The Human Rights House Zagreb wrote and published a thematic report titled “Human Rights Defenders in Croatia – Challenges and Obstacles”. The report builds upon Human Rights House’s research dating back to 2018 and assesses work-related problems and challenges faced by human rights defenders in Croatia from 2019 until now.

The report brings together the experiences of organizations that protect the rights of refugees, women’s rights, the rights of LGBTIQ, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, as well as organizations that work on environmental protection, transitional justice and provide free legal aid.

This report reveals that there has been no improvement in the past four years, and that the vast majority of problems faced by human rights defenders and civil society organizations have remained the same; the exception being the area of participatory decision-making processes where previously established standards regarding public participation have collapsed. Altogether, the findings correspond with the general trend of stagnation in almost all areas of human rights in Croatia which the Human Rights House Zagreb has been documenting in its annual reports for years.

The entire report is available here.