ZAGREB, 30 June 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday the US Supreme Court ruling, which leaves the legality of abortion to the federal states and has led to big divisions, would not impact Croatia as banning pregnancy termination would be contrary to a Constitutional Court ruling.

Speaking at a cabinet session, he said pregnancy termination was an extremely complex legal, ethical and medical issue on which it was often impossible to reach a consensus, but that it was necessary to consider the matter.

"This ruling won't impact Croatia. In Croatia, the right to pregnancy termination is regulated by law and the Constitutional Court has found that the law is in line with the Constitution."

As the Court's president Miroslav Šeparović said recently, banning pregnancy termination would be contrary to the Court's ruling, as would a referendum to restrict or ban pregnancy termination rights, Plenković said.

"In the political sense, there's no need to misinform people with the goal of scoring political points and there's no need to include in the Constitution regulations on an already existing right. We won't agree to such changes."

He called on the opposition to be constructive about this issue and to support changes to the constitutional law on the Constitutional Court, which he said were aimed at additionally protecting constitutional rights, those that cannot be decided in referenda.

Plenković said the ruling HDZ was a Christian Democrat centre-right party advocating the protection of life from conception, while also respecting a woman' right to choose and health.

"Our wish is that there are as few pregnancy terminations in our society as possible, that they are the exception, but statistics and other countries' experience show that this is not achieved by bans. Bans don't lead to fewer abortions, but can make them unsafe and dangerous for a woman's life and health."

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ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Croatian MPs on Thursday unanimously welcomed legislative amendments that will allow refugees from Ukraine to exercise the rights to healthcare and social welfare in Croatia.

Parliament is amending the law on the mandatory health insurance and healthcare of aliens and the law on social welfare.

There are more than 10,000 Ukrainian refugees in Croatia who have fled the Russian aggression and we have shown solidarity in various ways, but it's cleat the war won't end soon, so it's necessary to legally regulate their status, said Domagoj Hajduković of the Social Democrats.

Anka Mrak Taritaš of GLAS agreed, saying it was clear the war would not be short because "human lives mean nothing to the little dictator who started from the east."

"We must have special empathy towards these people and enable them to lead dignified lives," she added.

Besides receiving one-off financial assistance and accommodation, the refugees will be entitled to a minimum allowance, said Martina Vlašić Iljkić of the Social Democratic Party.

Urša Raukar Gamulin of the Green-Left Bloc commended the government's will to help the refugees from Ukraine.

"Croatia has reacted well in terms of taking in and accommodating the refugees and these (amendments) go in that direction as well," said Marijan Pavliček of the Sovereignists.

If necessary, Croatia must take in even more than 20,000 refugees because it has the money and the accommodation for it, he added.

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ZAGREB, 10 Dec 2021 - On the occasion of Human Rights Day, NGOs warned of a low level of social and economic rights in Croatia and called for the improvement of public services and for reconstruction of earthquake-struck areas to be accelerated.

"Healthcare, social welfare, housing and education have to be accessible to everyone. Public services need reliable support which inevitably includes long-term public investments and progressive taxation so as not to deepen the social inequality," the NGOs said in a press release.

The associations particularly highlighted the absence of strategic documents for marginalised groups such as the homeless or refugees.

Workers' rights deteriorated, inaccessible and inadequate healthcare

They warned that for years labour rights have deteriorated, and of inaccessible and inadequate healthcare, a poor social welfare system, absence of policies to enable secure housing and to remove inequality in access to education.

The corona crisis made all these problems more pronounced, they said.

Labour conditions in many sectors have been worsened and jobs are insecure while the health system could not care simultaneously both for COVID patients and other patients, which jeopardised the right to health, they added.

The social welfare system does not have enough capacities to resolve burning issues and to ensure protection for the most vulnerable groups.

Gov't inept for earthquake reconstruction

Another acute problem is the "terribly slowness, incapability and unwillingness of government to start rebuilding in earthquake-hit areas."

Most people have been left to their own devices, particularly in central Croatia and they will be spending at least one more winter in inadequate conditions.

They noted the importance of the Future is Public manifest, which has been signed by 200 organisations around the world seeking public services that will meet individual and collective needs and reduce inequality and will protect the dignity of all members of society.

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ZAGREB, 10 Dec 2021 - The Croatian government on Friday formed the Human Rights Council, with Deputy PM Boris Milošević, who is in charge of social affairs and human rights, recalling that Croatia was observing Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day commemorates 10 December 1948 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the foundation of the international human rights system.

The establishment of the Human Rights Council builds on the political tradition of the existence of a separate interdepartmental body that helps the government in its efforts to recognise and respond, as constructively and as efficiently as possible, to the new challenges regarding  human rights, Milošević noted.

The government's decision defines the tasks and composition of the Council, to be headed by Deputy PM Milošević.

The government today also adopted a programme of measures for the reconstruction of buildings damaged in last year's earthquakes in the City of Zagreb, Krapina-Zagorje County, Zagreb County, Sisak-Moslavina County and Karlovac County, which is being aligned with amendments to the law on the reconstruction of earthquake-damaged buildings.

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ZAGREB, Sept 15, 2020 - The 19th Pride parade will be held on September 19, and this year its participants will start their walk, seeking constitutional equality and a society free of gender and sexual norms and categories, in St. Mark's Square, where the government and parliament buildings are located. 

"This year we fight for constitutional equality and the right to freedom, within and outside our own four walls... the Constitution currently poses a wall for us because it restricts our freedoms. We must bring that wall down," the organizers of the Pride parade, Zagreb Pride, said.

This is the first time Pride marchers will gather outside the parliament and government buildings and the Constitutional Court.

"This is not so by chance, we will be there to ask the highest authorities of our republic to bring down the walls that still restrict our rights and continue to treat our families as second-class citizens," the organizers said, demanding that a procedure be launched to amend the constitution to make all families equal in their rights and obligations.

As for a recent decision by the Constitutional Court which enabled same-sex partners to provide foster care, they said it showed clearly how much the constitutional restriction of 2013 "is obsolete, nonsensical and unnatural."

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