The seminar, which includes workshops, was organised by government Office for Ethnic Minorities and the Croatian Council for Ethnic Minorities.
Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor said the seminar was the first of several aimed at informing ethnic minorities' representatives and councils and thus improving the councils' cooperation with local government and state bodies with a view to including them in decision-making.
Kosor said the government would insist on the implementation of the constitutional law on ethnic minorities' rights and make sure the councils can operate.
The chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Croatia, Peter Semneby, said the constitutional law provided a legal framework for ensuring the protection of ethnic minorities' rights on all levels. He added, however, that the Mission was concerned about the poor turnout at elections for ethnic minorities' councils and the inadequate representation of ethnic minorities in state and local administration.
Serb MP Milorad Pupovac said ethnic minorities' rights could not be exercised if there was no tolerance or in communities which glorified anti-minority symbols and values. He applauded the Ivo Sanader Cabinet's decision to treat such ideologies as anticonstitutional.
Pupovac said it was necessary to rid the minority policy of politics and deal with the real state of ethnic minorities' human and civil rights.
State Administration Office state secretary Antun Palaric said 230 ethnic minority councils were registered in Croatia. He urged them to check if all local government units had adjusted their statutes with the constitutional law on ethnic minorities' rights.
Also participating in today's seminar were the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Human and Ethnic Minorities' Rights, Furio Radin, the chairwoman of the government Office for Ethnic Minorities, Milena Klajner, and the chairman of the Croatian Council for Ethnic Minorities, Aleksandar Tolnauer.