Monitoring Implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation to the member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity CM/Rec(2010)5 DOCUMENTATION REPORT ON THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA 10/2018 Prepared by ZAGREB PRIDE web: www.zagreb-pride.net email: [email protected] ☎ ++385(0)1 580 65 60 Skype: zagrebpride Social media: @zagrebpride _________ TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 4 About Zagreb Pride 4 About the Report 4 Political System and Demographics 4 Executive Summary 5 Methodology 8 Acknowledgements 9 RECOMMENDATIONS 10 Section 1 – Implementation of the Recommendation 17 Section 2 – Implementation of the specific provisions in the Appendix 20 2.1. Right to life, security and protection from violence 20 2.1.A “Hate crimes” and other hate-motivated incidents 20 2.1.A.1. Hate crime legislation 20 2.1.A.2. Underreporting of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes 21 2.1.A.3. Documenting and reporting hate crimes 23 2.1.A.4. Zagreb Pride’s compiled data on hate crimes 24 2.1.A.5. Hate crimes – case studies 26 2.1.B “Hate speech” 30 2.1.B.1. Hate speech – case studies 32 2.2. Freedom of association 37 2.3. Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly 40 2.4. Right to respect for private and family life 45 2.4.1. Legal gender recognition 45 2.4.2. Legal recognition of same-sex couples 46 2.4.3. Institutional and political discrimination of same-sex life partners 47 2.4.4. Discrimination of informal same-sex life partners – case studies 49 2.4.5. Same-sex parenting and family planning 50 2.4.6. Parental responsibilities of a life partner 51 2.4.7. Partner-guardianship of a child 51 2.5. Employment 53 2.5.1. Discrimination of LGBTIQ persons in the area of employment – case studies 53 2.5.2. Position of LGBTIQ persons in the workplace 55 2.6. Education 57 3 2.6.1. Position of LGBTIQ persons in the field of education 58 2.6.2. The School Curricula 60 2.6.2.1. Discrimination of LGBTIQ persons in the field of education – Religious Instruction 60 2.6.2.2. Discrimination of LGBTIQ persons in the field of education - Health Education 61 2.6.2.3. Discrimination of LGBTIQ persons in the field of education - Civic Education 63 2.7. Health 65 2.7.1 Healthcare services for trans people 66 2.8. Housing 69 2.9. Sports 70 2.10. Right to seek asylum 72 2.11. National Human Rights Structures 74 2.12. Discrimination on multiple grounds 76 INTRODUCTION About Zagreb Pride Zagreb Pride is a non-profit, queer-feminist and anti-fascist organization which is committed to the achievement of an active society of solidarity and equality free from gender and sexual norms and categories, and any other kind of oppression. Through our principle areas of work, a) advocacy, b) research, c) education, d) empowerment and e) direct action, since 2002 Zagreb Pride struggles for the rights of LGBTIQ persons and communities, non-normative families and society as a whole and works on the elimination of all forms of discrimination, based on the full promotion, respect and protection of human rights. About the Report This report serves to highlight the overall situation of LGBTIQ persons in Croatia. It covers all of the 12 areas listed in the Appendix1, with recommendations for improvement pertaining to each area. In particular, we decided to place specific focus on two fundamental issues where the most efforts are needed: Right to life, security and protection from violence and the Right to respect for private and family life. This is the second time that the LGBTIQ organizations from Croatia are submitting a report on the Implementation of the Recommendation and its Appendix to the Council of Europe. The first report was prepared by LGBT organizations Iskorak and Kontra in 20122. Since their report, legal gender recognition has partially been ensured and the rights of same-sex couples have been improved. The implementation of the Recommendation in Croatia remains partial, inconsistent and in several areas such as housing, education, health and sports, not implemented at all. Even though the Recommendation has been translated into Croatian language and published on the website of the Governmental Office for Gender Equality in 2012, it was not promoted in any effective way and there is no general awareness of its existence. With this report, Zagreb Pride intends to raise awareness about attempts to limit the rights of LGBTIQ persons in Croatia in recent years and to ensure strong evidence-based advocacy tool in order to achieve legal and social change. Political System and Demographics The Republic of Croatia (In Croatian: Republika Hrvatska) is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic located between Central Europe and South-Eastern Europe. Croatia declared independence from the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, became a member of the United Nations in 1992, joined the Council of Europe in 1996 and since July 1, 2013 has been the newest member-state of the European Union. The highest values of the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia (Article 3) are freedom, equal rights, national and gender equality, peace-making, social justice, respect for human 1 1. Right to life, security and protection from violence; 2. Freedom of association; 3. Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; 4. Right to respect for private and family life; 5. Employment; 6. Education; 7. Health; 8. Housing; 9. Sports; 10. Right to seek asylum; 11. National Human Rights Structures; 12. Discrimination on multiple grounds 2 https://www.ilga-europe.org/sites/default/files/Attachments/croatia_- _monitoring_implementation_of_the_coe_recommendation.pdf 5 rights, inviolability of ownership, conservation of nature and the environment, the rule of law and a democratic multiparty system. Human rights and fundamental freedoms are protected by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Chapter Three, Articles 14–70) and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are prohibited by the Anti-Discrimination Act. According to the 2011 National Census, Croatia had 4,309,899 inhabitants, however, due to the emigration of its citizens to other EU countries, the population dropped to 4,154,200 according to the Eurostat report from 2017. Croatia is a constitutionally secular country; however, a large majority of the Croatian population declared to be members of the Roman Catholic Church (86%), comparing to 4.47% of the population who claim to be non-believers, atheists, skeptics and/or agnostics. Other major religious groups larger than 1% are Christian Orthodox – mostly members of the Serbian Orthodox Church (4.44%) and Muslims – mostly members of the Islamic Community in Croatia (1.47%). Croatia is ethnically homogenous society; about 90% of its inhabitants declare as Croats by ethnicity. The only other ethnicity that surpasses 1% of the population are Serbs at 4.5%, whose population significantly decreased from 12.2% of Serbs living in Croatia before the 1991–1995 civil war. Since 1990, Croatia has re-introduced a multi-party-political system of governance, however, only two political parties have been given an opportunity to form a government (in most cases in a coalition with other minor parties) - the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the center- right to right-wing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Executive Summary While Croatia has achieved somewhat satisfactory legal framework of protection against the discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, as well as regulation of same-sex life partnerships, the implementation of laws, judicial practice and capacities of different public actors and law enforcements bodies are troubling in many aspects. All forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are prohibited. However, intersex persons are not protected from discrimination and sex characteristics are not mentioned or recognized in any existing legislation or public policy. A significant setback to the rights of LGBTIQ persons occurred in 2013, when the Croatian Constitution was amended through a national referendum defining a marriage as a union of a man and a woman. Since then, the negative political and social attitudes towards LGBTIQ persons became a growing concern. Similar to the situation in the rest of the Central and Eastern Europe, in recent years Croatia has been facing a strong backlash against the rights and freedoms of women and LGBTIQ persons, which is initiated by organizations closely affiliated with the Catholic Church, with the strong support of religious authorities and some parliamentary political parties. All this contributed to the increase of hate speech and, consequently, hate crimes. In addition to anti-discrimination legislation, three national policies on human rights and gender equality exist, however, only two were implemented from 2013 to 2017: the National Gender Equality Policy and the National Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights. These policies contained a total of only nine measures directly related to LGBTIQ persons which are not nearly sufficient for significant progress in reducing the violence and discrimination or for increasing the acceptance of LGBTIQ persons in the Croatian society. What is particularly alarming is the fact that the adoption of the national policies, programs and plans for the future period were postponed for over a year due to the opposition of some government ministers to protect the rights of LGBTIQ persons. While hate crimes legislation has been significantly improved, the implementation of hate crime provisions has been inconsistent and majority of the hate crime reports are still inadequately processed by the police. The most unjust consequence of the incorrect qualification of acts of hate crime as a misdemeanor by the police is the fact that the misdemeanor procedure prevents the initiation of criminal proceedings (principle ne bis in idem).