We are impressed with legislative changes in the field of minority rights, but the legal implementation is not at the level as we hoped it would be, Korkeakivi said at a debate on the second opinion of the advisory committee of the framework convention for the protection of minority rights, organised for the Centre for Human Rights.
Speaking about the opinion of the advisory committee, adopted at the end of last year, Korkeakivi said Croatia established dialogue between the authorities and minority representatives.
The problems, however, occur in the implementation of legal regulations, he said. For example, the representation of members of national minorities in judicial and administrative bodies is not appropriate in relation to the share of minorities in the population.
The authorities should attach more attention to to the protection of minority languages at the local level. The process of the return of Serbs also must continue and the implementation of the national programme for the Roma should be accelerated.
The president of the Council for National Minorities, Aleksandar Tolnauer, said there were problems with the implementation of the constitutional law on the rights of national minorities because the legal infrastructure which would enable its implementation had not yet been defined.
Of the total of 44 members of the Council of Europe, the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities came into force in
37 countries, including Croatia.