Minister Grabar-Kitarović held speech at CoR seminar National Minorities’ Rights and Their Implementation on a Local and National Level in Croatia

In her speech, Minister Grabar-Kitarović presented Croatia’s achievements in the field of minority rights, evidenced in the positive evaluations by international institutions and organisations – OSCE, the Council of Europe and UN. This is the result of the strengthening of the normative aspect of minority rights protection and promotion, as well as the implementation of concrete provisions.

Minister Grabar-Kitarović mentioned the three key principles in the protection and promotion of national minority rights in Croatia – education in human and minority rights protection and promotion, the Croatian Government’s commitment to promoting and accepting the highest minority rights standards, and the awareness that there is always room for improvement.

In presenting the legal framework for the human and minority rights protection in Croatia, Minister Grabar-Kitarović pointed out that Croatia has chosen to ratify all of the key international human rights instruments and implement them into the state legislature. She added that Croatia is actively supporting the strengthening of human and minority rights protection mechanisms within all of the relevant institutions, especially the UN and the Council of Europe. As regards international agreements, she stressed that special attention should be paid to the Human Rights Committee, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and Committee on the Rights of the Child. She said that Croatia is also closely following the EU guidelines in national minority rights protection.

Minister Grabar-Kitarović explained that the Croatian Constitution features a series of provisions with the aim of a more quality national minority rights protection and the promotion of the principles of multiculturalism and participative democracy. She especially pointed out the 2002 Constitutional Law on National Minorities as the most important regulation for a concrete national minority rights protection in Croatia, whose passing marked the completion of the basic normative framework.

In her speech, Minister Grabar-Kitarović pointed out that relations towards minorities is one of the proofs of a country’s democratic maturity, emphasizing that Croatia’s national minorities are not its problem, but rather its wealth.