The decision was adopted on the initiative of MPs representing ethnic minorities, whereby Croatia has joined European countries that commemorate Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day on August 2.
Nearly all Roma people were exterminated in Croatia during the Nazi-style Ustasha regime that ruled the country during the Second World War. The first post-war census in 1948 recorded only 405 Roma, the Croatian Parliament said on its website.
The full names of 16,173 Roma killed in the Ustasha-run Jasenovac concentration camp have been documented.
Roma were also killed in concentration camps in Nazi Germany and in the countries of other Nazi allies. After the Second World War their sacrifice was marginalised in victim commemorations, historiography and education programmes. Historians estimate the number of Roma killed during the Second World War at between 250,000 and as many as 1,000,000.
August 2 has been observed as International Roma Holocaust Day, or the Porajmos, since 2012. On that day a memorial ceremony is organised in the Roma Ustica cemetery within the Jasenovac memorial complex.
In Croatia, the Roma today are one of the 22 ethnic minorities recognised by the Croatian Constitution.