Language Research

In a potentially positive step in January of 1998, The Council on National Minorities was established as an independent body for the expression of minorities' views on government proposals and recommendations concerning minority issues. However, the Council has proven to be ineffective.

Constitutionally, ethnic minorities enjoy the same protection as other recognized ethnic and religious groups. However, in practice a pattern of often open and severe discrimination continues against ethnic Serbs and, at times, other minorities. This discrimination occurs in a wide number of areas including the administration of justice, employment, housing, and freedom of movement. The Government often maintains a double standard based on ethnicity. In principle, members of minority groups have constitutional protection equal to Croat citizens, and their ethnic rights are provided for in the preamble to the Constitution.

Government committees established in 1997 to promote reconciliation and trust between Croats and Serbs were not effective.

The well-documented pattern of the discriminatory application of laws and administrative regulations is particularly evident in education. For example, in textbooks the history of the former Yugoslavia was omitted in favor of a more nationalistic Croat interpretation, and new textbooks tend to use derogatory adjectives in reference to minorities. In addition, apart from the Danube region, there are still very few classes for Serb pupils that follow the approved Serbian school program. Serb students countrywide continued to use materials and follow the curriculum of the Croat students, and the provision and distribution of Serb language textbooks in the Danube region, previously agreed to by the Ministry of Education, remained problematical throughout the school year 1998. In the fall, Croatian parents of returning students in Beli Manastir pulled their children out of school and succeeded in forcing the dismissal of several ethnic Serb teachers.

The situation could be solved through the implementation of the new legislation. The Croatian legislature approved a package of governmental proposals on May 11, 2000 to guarantee minority rights according to European standards. "Vecernji list" wrote that the new legislation is more liberal than that in most European countries.

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Updated (April 2001)

In April, the Croatian Minister of Justice suspended new bilingual measures in the Croatian region of Istria, which were introduced by the regional council of Istria on April 9, 2001 claiming that they would first time have to be evaluated by the country's Constitutional Court. Under this new law, government officials in Istria would have to master both Croatian and Italian and Italian flag would fly next to the Croatian one on national holidays. In Istria, Italians make up about 10% of the population.

Italy has protested against suspensions of such measures and Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it could also provoke a situation where Italy would obstruct Croatian attempts to gain EU membership. The Croatian government has thirty days to decide whether or not the ten articles of the Istrian Statute should be handed over to the Constitutional Court.

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