Fifth Periodical Report Presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Accordance with Article 15 of the Charter
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Strasbourg, 17 January 2014 MIN-LANG (2014) PR 2 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Fifth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter CROATIA GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA FIFTH REPORT BY THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES ZAGREB, October 2013 1 CONTENT 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 4 2 PART I ............................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Legislative amendments ............................................................................................. 5 2.2 Action Plan for the Implementation of the Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities ................................................................................................................ 5 2.3 Implementation of the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (RecChL(2010)8) ................................................................................... 19 2.4 2011 Census in Croatia ............................................................................................ 20 3 PART II – Objectives and principles ............................................................................... 21 3.1 Article 7, paragraph 1 ............................................................................................... 21 3.2 Article 7, paragraph 3 ............................................................................................... 23 3.3 Article 7, paragraph 4 ............................................................................................... 24 3.4 Situation concerning the Slovenian language .......................................................... 26 3.5 Istro-Romanian dialect variants, variant of Hum na Sutli and variant of Bednja .... 34 3.6 Situation concerning the Slovenian language .......................................................... 34 3.7 Harmonisation of the statutes of self-government units and promotion of the equal official use of minority languages ........................................................................................ 34 4 PART III ........................................................................................................................... 36 4.1 Territorial scope of the application of the undertakings entered into by the Republic of Croatia under Part III of the Charter ................................................................................ 36 4.2 Article 8 – Education ................................................................................................ 40 4.3 Article 9 – Judicial authorities ................................................................................. 51 4.4 Article 10 – Administrative authorities and public services .................................... 56 4.4.1 Article 10, paragraph 1 ....................................................................................... 56 Minority language use in state administration bodies ...................................................... 56 4.4.2 Article 10, paragraph 1 ....................................................................................... 57 Minority language use in local and regional self-government units ................................ 57 4.4.3 Article 10, paragraph 3 ....................................................................................... 58 Minority language use in proceedings conducted by legal persons vested with public powers 58 4.4.4 ID cards in the languages and scripts of national minorities .............................. 59 4.5 Article 11 – Public media ......................................................................................... 60 2 4.5.1 Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) ........................................................................ 60 4.5.1.1 Croatian Television (HTV) ......................................................................... 60 4.5.1.2 Croatian Radio (HR) ................................................................................... 65 4.5.1.3 HRT web ..................................................................................................... 66 4.5.2 Fund for the Promotion of Pluralism and Diversity of Electronic Media .......... 66 4.6 Article 12 – Cultural activities and institutions ........................................................ 85 4.6.1 Libraries ............................................................................................................. 88 4.6.2 Archives, museums and galleries ....................................................................... 95 4.6.3 Performing arts, amateur culture and art, visual arts, new media and film ........ 96 4.7 Article 13 – Economic and social life ...................................................................... 99 4.8 Article 14 – Transfrontier exchanges ....................................................................... 99 4.8.1 Cultural cooperation agreements and programmes signed in the period 2009- 2012 101 5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 101 3 1 INTRODUCTION (1) Pursuant to Article 15 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereinafter: the Charter), the Republic of Croatia hereby submits the 5th Periodical Report for the period 2009-2012, developed in accordance with the revised outline for the preparation of three-year periodical reports (CM(2009)42), adopted at the 1054th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies of the Council of Europe on 15 April 2009. (2) Since the previous 4th Periodical Report by the Republic of Croatia on the Implementation of the Charter of December 2009 covered data for the three-year period 2006-2008 as well as part of the available data for 2009, the 5th Periodical Report covers data for the three-year period 2009-2011 as well as part of data for 2012 in order to ensure that the report provides up-to-date data to the greatest possible extent. (3) The following state administration bodies cooperated in developing the 5th Report: Ministry of Justice, the authority responsible for the collection of data relating to minority language use before judicial authorities; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, relating to international cooperation and political issues; Ministry of Economy, relating to economic and social issues; Ministry of Culture, relating to cultural activities; Ministry of the Interior, relating to the issue of documents in minority languages; Ministry of Public Administration, relating to minority language use in state administration bodies, bodies of local and regional self-government units and legal persons vested with public powers; Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport And Infrastructure, relating to the erection of bilingual traffic signs, both in the Croatian language and Latin script and in the language and script of a national minority; Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, relating to educational issues; Office of Human and National Minority Rights of the Croatian Government, relating to international cooperation and political issues; Agency for Supervision of Electronic Media, relating to public and private media; Central Bureau of Statistics; Croatian Radiotelevision, relating to public media; (4) The final draft report was delivered to all the bodies participating in its development for the purpose of comments. The report was also delivered for comments to the Council for National Minorities of the Republic of Croatia, the umbrella body of national minorities at the central level, connecting institutions and interests of national minorities at the state level. It is an autonomous body with the aim to promote efficient participation of national minorities in the public life of the Republic of Croatia, in particular in the field of consideration of and suggestions for regulation and resolution of issues regarding the exercise and protection of the rights and freedoms of national minorities. (5) The invitation to cooperate in preparing the 5th Report was also extended to all umbrella associations of all the national minorities to which the provisions of the 4 Charter apply, pursuant to the declaration contained in the instrument of ratification of the Republic of Croatia, as follows: Italian Union, Serbian Cultural Society “Prosvjeta”, Union of Czechs in the Republic of Croatia, Democratic Community of Hungarians, Union of Slovaks, and Union of Ruthenians and Ukrainians of the Republic of Croatia. (6) The invitation to participate in the development of the report was also extended to the Union of Slovenian Societies in the Republic of Croatia, the umbrella association of the Slovene national minority in the Republic of Croatia. (7) Out of the above stated associations of national minorities, comments were delivered only by the Union of Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Croatia. 2 PART I 2.1 Legislative amendments (8) The Republic of Croatia has continuously upgraded the system of national minority rights protection in the legislative and legal field, trying to respect the views of national minorities to the maximum extent, which was inter alia confirmed by the amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and to the