ZAGREB, December 22, 2019 - Voting at polling stations in Croatia's presidential elections is proceeding smoothly, except for two cases of delayed opening of polling stations, reported by non-anonymous citizens to GONG, this election monitoring nongovernmental organisation said.

Citizens also reported not having been informed of procedures and deadlines for the registration of changes regarding the place where they planned to vote and of changes in the address of their polling station in relation to the previous election.

"Since that it was previously confirmed that party members had been appointed to electoral committees and the State Election Commission (DIP) replaced them, we call on citizens to report possible similar irregularities," the NGO said.

GONG said that it had also received reports of organised transport of voters to polling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The cost of transporting voters to polling stations is treated as part of electioneering costs, GONG said but noted that, in line with DIP's opinion at the last presidential election, the cost should not be treated as such if on buses there are no pictures or messages of individual presidential candidates and the service of transport can be used by all voters under equal conditions.

In the current presidential election, an increase was registered in the number of voters who have new ID cards with permanent residence addresses abroad and it was reported in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Serbia, the NGO said, noting that its mobile teams were also monitoring the voting process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

More news about the presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 18, 2019 - The Centre for Peace Studies said on Wednesday that police violence against migrants passing through Croatia on their way towards other EU member-states had escalated this year, and accused the authorities of doing nothing to prosecute unlawful actions by police.

In this context the NGO pointed out the latest testimony of a police officer who accused the police leadership and some officers of resorting to illegal methods so as to avoid the registration of evidence of unlawful push-backs of migrants. He also cited cases of arbitrary detention in garages, separation of family members and unlawful use of dogs to force migrants back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The NGO says in its press release issued on 18 December, which is observed as International Day of Migrants, that their rights are being violated along the border on a daily basis as well as in other parts of Croatia's territory.

Beatings, the use of electroshocks, branding, and shooting at migrants are just some of the methods which the police use to deter migrants, according to this nongovernmental association.

The Centre particularly criticised the Croatian authorities for being persistent in non-prosecuting reported violence.

It says that some other associations and international institutions as well as local and foreign media have warned about such conduct of police officers when fending off border crossers.

In this context it mentioned Border Violence Monitoring Network, Are You Syrious, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN speical rapporteur for human rights of migrants, the Council of Europe, the Croatian human rights ombudswoman and some members of the European Parliament.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 12, 2019 - A group of civil society organisations on Thursday appealed to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for transparency during Croatia's EU presidency in 2020 so as to contribute to legislative and lobbyist transparency in the Council of the EU.

They say European laws directly impact all Croatian citizens, that 42% of legislative acts adopted by the incumbent Croatian parliament were adopted for alignment with EU laws, that Croatia's positions at Council of the EU meetings are not debated publicly, and that the Croatian parliament and its European affairs committee do not participate in the preparation of those positions.

With such a closed approach, the government is telling the public that the public, civil society, the media and other stakeholders have no right of insight into the positions Croatia takes at the Council, which bolsters the perception of the EU as a distant and non-transparent bureaucracy, representatives of 37 NGOs say in a letter.

"How can citizens take part in decision making and affect the positions of their own government if it keeps them secret? Unfortunately, this practice is present in a majority of European countries."

Since the Council of the EU is the least transparent European institution because the documents under debate are often secret and there are no minutes of debates and member states' positions are not published, the Finnish and nine other governments have supported a non-paper demanding greater legislative transparency of the Council of the EU.

"We regret that the Croatian government and another 17 members states have not joined in. Transparency is the key first step in curbing excessive corporate influence, noticeable in the Council's many negotiations on new regulations and directives," the letter says.

There is growing concern in civil society that the interests of certain industries, such as fossil fuels, are in such a conflict with public interest that they should be prevented from having direct access to decision makers, the NGOs say.

"Corporate sponsorship of nearly every recent Council of the EU presidency, from cars, software, non-alcoholic drinks to other corporate interests, has become the sad proof that the Council is close to big business."

The NGOs therefore call for the Croatian presidency of the Council to become the champion of legislative transparency by backing the said non-paper.

This means the timely publication of documents important for passing laws, that meetings of the Council and preparatory bodies be open to the public via online video feeds, and the publication of minutes and national positions in order to gain as clear an insight into decision making as possible, the letter says.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 9, 2019 - The newly-established foundation "Josip Sruk-Sekularist", named after its initiator and donor, lawyer Josip Sruk, was launched in Zagreb on Monday. The foundation's mission is to acknowledge physical and legal persons for life-long contribution and outstanding achievements in the promotion of secularism in Croatia and to support the work of associations and initiatives which protect the rights of irreligious persons, it was said at the launch.

"The motive for establishing the foundation is the fact that nowhere in the world has any democracy functioned successfully and never have human freedoms been sufficiently protected or progress ensured without secularism," said Josip Sruk.

"It is my wish for secularism to grow stronger in Croatia and for people's mindset to change in a positive way with the awareness that the Church's influence on state politics and public affairs is not useful for anyone," he added.

The foundation "Josip Sruk-Sekularist" was co-founded by the associations Protagora, the Centre for Civic Courage and Liberos, and its director is Zdravko Jambrović.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, December 5, 2019 - Three civil society associations said on Thursday that they would stage a protest rally against the proposed general urban development plan outside the City Hall on Monday, and they reiterated their criticism of the plan.

Bernard Ivčić of the Green Action NGO said that regardless of the fact that Mayor Milan Bandić had decided to remove this topic from the agenda of the city assembly meeting scheduled for Monday, the associations would hold the protest on Monday morning.

Ivčić and activist Iva Marčetić accused Bandić of catering for investors' interests which were contrary to the development of the city and its residents' interests.

"As ordinary citizens are drowning in waste and waste disposal costs are going up, the most valuable parts of the city are being reserved for special groups of investors to build skyscrapers and flats," said Ivčić.

Several associations, city planners and architects, as well as opposition members of the Zagreb City Council and most councils of the Zagreb city neighbourhoods are opposed to amendments to the Zagreb development plan which would pave the way for the so-called Manhattan project on the banks of the River Sava.

On Wednesday, Mayor Bandić said that by shifting the debate on the general urban development plan (GUP) to a special City Assembly meeting scheduled for February 6 he wanted to trump the aces of those accusing him of trying to hastily push the document through.

Although the GUP should have been debated under fast-track procedure on December 9, along with a revised budget for 2019 and a 2020 budget proposal, Bandić said that he and his associates had decided to dedicate one City Assembly meeting solely to the GUP.

"If we have waited for three or four years, then we can wait for another month and a half," the mayor told a press conference. Bandić said he believed the opposition, too, would be satisfied with his decision because they wanted the proposal removed from the agenda of the December session.

The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) members of the City Assembly on Thursday welcomed Bandić's decision to shift the debate on the general urban development plan to February 6.

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, December 3, 2019 - The GONG nongovernmental organisation said on Tuesday that it was intolerable that the government was disregarding laws and undermining the work of the independent Commission for the Prevention of Conflict of Interest, noting that a team should be sent to investigate the government for hiding documents in the Helsinki case.

"We are witnessing a situation in which an important anti-corruption body, chaired by Nataša Novaković, a week before International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9, is closing the Helsinki case because the prime minister and the government are persistently refusing to hand over documents on a trip to a meeting of the European People's Party (EPP) in Helsinki in late 2018," GONG said.

The NGO believes that the Commissioner for Information should send a team to investigate the government for hiding information, which, under the law, should be available to every citizen.

It therefore called on the Information Commissioner to act ex officio and send an inspection team to the government to help determine facts in the Helsinki case.

Novakovic said earlier in the day that no proceedings would be initiated against Plenković and several current and former ministers from the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for their trip to Helsinki on 7 and 8 November 2018 as the Conflict of Interest Commission had not been provided with necessary documents and data from the competent departments.

The Commission decided that the officials in question had violated principles of conduct as prescribed by legislation on the prevention of conflict of interest and acted irresponsibly and non-transparently by non-delivering the requested documents.

More news about the conflict of interest issues can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 15, 2019 - The Documenta nongovernmental organisation on Thursday called on the Justice Ministry to ensure that war crimes trials, including those of Branimir Glavaš and Dragan Perenčević, are completed before judges presiding over those trials take office at the High Criminal Court.

Documenta proposed the adoption of a regulation whereby future High Criminal Court judges Tanja Pavelin and Tomislav Juriša would be obligated to complete the war crimes trials they are currently conducting before assuming their new posts.

Documenta recalled in a statement that under the amended Courts Act, the High Criminal Court was to be established by 1 January, 2020.

"Considering the date specified by the law in question, the question arises of what will happen with the trials currently conducted by the judges who have been appointed to the High Criminal Court," Documenta said in the statement.

The NGO was referring to a trial for war crimes against Serb civilians in Osijek which is being conducted against member of parliament Branimir Glavaš, a trial for crimes against Croat civilians in Petrinja against a member of Croatian Serb rebel forces, Dragan Perenčević, and others, and trials for crimes committed at the Manjača prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for the shelling of Zagreb and Jastrebarsko, which are presided over by Judge Tomislav Juriša.

Completing the trials would be a step forward in dealing with the burden of unresolved and unpunished war crimes and prevent having to again call witnesses whose condition is not good and incurring additional costs for the state budget, as well as avoid new rulings by the European Court of Human Rights against Croatia, the NGO said.

More NGO news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 13, 2019 - The Human Rights House on Wednesday organised a round table discussion at which it was said that dealing with the problem of hate speech required a good and broad social discussion and that hate speech should not only be removed but should also be punished.

"Hate speech constitutes a violation of human rights of marginalised groups, LGBT persons and members of ethnic minorities and it constitutes a basis for racial discrimination. That is why it is not enough to just remove it from the public arena but those who spread it should be punished," said Human Rights House programming director Ivan Novosel.

The round table discussion, held under the title "Regulating hate speech on social networks - challenges to the exercise of the freedom of expression", focused on an announced law on the prevention of undesirable behaviour on social networks. The purpose of the round table was to gain an understanding of the experiences and challenges of regulating hate speech on social networks in Germany and discuss possible challenges in the Croatian context.

Novosel warned that if the German model was copied, it could have a negative impact on the freedom of expression and operation of the media because, he claimed, experiences in Germany bore witness to the censorship of content on social networks and its removal without prosecution.

Assistant Justice Minister Vedrana Šimundža-Nikolić said that a working group was studying and comparing different laws in an effort to recognise the regulations that could or should be adopted in Croatia.

She said that the laws and solutions of other countries would not be "copied" and that the ministry would follow Human Rights House discussions and use its conclusions in its future work.

She also said that on-line hate speech and similar conduct should be restricted and banned and that a way should be found at EU level to impose certain rules of conduct on social networks to prevent any hate speech and intolerance.

More news about NGOs in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, November 11, 2019 - The Women's Room nongovernmental organisation warned on Monday that it was overburdened as the only organisation in the country specialising in assistance to women - victims of sexual violence, and it called on the government to ensure funding for its work.

"The issue of sexual violence has attracted great public interest and the Women's Room has been contacted by a large number of persons who have experienced violence, whether sexual or domestic, as well as by other members of the public, media and representatives of state institutions and civil society organisations," the NGO's coordinator, psychologist Maja Mamula, said.

She said that in October 2019 the number of phone calls to the NGO and the services it provided had increased by 200% from October 2018. In 2018, the NGO provided assistance in 57 cases, while this year there have been 280 cases, she said, warning that the number of threats to the Women's Room staff had increased as well.

"We are overburdened at the moment, and we want to continue working well and need support for that. Without support, we cannot provide timely assistance in crisis situations in which (the victims) must not wait," said Mamula.

Antonija Hojt Ilić, who is in charge of the Women's Room education programmes, said that the Women's Room had nine staff members, of whom four were professionals and worked at the NGO's centre for assistance to victims of sexual violence, with several external staff members.

Of the four professionals, only one is fully employed at the centre, Hojt Ilić said, calling on the government to ensure funding for the Women's Room as part of annual budgets.

More news about the status of women in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 1, 2019 - Civil society organisations criticised the government on Thursday for insufficiently highlighting in the priorities of Croatia's EU presidency the rule of law and the state of human rights, which they consider to be a burning issue in the European Union.

Organisations within the Forum 2020 also regret that the government did not consult either civil society or parliament, which they say is customary European and democratic practice.

Despite the justice minister's announcements that more emphasis would be placed on the rule of law, this priority has been redefined and not highlighted, they said in a press release.

"We hope Croatia will preside in a European and democratic fashion, and include in the presidency civil society organisations, the Croatian parliament and other democratic stakeholders."

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday presented four key priorities of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020.

Regarding the "A Europe that grows" priority, the Forum 2020 said it should not be set without stating the kind of growth and at whose expense Europe wanted to grow.

They further said that discussing migration and refugees under the slogan "A Europe that protects" was not the most fortunate solution as it could have negative connotations and strengthen antidemocratic forces in the EU.

The Forum 2020 welcomes the government's decision to focus on enlargement to the Western Balkans and expects it to commit to reaching a political consensus at the Council of the EU level on opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.

"That is of crucial importance for democracy, the rule of law and development not only in those countries but the whole region. That is a clear common interest of both civil society and the government and, we hope, all the EU," the press release said.

More news about Croatia and the European Union can be found in the Politics section.