The event was organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and was attended by about 100 representatives of minorities living in Croatia, state institutions, political parties, the civil society and international organisations.
The head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Jorge Fuentes, who chaired the conference, said the Croatian constitutional law on minorities' rights was very good, generous and liberal, and that it could be a model for the entire region.
He said, however, that its main problem was implementation, but added that more time was needed for it to be implemented fully.
Justice Minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said there existed justified and unjustified difficulties in every public policy, including the minority policy, and that these difficulties should be addressed.
She said there were cases where, in the implementation of some measures, two minorities' rights clashed, for example the right to appropriate representation in judicial and administrative bodies and the right to freely express one's ethnicity.
The minister said Croatia implemented an active minority policy, but that more should be done given that every democracy must protect social groups whichbecause of their delicate position, risked being excluded from society and because minorities enriched every pluralist society.
Skare-Ozbolt said the Croatian government was committed to investing additional efforts to effectively answer all minorities' needs.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee on national minorities, Furio Radin, said the constitutional law was in some segments surprisingly precise, despite other shortcomings.
He said the autonomy of minorities' representatives in parliament was the only part of the law that had been realised fully, and added he was puzzled by party leaders' announcements that they would move changing provisions enabling that.
The head of the European Commission Delegation to Croatia, Vincent Degert, said the European Union attached great importance to the protection of minorities' rights.
He said the adoption of the constitutional law had been a step in the right direction and that Croatia should now focus on its implementation.
Participants recognised the shortcomings and further measures that need to be taken to protect minorities' political rights, their representation in the state administration, police and the judiciary, their right to education in the minority language, and how they are covered in the media.
One of the major shortcomings is the nonexistence of a legal explanation on how to determine minority quotas in local assemblies and on how to replace minority councillors.
The Croatian parliament adopted the constitutional law on the rights of national minorities in 2002, providing a comprehensive framework for relations with the 22 national minorities living in Croatia.