$ STRASBOURG, Sept 21 (Hina) - Autumn's session of the council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly which is to begin on Monday is the last session before Croatia's one-year time-limit for the ratification of several important Council
of Europe conventions and charters expires.
DOMLJAN
$
STRASBOURG, Sept 21 (Hina) - Autumn's session of the council of
Europe's Parliamentary Assembly which is to begin on Monday is the
last session before Croatia's one-year time-limit for the
ratification of several important Council of Europe conventions and
charters expires. #L#
Croatian Parliament deputy president and head of the Croatian
delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Zarko Domljan, told Hina
on Sunday that Croatia would ratify every Council of Europe
convention and charter by the envisaged date.
"We will ratify all conventions tied to the time-limit (of one
year) and there will be no problem, by the deadline which we
accepted, by 6 November, when one year since Croatia's admission
into the Council of Europe is up," Domljan stressed, adding that the
delegation would be able to respond positively to any questions
posed at this session regarding the adopted commitments.
The Croatian Parliament has ratified a European general
convention on the protection of national minorities, the European
convention on the prevention of torture and inhumane and degrading
treatment and punishment, as well as the European charter on local
self-government.
By the envisaged date, the Parliament should ratify the
European Human Rights Convention and the European charter on
regional and minority languages.
Other questions Domljan expected at the session regarding the
list of 21 commitments Croatia signed on 15 March last year, are the
situation in eastern Slavonia, especially in the light of the most
recent presidential statement by the UN Security Council, the
implementation of the Dayton Agreement, and the cooperation with the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in
The Hague, and the results of the recent elections in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
The UN Security Council Presidential Statement showed that
Croatia was again before a "wave of political pressures", Domljan
said.
The holding of elections in Bosnia would also be one of the
reasons for the pressures on Croatia, he said.
An agreement is expected to be reached during the session with
two rapporteurs for Croatia, Han Suhock and Gunnar Janson, about
their first official visit to Croatia as part of the monitoring
procedure to assess the fulfilment of commitments Croatia had
accepted.
"According to previous talks, they are expected to visit
Croatia in the second half of October," Domljan said.
(hina) lm
211315 MET sep 97