of return also imply respect for all
other human rights in order to integrate societies and avoid the recurrence of displacement.” Max van der
Stoel, “Minority Rights, Participation and Bilateral Agreements”, Address to an international seminar on
Legal Aspects of Minority Rights: Participation in Decision-Making Processes and Bilateral Agreements
on Minority Rights. December, . http://www.osce.org/hcnm/.
65 See para. of the opinion of the ACFC, adopted on April , at http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/
Minorities/.
66 Ibid.
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
regulatory action in the field of minority protection which may also explain the absence
of detailed mechanisms for the political participation of minorities that was prescribed
in the amendments of Electoral Law. Additionally, the passing of the new Constitutional
Law was a kind of ‘political bargain’ between the current establishment and right-wing
parties in the parliament. As the Constitutional Law is an organic law and therefore
requires two thirds of the votes in order to pass, even right-wing votes were necessary to
pass the law. Only the extreme right-wing parties opposed the Constitutional Law, cast-
ing merely four votes against and two abstentions to the proposed law.
e provisions of the Constitutional Law are reflected in the Electoral Law that was
amended in March , ensuring the fair procedure for minority representation in par-
liament. In accordance with the new Electoral Law, minorities are guaranteed eight places
in parliament, as compared to the five seats that minorities were granted under the previ-
ous Electoral Law. Amendments to the April Electoral Law constitute an improve-
ment in the manner in which they foresee the right for Albanian, Bosnian and Slovene
minorities to vote for their own representatives. ey had not previously been considered
to be autochthonous national minorities and thus had not granted minority protection per
se, even though they constitute relatively numerous communities in Croatia.
However, even the most advanced minority protection foreseen by the legal instru-
ments will not be sufficient without the creation of a climate of mutual respect, tolerance
and understanding for the need of supplementary protection of minorities. erefore, the
main conclusions of the present commentary can be summed up as follows: e Croatian
Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities has established a good legisla-
tive framework for the protection of minorities in Croatia, granting them greater political
participation on both state and local levels, as compared with prior legal regulations in the
same sphere. e elections for the national minority councils held in May are a good
example that the provisions of the Law can be implemented, but its law turnout indicates
that more information on the rights of minorities would be required. Certainly, the imple-
mentation of the existing provisions is the most important aspect of minority protection.
However, the country’s pro-western orientation serves as an additional stimulus to fulfill-
ing the realization of minority protection on both legislative and implementation levels.
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