Full Coverage: Croatia

28.02.2007 The Centre for Peace Studies sent an open letter to the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, protesting the fact that 13-year old boy of Croatian-Liberian origin was expelled by his elementary school in Split on petition by the parents of the other students from his class. One of the reasons used to “justify” the request was that he was “Bantu”.

28.02.2007 “Novi list” daily reports that the Croatian Health Insurance Bureau decided to allocate about 13 percent higher support for annual needs for medicines to boys up to seven years of age than to girls of the same age group. According to the Bureau, the decision was based on actual data on use of medicines for 2006, which shows that boys simply use more medicines than girls.

27.02.2007 Zelena Akcija environmental organization presented last week its paper 10 Measures to Secure Sustainable Traffic in the City of Zagreb.

26.02.2007 The GONG and the Croatian Journalist Association (HND) express their opposition to the draft-Law on Classification and Confidentiality of Information, which they claim will further close the state administration and other bodies with public competences to citizens overview and scrutiny.

23.02.2007 The Transparency International Croatia (TIC) reports that the Draft-Law on Classification of Information, in its current form, may make the Law on the Right to Access Information totally obsolete and endanger the very progress of democracy in the country.

21.02.2007 In the 1990s, the official policies towards non-governmental organizations were marked with suspicion and mistrust. NGOs, especially the ones dealing with troublesome social and political issues and played the role of “watchdog” were considered agents of foreign political interests and, quite often, enemies of the state. One result of such a view was the very unfavourable institutional and legal environment for development of nongovernmental, non-profit sector.