In the report by Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles, which was forwarded to Hina from Strasbourg, Croatia is mentioned in the section on discrimination of Roma in the school systems of the Council of Europe member-states.
Recalling his visit to Croatia in 2004, Gil-Robles says that he was acquainted at the time with a two-year programme launched in 2002 with the aim of preparing Roma children for primary education, including the teaching of various skills in the Croatian language.
According to the Croatian government's action plan for the social integration of Roma, efforts continue to promote pre-school education with the aim of fully integrating Roma children in the school system, says Gil-Robles.
Unfortunately, efforts aimed at desegregation are sometimes met by opposition from the parents of non-Roma children, says Gil-Robles.
He cites the case of a school in the northern town of Cakovec, where the parents of several non-Roma children protested seeking separate classrooms for Roma children, claiming that they did not have the same level of linguistic and other knowledge as their peers.
In his 47-page report Gil-Robles also criticises other members of the Council of Europe, such as Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, France, Serbia and Montenegro, the Czech Republic and other countries where discrimination against the Roma was reported, from housing and living standards to education, employment and health care.
According to figures provided by the Council of Europe, around ten million Roma live in the territory of almost all Council of Europe member-countries, where they face serious obstacles in exercising their fundamental rights, Gil-Robles says in the report.