EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT RECEIVES 560 COMPLAINTS AGAINST CROATIA

ZAGREB, Oct 17 (Hina) - The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg this year received 560 complaints filed by Croatian citizens and most of them refer to procrastinated court proceedings and the right to access court, Croatia's legal representative at the Court, Lidija Lukina Karajakovic, said in Zagreb on Thursday. #L# The number of complaints filed this year is twice the number of all complaints filed by Croatian citizens with the court between 1997 and 2001, the attorney said at a seminar called "Implementation of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms - Article 6, the Right to a Fair Trial", organised by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO). The most frequent complaints, right after the violation of the right to a fair trial, refer to the violation of the right to respect for personal and family life, the right to an effective legal remedy and the ban on discrimination, she said. The court has ruled against Croatia in ten cases, around 200 complaints were inadmissible and 20 cases are being considered, she said. Lukina Karajakovic said that the verdicts passed so far pointed to the inefficiency of the Croatian judiciary and the need for further adjustment to the European Convention and the Court's practice. The cases also point to the need to educate all participants in trials before Croatian courts so that domestic judicial practice could be adjusted to that of the European Court for Human Rights through the application of existing regulations, Lukina Karajakovic said. (hina) rml sb