CRO VICE PREMIER MEETS UN HIGH HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER ROBINSON

GENEVA, March 19 (Hina) - Croatian Vice Premier Zeljka Antunovic and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson met on the margins of a UNHCR session in Geneva on Monday to discuss the progress Croatia achieved over the past year in the area of human rights protection and promotion, the Croatian Permanent Mission at the United Nations in Geneva said in a statement. The UNHCR started its 57th session, the biggest regular annual meeting on human rights on the global level, in Geneva today. Antunovic, who heads Croatia's delegation at the session, and Robinson discussed joint organisation of an international conference on human rights and democratisation, to be held at the Croatian government's initiative and with the support and cooperation of the United Nations in Dubrovnik this October. Antunovic conveyed Croatia's wish to be excluded this year from an 'omnibus' resolution on the human rights situation in Croatia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is compiled by the Commission for Human Rights, and from the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights. To support her request, Antunovic presented concrete data on the progress achieved in the field of the rule of law on the state and local level and the measures which were implemented on the local level with the aim of achieving harmonious coexistence of ethnic communities. It was stressed that the cooperation between the UN and Croatia in the area of human rights would intensify toward Croatia's affirmation as an active factor in the promotion of human rights on the global level, the statement said. (hina) rml