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.