The HHO is expected to elect a new president today.
Speaking of his work in the Croatian branch of the world's leading association for the protection of human rights, Puhovski said that significant progress had been made in the area of human rights since the 1990s.
"The most important change was that since 2004 the situation could no longer be changed back to its previous state," Puhovski said in an interview with Hina.
"The violation of human rights is in the nature of every government, but now all must act in line with models that have been unquestionably accepted," the HHO president said.
The normalisation of the situation regarding human rights protection is visible from the fact that more and more complaints from citizens concern social problems, rather than ethnically-motivated ones, Puhovski said.
The difference in relation to other countries is that protests in Croatia more frequently concern the work of social services than the work of the police. "This does not mean that the police are ideal, although things have been developing in the right direction in that sector, but that we have rather big problems with social services," Puhovski said.
He added that he was satisfied with his achievements, but not with the fact than in his seven-year term the HHO had managed to solve the problems of only 20% of citizens who sought its help.
Asked what problems were awaiting his successor, Puhovski said that he could not make any predictions because the HHO acted on situations reported by citizens.
Judging by trends, the system of social welfare could be the biggest problem, he added.
The new HHO leadership could also face financial problems, considering the fact that there are practically no more foreign donations because Croatia is considered a country on the threshold of the EU and no longer needs much investment, while domestic funding is relatively scarce, he said.
Puhovski said that after his term as HHO president he would remain a member of the association, but that he wanted to dedicate most of his time to his university career.