Activists of several non-governmental organisations on Saturday staged a rally in Europe Square in downtown Zagreb to protest against the current asylum policy of the European Union accusing the EU of giving a slow and inadequate repose to the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by a larger influx of migrants fleeing war-hit areas in Asia and northern Africa.

As also highlighted in this morning’s President Juncker’s speech, the migration and refugee crisis is one of the most pressing issues for the EU at the moment. Although the tragedies in the Mediterranean involving people trying to reach the EU in search of protection and a better life have become a recurring horror in the last years, the phenomenon increased tremendously in the last month and involved also countries at the land borders of the EU and the Western Balkan region. EU coordinated human rights-based political responses are urgently needed and some of the points mentioned by President Juncker today represent important steps on which we can build.

Centre for Peace Studies activists handed out a manifesto to ministers ahead of a government session on Thursday in which they protest against the organisation of a military parade in August on the 20th anniversary of Operation Storm, ask that the parade be called off, and say that a parade is not a dignified celebration of the operation.

The Centre for Peace Studies is a civil society organization dealing with, among other issues, protection of human rights of refugees. We are advocating prevention of further persecution of refugees by their country of origin. INTERPOL’s Red Notices and Diffusions are at the disposal of refugees’ countries of origin, in the same way they are at the disposal of any other Interpol’s member state. These mechanisms can and have been used by refugees’ countries of origin with the view of further persecuting these people for political or any other illicit reason.

After the Osijek County Court recently ruled that with its newspaper article "Homophobe and Homofriend 2013" the Zagreb Pride association had harmed the dignity, honour and reputation of journalist Karolina Vidovic Kristo, Zagreb Pride said on Monday that the ruling restricted freedom of speech and censored its work.

In a recent decision, the Osijek County Court confirmed the decision of the Zagreb Municipal Court, which found that Zagreb Pride violated personal honor and dignity of Karolina Vidović Krišto, now a former employee of Croatian Radio Television (HRT), by placing her on the annual list of candidates for the most homophobic person of the year in 2013. According to the verdict, Zagreb Pride is obliged to pay 41.018,91 HRK (approximately 5414 EUR or 6028 USD).

Assistant Foreign Minister Vesna Batistić Kos said at the final panel of Croatia Forum 2015 titled “Lessons Learned: Hidden Dangers and Solutions” that Croatia’s experience in providing and receiving development assistance was invaluable and that small donors like Croatia manage their development means more cautiously, warning that there was not enough strategies to institutionalize first-hand experiences into permanent know-how.

Centre for Peace Studies (CMS), Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity (CROSOL), Association of Croatian Trade Unions, Group 22 and Centre for Labour studies, are expressing deep concern over the serious threat to the fundamental European values of democracy, solidarity, social justice and human rights protection in the case of the current Greek debt crisis. 

Record numbers of migrants died as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe in 2014. Member States should therefore consider offering more legal possibilities for people in need of international protection to enter the EU, as viable alternatives to risky irregular entry. This is one of the conclusions from this year’s Annual report of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) which looks at developments across the EU in many areas over 2014. 

World Refugee Day was marked in Zagreb on Saturday with a performance symbolically showing dead bodies, with the reading of the names of people who lost their lives in the Mediterranean and whose number has risen to 2,000 since the start of 2015, and with the distribution of information leaflets.