ON THE OCCASION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DAY:
"A systematic crackdown on discrimination and violence against LGBT persons begins"
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.".
The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
United Nations, December 10, 1948.
Sixty-two years after the adoption of this important declaration, Croatian laws recognize a number of positive solutions for combating discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. However, the position of LGBT people in Croatia is still very poor. Almost every second LGBT person has experienced some form of violence. Most often, it is physical violence by an unknown person. Only after years of pressure did the holders of executive power, more precisely the Ministry of the Interior, declaratively announce the suppression of discrimination against LGBT people with a recent statement by Minister Tomislav Karamarko. Our organizations have decided to fully mobilize their capacities to fight homophobia and transphobia, so that everything would remain only on the minister's announcements.
Since 2006, 23 hate crime convictions
Since 2006, when the Criminal Code recognized hate crimes, only 23 verdicts have been issued for various hate crimes on one of the grounds recognized by the law, half the number of cases brought before the court. A significant portion of these verdicts relate to hate crimes against LGBT persons. However, the largest number of hate crimes never reach a verdict, as many LGBT persons rarely decide to report discrimination and violence, mainly due to distrust of the police and the judiciary.
Education of police officers
The low number of hate crime reports compared to their actual situation is partly a consequence of insufficient knowledge or insufficient preparation of police officers. Our associations, with the support of the Center for Peace Studies, are therefore initiating and organizing systematic education of police officers, a project financed mainly by the European Commission.
Center for LGBT Equality
– alliance of the three largest LGBT rights organizations
Because of the need to oppose the violence against LGBTIQ persons to which we are exposed every day, the three largest non-governmental organizations dealing with the protection of the rights of LGBT persons: Lesbian Organization Rijeka, LORI, Queer Zagreb and the association Zagreb Pride, founded the Center for LGBT Equality.
What the Center for LGBT Equality enables:
- legal advice and legal representation of LGBT persons at the expense of the Center
- Psychosocial assistance and support for LGBT people through a network of specially trained psychologists
- Monitoring violence against LGBTIQ people – even if a hate crime against LGBT people is not reported to institutions, we record it.
Cases of hate crimes against LGBT people
currently run by the Legal Service of the Center for LGBT Equality
- Hate crime at the Sirup club (November 2010) – Last week, the State Attorney's Office filed an indictment against Josip E. (born 1966) and Kristijan O. (born 1984, on parole) for various criminal offenses, including grievous bodily harm from a hate crime. Our legal department will also file a lawsuit for damages.
- Although due to police negligence, the hate crime at the Jedinica club (January 2010) was not described as such, our legal department is filing a criminal complaint for violent behavior and causing serious bodily harm in connection with the hate crime, as well as civil proceedings for compensation for damages.
- A lawsuit has been filed for compensation for a hate crime against our fellow LGBT activist and his friend that occurred in October 2007, which the police also did not recognize as a hate crime.
For more information about these cases, please contact the Bandalo Law Office, which we have hired to represent the injured parties.
In addition to these cases, we are currently investigating two more reports of hate crimes that we received outside of Zagreb - in Dalmatia and Lika.
The first class action lawsuits in Croatia
for discrimination against LGBT people
Collective lawsuits are a new mechanism for combating discrimination under the Anti-Discrimination Act. They can also be filed by associations that have a legitimate interest in protecting the collective interests of a certain group or that are involved in the protection of rights as part of their activities. To date, we have filed the following lawsuits:
- Collective lawsuit against the president of the Croatian Football Association, Vlatko Marković, for direct discrimination based on sexual orientation and a severe form of discrimination published in an interview with the daily newspaper Večernji list.
- Collective lawsuit against the executive vice president of NK Dinamo, Zdravko Mamic – for direct discrimination based on sexual orientation and a severe form of discrimination published in the daily Jutarnji list.
- INclass action lawsuit against employees of the Catholic Church, Franjo Jurčević - for harassment, incitement to discrimination and severe forms of discrimination that he committed and continues to commit on his blog and in public appearances on Nova TV.
If found guilty, the gentlemen will have to immediately cease actions that violate or intend to violate the rights of LGBT people (in the case of Franjo Jurčević, it is about closing the blog, in the case of the others, about a public apology), but it is also interesting that they will have to publish the verdict in the media at their own expense.
We would like to remind you that the Office of the Ombudsman also reacted to our report for the first two cases, which, among other things, pointed out that this was also a violation of the Sports Act. The Ombudsman called on the competent Ministry, as well as the Croatian Olympic Committee and the Football Association "to take all legal and other measures envisaged by law and their rules to prevent and sanction discriminatory statements and actions", but to date we have no information about what measures the institutions in question have taken.
For more information about these cases, please contact attorneys Dijana Kesonja and Lina Budak, whom we have hired to handle the case. of the first joint lawsuits due to discrimination against LGBT persons.
For the Center for LGBT Equality
