Language Research

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was signed on November 5, 1997, ratified on November 5, 1997 and enacted on March 1, 1998. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was signed on November 6, 1996, ratified on October 11, 1997 and enacted on February 1, 1998.

Updated (July 2002)

Croatia has signed and ratified both the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The Italian, Serbian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Ruthenian and Ukrainian languages are protected by the Charter. In a report from September 2001, the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee of Ministers called on Croatia to approve laws ensuring existing constitutional provisions and basic statutory acts protecting and promoting regional or minority languages. They asked to establish legal means for an adequate institutional infrastructure for language teaching.

The CoE's Ministers Deputies also noted that Croatia had made efforts in the overall protection of national minorities, in particular the Italian minority. However, implementation of the Framework Convention had been complicated by the consequences of the 1991-1995 conflict, which made it difficult to protect the rights of persons belonging to the Serbian minority. A number of regulatory improvements were called for as a part of the ongoing legislative reform. This would include passing of a new constitutional Law on National Minorities.

Source: Eurolang, http://www.eurolang.net/, Brussels, July 16, 2002, by Eva Blässar & Margret Oberhofer

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Updated (May 2004)

CROATIA IMPROVEMENTS IN ITS LANGUAGE POLICY

Croatia's second periodical report on the implementation of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, submitted on April 13, 2004 sets forth some major improvements in the field of minority protection, including language-related issues. The report will be further examined by the Advisory Committee and then by the Committee of Ministers.

With respect to specific recommendations previously made to Croatia by the CoE's Committee of Ministers concerning the necessity to adopt the Constitutional Law on National Minorities, the Croatian government stated that such legal framework is already in force, whereas the other main legislative measures (the Law on Education in Languages and Scripts of National Minorities and the Law on the Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities) have also been adopted in the last few years.

The report also provides relevant official data on the demographic and ethnic structure of the population by nationality and mother tongue, according to the 2001 Census results.

Source: Mercator, April 2004, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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Updated (February 2006)

RECOMMENDATION RecChl (2005) 2 OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS ON THE APPLICATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL LANGUAGES BY CROATIA (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 September 2005)

The Committee of Ministers in accordance with Article 16 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages recommends that the Croatian authorities take account of all the observations made by the Committee of Experts whose evaluation is based on information obtained during their visit, information submitted by Croatia in its second periodical report, and supplementary information given by the authorities of Croatia. As a matter of priority, Croatia should:

1. 1.specify, in the third State periodical report, the municipal territories which are concerned by the application of Part III of the Charter and review the declaration appended to the instrument of ratification;

2. 1.promote awareness and tolerance vis-à-vis the regional or minority languages and the culture they represent as an integral part of the cultural heritage of Croatia, both in the general curriculum at all stages of education and in the media;

3. 1.offer pre-school education in the Ruthenian and Ukrainian languages and, regarding primary and secondary education, at least the teaching of Ruthenian, Slovak and Ukrainian within regular school hours in the territories in which such languages are used;

4. 1.develop a coherent strategy in the field of teacher training and provide adequate teaching materials for minority language education;

5. 1.take the necessary measures to ensure that the legal possibility for the speakers to use their regional or minority languages in relations with the relevant branches of the State administration is fully implemented in practice;

6. 1.take immediate action to implement the use of bilingual place-names in all relevant cases;

7. 1.grant the speakers a language-specific and more significant presence on public television and develop a presence on the regional radio stations also for those languages that do not yet benefit from it;

8. 1.clarify the nature of the traditional presence of the Slovenian language in Croatia in cooperation with the speakers.

Source: Mercator Bulletin No. 64, January 2006, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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