Since March 28, 2013, BaBe together with partner organizations Dolphin from Pakrac and Zvonimir from Knin are implementing the project Think local, act nationally: empowering human rights civil society organizations in underdeveloped regionsThe project is financially supported by the European Commission and the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Republic of Croatia, and its main goal is to strengthen local civil society organizations that deal with human rights in underdeveloped regions.
As part of the project, ethnologist Željka Jelavić, lawyer Ljubica Matijević Vrsaljko and psychologist Martina Mladić, together with the BaBe project team, visited Pakrac (11.10.2013), Gračac (14.10.2013) and Knin (15.10.2013) in order to try to learn about their problems and detect specific cases of discrimination through focus group discussions with the population. In addition, direct legal and psychological counseling was provided to persons who expressed a need for professional help.
Through the activities carried out so far as part of the project, it has been confirmed that, despite the existence of legal regulations (Act on Suppression of Discrimination, Official Gazette 85/08), the practice indicates the existence of discrimination. Citizens of the three less developed counties (Šibenik-Knin, Požega-Slavonia and Zadar) continue to be discriminated against on a daily basis on various grounds: gender, age, ethnic origin, social origin, financial status, health status, disability. In all three places where the interviews were conducted, the basic and biggest problem is the inability to exercise the right to work and, consequently, a number of other rights that are exercised through employment. A special problem is the lack of care for the Croatian population who were settled in Knin during the war with the promise of the state to provide them with adequate accommodation and care.
The most problematic fact is that, based on the testimonies of citizens of Pakrac, Gračac and Knin, we can say that the state has actually been detected as the biggest and most frequent discriminator. Complaints related to discrimination in all three regions were most often addressed to state and public services and civil servants and the lack of transparency of their work, incompetence, ignorance and reluctance (and often with indications of corruption) to be of service to citizens.
Cases of embezzlement of state land and land registers, cases of illegal expropriation, malfunctioning public health and education systems, high unemployment, and cases of nepotism, corruption, and unprofessionalism of state and public bureaucracy are just part of the problems that plague the citizens of the targeted counties.
What is devastating in the whole story is the fact that all these problems and cases of abuse of power that BaBe, partners and associates detected during this visit are not actually problems only of the residents of Požega-Slavonia, Šibenik-Knin and Zadar counties, but are a problem of the entire country. The only difference is that in these three targeted regions these problems are at least doubly emphasized; Pakrac, Gračac and Knin are just a sadder reflection of the general situation in the country.
And so, while the headline news deals with Cyrillic plates or Sanader's monologues that are supposed to prove his innocence, hundreds of thousands of citizens do not see even a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel into which they have been pushed against their will and through no personal fault.
For Babe
Marijana Antunovic
