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Impresum: Series Reports Regional Human Rights Report 2006 Publisher Secretariat of the BHRN, on behalf of Balkan Human Rights Network Address: Behdžeta Mutevelića 35, 71 000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina [email protected], www.balkan-rights.net Editor Bojan Ðurić Proof-reading Morgiana Brading Printed by Nezavisne Novine, Banja Luka © Balkan Human Rights Network – All Right Reserved REGONAL HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2006 This publication was supported by the Neighbourhood Programme of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Views expressed in the publication are those of the individual authors. Content Introduction ..............................................................................9 Contributors to this issue........................................................ 12 Articles .................................................................................... 19 By Altin Hazizaj & Elma Tershana Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania Albanian Center for Human Rights Human Rights in Albania 2006 ....................................................... 20 By Miroslav Živanovi ć & Gorana Mlinarevi ć Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006 .......................... 47 By Genoveva Tisheva, author and editor Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation in cooperation with Tania Ivanova and Teodora Tsanovska Human Rights in Bulgaria 2006 ........................................................... 82 By Marta Vidakovi ć Muki ć Human Rights in the Republic of Croatia in 2006 ..........................117 By Albert Musliu & Jonuz Abdullai Association for Democratic initiatives Human Rights in the Republic of Macedonia 2006 ........................152 By Siniša Bjekovi ć & Nenad Koprivica Human Rights in Montenegro in 2006 ..............................................179 By Dina Dobrkovi ć (ed.) Belgrade Centre for Human Rights Human Rights in Serbia 2006 .............................................................205 By Igor Bandovi ć & Jovan Nici ć Status of Transitional Justice in the Region .....................................235 Introduction The authors of the individual country reports in the second Regional Human Rights Report endeavoured to highlight the segments of national legislation and especially practices, which are the most disputable from the viewpoint of the respect of human rights, whilst simultaneously abiding by the specified methodology and list of topics. Notwithstanding specific similarities, there are significant differences amongst the legal orders of the countries covered by this Report. This Introduction will highlight the chief moments and trends in each country report – some are common to all the societies in the region. Each text in the Regional Human Rights Report 2006, naturally, gives a detailed description and analysis of the human rights situation in the given country. The introductions to the national reports are extremely useful as they present the context in which specific rights are exercised or violated. They also give an overview of the political and social circumstances in the specific countries and note the headway in EU accession. The authors would also like to draw the readers’ attention to the comprehensive human rights analyses which are the focus of the 2006 Report – realisation of the right to education, access to law and justice and realisation of rights of at risk and vulnerable groups. The following overview of the main impressions gained after reading all the national reports aims to serve merely as an introduction to the entire annual Report. Albania. – The Albanian report focuses on the challenges of a society undergoing democratic transition and the harmonisation of its national legislation and practice with the EU accession requirements. The authors record some improvement in specific areas in 2006 (notably, the peaceful handover of power after the elections and stable and high economic growth rate). The Albanian society, however, is still grappling with serious challenges to the rule of law and respect of human rights - the greatest problems stem from widespread corruption, the high unemployment rate, poverty and disparities in regional development. With respect to individual human rights, the authors highlight the problems in protecting the right to life, poor prison conditions, abuse of police powers, discrimination and the poor realisation of social and economic rights. Bulgaria. – The Bulgarian report deals with the main national political and social issues and puts special focus on the open human rights issues, notably the prohibition of discrimination, protection of social and economic rights, the rights to education and an effective legal remedy and protection of rights before bodies specialised in human rights protection. The authors of the report assessed that 2006 was marked by the final steps towards EU accession, which took place at the start of 2007. In that respect, the greatest headway in 2006 was made in fulfilling EU requirements with respect to the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime and overall administrative capacity building. The impression is that much less attention and activity was devoted to the realisation of classical human rights not directly linked to the fulfilment of the requirements the EU had set the Bulgarian authorities. Bosnia and Herzegovina. – Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a state with a specific state order, organisation of government and division of powers. Under the Paris/Dayton Peace Accords, most of the universal and regional human rights protection instruments are directly applicable in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Large- scale violations of human rights of BiH’s citizens were, however, recorded in 2006. They occurred despite the fact that the country has a single centralised human rights protection system, at least formally. The large-scale human rights violations in BiH can also be ascribed to the poor-improper work of the judiciary. The courts in BiH face many problems, from lack infrastructure and trained staff to political pressures, unharmonised legislation, etc. Apart from violations of civic and political rights, large-scale violations of economic, social and cultural rights were recorded in BiH in 2006 as well. Croatia. – No gross human rights violations were recorded in Croatia in 2006. The authors, however, did not record headway in the respect of human rights over 2005 either - the human rights situation stagnated. Unfortunately, the consequences of prior human rights abuse still were not totally eliminated in 2006. The chief problems still relate to unresolved tenancy and other problems of returnees (accommodation, employment, return of their farmland), the inadequate integration of Roma in the educational system and the declining social status of the so-called new pensioners. Finally, as in most other countries of the region, judicial inefficiency and huge backlogs have significantly burdened the legal order, undermining the principle of rule of law. Ethnically motivated violence and expressions of ethnic intolerance did not abate, but they did draw more public reactions than in the previous years. Macedonia. - The authors of the report assess that human rights are generally respected in Macedonia but that there are specific problems in individual areas. Widespread corruption is a serious problem, especially as it has been undermining the extremely sensitive parts of the state apparatus - the police and justice ministries, courts and other segments of the judiciary. Apart from this systemic challenge, Macedonia’s society is also challenged by a specific form of human rights abuse caused, inter alia, by the country’s geographical position – trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labour. The discrimination of specific minorities, especially the Roma, remains the main problem related to discrimination. In general, Macedonia did see some headway in human rights protection over the previous year, notably in internal oversight of the security sector and a fall in ethnically-based discrimination. Montenegro. - Montenegro won its independence and its international recognition in 2006. Legal enactments and declarations binding Montenegro to respect the achieved degree of human rights. Although the report authors note that there were no systematic human rights violations in 2006, they did express some concern, notably with regard to the unfavourable situation in specific fields. For instance, Montenegro still has not adopted a modern Constitution offering quality guarantees of fundamental human rights, some of which are not at all or are improperly provided for in the present Constitution. The authors note the problem of the ineffectiveness of the constitutional appeal as the ultimate domestic legal remedy for protecting human rights. As in other states in the region, the efficicency of the judiciary poses a major challenge to the respect of human rights. Access to justice is additionally hindered by the exorbitant court fees. Serbia. – The tumultuous political events affected the state of human rights in Serbia in 2006. The disintegration of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro upset the legal system. The substandard work of institutions charged with the protection of human rights still poses a major problem with respect to the protection and realisation of human rights. The public prosecutors rarely spoke up about human rights violations in 2006. The police investigations were long and did not yield satisfactory results. Court proceedings were also impermissibly long.