A number of provisions of the Croatian Constitution prohibit discrimination, Article 14 states that everyone in Croatia shall enjoy rights and freedoms, regardless of their race, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other belief, national or social origin, property, birth, education, social status or any other characteristics. Article 14 also guarantees equality before the law.

More

A number of provisions of the Croatian Constitution prohibit discrimination, Article 14 states that everyone in Croatia shall enjoy rights and freedoms, regardless of their race, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other belief, national or social origin, property, birth, education, social status or any other characteristics. Article 14 also guarantees equality before the law. As this provision is not limited to Croatian nationals it would ensure that persons within Croatia have equal rights and freedoms regardless of their nationality or any other status and that Croatian law does not discriminate on any of the grounds listed. Special protection for national minorities is provided by Article 15, which states that all national minorities have equal rights in Croatia and that equality and protection of the rights of national minorities shall be regulated by the Constitutional Act to be adopted. Members of national minorities have a special right to elect their representatives into the Croatian Parliament, which may be provided by law, and to express their nationality, use their language and script, and cultural autonomy.

Article 26 protects the rights of “citizens and aliens” to equality before the courts, government bodies and other bodies vested with public authority. This valuable protection is explicitly extended to migrants within Croatia. Article 41 protects the rights of religious communities to equality before the law and ensures the separation of religion from the State. Religious communities are to be free, in conformity with law, to publicly perform religious services, to open schools, educational and other institutions, social and charitable institutions and to manage them, in these activities they shall also enjoy the protection and assistance of the State.

Article 16 of the Constitution provides that freedoms and rights of persons may only be restricted by law in order to protect the freedoms and rights of others, public order, public morality and health and that every restriction of freedoms or rights shall be proportionate to the necessity for the particular restriction in each case. Therefore the rights of migrants to the various protections from discrimination within the Constitution may be limited if any of the reasons for lawful restrictions exist.

In December 2002 the Croatian Parliament adopted a Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities. The Law under Article 5 defines a national minority as a “group of Croatian citizens whose members traditionally live in the territory of the Republic of Croatia, and whose members have ethnic, linguistic, cultural and/or religious features different from other citizens”. Article 4(4) prohibits all discriminatory actions based on belonging to a national minority, and guarantees equal rights before the law and equal protection of the law. Article 7 of the Law requires the state to ensure protection from any activity which endangers, or might endanger, the survival of minorities or the exercise of their rights and freedoms. The adoption of Law fufils one of Croatia's international obligations for it’s entry to the Council of Europe in 1996, and is also a crucial benchmark for implementation of the EU Association and Stabilisation Process (see 8.12 – International Co-operation on Migration).

Analysis provided by: Anisa Niaz LLM (Public Law), United Kingdom.

Hide