Ambassador Christian Strohal particularly underlined improved legislation, including the introduction of the definition of hate crime into the Penal Code, as well as the fact that Croatia is the first country in the region to have started training police officers to fight hate crime.
Croatia is assuming the leading role in the region and developing its capacity to respond to hate crimes. It is doing so by improving relations between law enforcing services and communities where those laws are enforced, and by providing more security and justice to groups affected by hate crime, Ambassador Strohal said.
The first course aimed at enabling Croatian officers to investigate and respond to hate crimes was completed in Zagreb on Friday. The Croatian government will also sign a memorandum of understanding with the OSCE and the ODIHR, which will assume the obligation to institutionalise training courses focusing on hate crime within the existing national police training programme.
The training programme is part of efforts invested by the OSCE to fight hate crime and it was drawn up in line with specific circumstances in each country. Pilot projects were implemented last year in Hungary and Spain, the statement said.
The OSCE representative for freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, on Thursday commended the Croatian parliament for passing amendments to the Penal Code which annul the punishment of defamation with imprisonment, the OSCE Office for the Media and Public Relations stated on Friday.
Haraszti said that the measure would increase the trust of the media and improve their professionalism, as well as contribute to transparency in the public life.
Croatia is the third country to annul the prison sentences as defined by legal regulations of last September, Serbia and Macedonia being the first two countries to have done so.
Haraszti said he was pleased that the countries were taking the lead in removing criminal regulations on defamation and hoped that all OSCE member-countries would follow their example.