ZAGREB, Dec 20 (Hina) - A round table entitled "Restriction of Freedom and Use of Force", organised by the Croatian Government, on Wednesday was opened by a Deputy Prime Minister, Zeljka Antunovic, in Zagreb. Addressing the present at
the event, she said that for the purpose of making it easier for Croatia to enter European integration processes, it would be necessary to enable the national laws and acts to incorporate adequate instruments for the enhancement of the protection of human rights and in this field particularly sensitive issues were the restriction of freedom and use of force. Deputy PM added that human rights and liberties were generally solved in international conventions but it was up to each individual country to make concrete those principles in its legislation. The incumbent Croatian Government will organise a few round tables on this matter and launch a journal entitled "Human
ZAGREB, Dec 20 (Hina) - A round table entitled "Restriction of
Freedom and Use of Force", organised by the Croatian Government, on
Wednesday was opened by a Deputy Prime Minister, Zeljka Antunovic,
in Zagreb.
Addressing the present at the event, she said that for the purpose
of making it easier for Croatia to enter European integration
processes, it would be necessary to enable the national laws and
acts to incorporate adequate instruments for the enhancement of the
protection of human rights and in this field particularly sensitive
issues were the restriction of freedom and use of force.
Deputy PM added that human rights and liberties were generally
solved in international conventions but it was up to each
individual country to make concrete those principles in its
legislation. The incumbent Croatian Government will organise a few
round tables on this matter and launch a journal entitled "Human
Rights" in order to expound the related topics in a better manner,
she said.
Zagreb law school professor Davor Krapac assessed that the
enforcement of the valid acts and laws had shown that the issue of
human rights and freedoms were not arranged in a good normative way.
According to him, there were case of excessive use of some
authorities such as the secret tapping of telephones.
Professor Krapac quoted interesting information saying that the
criminal procedure act, adopted in 1997, had intended to cut the
number of pre-trial detentions (custody). However, the number of
persons taken to custody has risen since then almost by one third.
The fact that it was easy to decide on detention has contributed to
such a state of affairs, and this is also reflected by a large number
of acquittal of detained persons.
Deputy State Prosecutor Bozica Cvjetko assessed that the most
painful point of the national judiciary was the detention of
persons under age.
Croatian Police Academy dean Petar Vejic urged the harmonisation of
laws which refer to possibilities when police use arms.
He said that in 1999 Croatian policemen resorted to the use of arms
in 700 cases and in two percent of them it was contrary to law, which
was approximately the European average.
Vejic also insisted on better training of police, and complained
that 80 percent of police officers had not been notified of changes
in the criminal procedure act, some of which referred to altered
circumstances under which they could use weapons.
Deputy Public Ombudswoman, Marta Didakovic-Mukic, also criticised
a rise in the number of detained persons in custody. She added that
there were persons kept in custody although their cases were
absolutely statute-barred.
The round table drew other law experts and scholars as well.
(hina) ms