ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for human rights (HHO) on Tuesday presented awards for the promotion and protection of human rights, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.
ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for human
rights (HHO) on Tuesday presented awards for the promotion and
protection of human rights, on the occasion of International Human
Rights Day. #L#
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic attended the award-giving
ceremony at Zagreb's Croatian National Theatre.
The "Miko Tripalo" award was presented to Vukovar-Srijem County
prefect Nikola Safer, and the "Josko Kulusic" award to Tihomir
Ponos, a reporter of the Vecernji List daily.
The HHO gave the "Aleksandra Zec" award to a former Dinamo soccer
team player, Louis Ramoisus from Honduras. He had been brutally
attacked on several occasions by skinheads because of the colour of
his skin, HHO president Zarko Puhovski said, adding that Ramoisus
was now living in Milan.
Commenting on the human rights situation, Puhovski said that this
year Croatia saw no improvement for the first time, as opposed to
the past six or seven years.
The main reason for this, he said, was the social situation.
The most serious problem is an atmosphere which instigates
animosity towards the Romany, people of different colour,
homosexuals, women, particularly feminists, Slovenes, etc.,
Puhovski said.
President Mesic told reporters after the ceremony that the degree
of human rights protection was the indicator of how civilised and
democratic a society was.
"We had excellent ideas, but, unfortunately, we have come to a
stalemate in the protection and promotion of human rights," Mesic
said, adding that this could be improved only with the rule-of-
law.
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