In Croatia, hate speech is on the rise – discriminatory, inflammable and discrediting content can be seen and heard in public and transmitted through the media - although Croatia has very good legislative framework that prohibits hate speech (or “incitement to hate”) through not just Penal Code (Article 325) but also through Anti-discrimination Act (under Article 25 on harassment). However, prohibition under the law is not enough – we are still lacking prosecution - or quality case law that could serve as prevention mechanism to the public and to the ones using hate speech. 

Seventeen years after adoption of EU laws that forbid discrimination, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and minority ethnic groups continue to face widespread discrimination across the EU and in all areas of life – most often when seeking employment. For many, discrimination is a recurring experience. 

Publication "Understanding Racism and Xenophobia" is a new format of the report on racism and xenophobia in Croatia published by CMS for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Today the Center for Peace Studies and Human Rights House Zagreb sent an open letter to Prime Minister Plenković warning of the degradation of the National Plan to Combat Discrimination from 2017 to 2022. Below is the full text of the letter. 

We are seeing hate crime against religious minorities and migrants around the EU on a daily basis. In response, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is today publishing a compendium of good practices from across the EU on how to combat hate crime. This is the culmination of work by the Working Party on combating hate crime, to be presented today at a meeting of the Working Party in cooperation with the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU.

On the eve of the International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism (in the memory of the Crystal Night 1938) Croatian youth network (MMH) and Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) have organised a number of activities with their partner organizations from other cities.

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.

Due to the protracted economic crisis, a growing number of people in Croatia are entering a zone of absolute poverty, while the authorities and politicians are refusing to face that problem or deal with it in a systematic and constructive way, Milena Romic of the Human Rights House said in Zagreb on Thursday.

Civil society organisations across the EU report an increase in racist crimes in 2013, in particular against Black and Asian ethnic minorities, Roma, Jews and Muslims – or those perceived as such, according to the European Network Against Racism’s latest Shadow Report on racist crime in Europe, covering 26 European countries. A total of 47,210 racist crimes were officially recorded, but this is only the tip of the iceberg, as many EU Member do not properly record and report racially motivated crimes. 

The report about International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  is submitted on behalf of OBRIS – Obrana i sigurnost, the Centre for Peace Studies, the International Action Network on Small Arms, the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program, and was prepared with the assistance of the Human Rights Litigation and International Advocacy Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School.