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Zagreb, 25 January 2012

Croatian Ombudsman consults civil society in anti-discrimination efforts

UNDP supports effort to pool resources of diverse organizations and institutions

More than 50 representatives of civil society gathered in the Parliament on 25 January to discuss cooperation with the Croatian Peoples' Ombudsman (CPO) in fighting discrimination in Croatia. The Anti-discrimination Act, which entered into force in 2009, designates the Croatian People's Ombudsman as the institution responsible for eliminating discrimination. Three years of experience have shown a need for more efficient implementation of Article 15 of the Act, which stipulates that the Ombudsman consult with a wide range of social partners, including human rights organizations, organizations dealing with the protection of vulnerable groups, churches and religious organizations, and the National Minorities Council, when drafting reports and other documents on the occurrence of discrimination.
The round table, "Cooperation under the Article 15 of the Anti-discrimination Act," was co-organized by the CPO and UNDP to explore options and models for future cooperation that would help combat discrimination.

"We hope that our joint efforts will enhance the system of protection against discrimination and that through cooperation we can achieve much more than by each of us acting from our own corner," said Deputy Croatian People's Ombudsman, Dejan Palić. "Our cooperation and coordination are preconditions for the efficient functioning of the human rights system."

The actors referred to in Article 15 of the Anti-Discrimination Act are a diverse group, but participants agreed that closer cooperation would help make the best use of the knowledge, experience, financial resources, access to information, and analytic capability that they have. Contributions from victims of discrimination were deemed as important as those from organizations. The importance of inputs from outside of Zagreb was also stressed.

To address this need, UNDP has supported field visits of the Office of the Croatian People's Ombudsman to local communities. "These field visits have encouraged a dialogue among stakeholders at the local level and ensured that their voices are heard at the national level," said UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Croatia, Vitalie Vremis. "We are pleased that there are plans to continue this practice beyond UNDP support."

The round table was organized as a part of a UNDP-funded project, Capacity Building of the Croatian People's Ombudsman's Office, which has been implemented since 2010.


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