Related Rule
Croatia
Practice Relating to Rule 88. Non-Discrimination
Croatia’s Criminal Code (1997) provides for the punishment of “any person who, on the basis of race, sex, skin colour, nationality or ethnic origin, violates basic human rights and freedoms accepted by the international community”.
Croatia, Criminal Code, 1997, Article 174.
Croatia’s Criminal Code (1997), as amended to 2006, provides for the punishment of anyone who:
… on the basis of a difference in race, religion, political or other belief, property, birth, education, social position or other characteristics, or on the basis of gender, color, national or ethnic origin, violates fundamental human rights and freedoms recognized by the international community.
Croatia, Criminal Code, 1997, as amended to 2006, Article 174(1); see also Article 106(1).
The Criminal Code further states that “[ordering] the persecution of a person by depriving them of their fundamental rights because this person belongs to a particular group or community” is a crime against humanity.
Croatia, Criminal Code, 1997, as amended in June 2006, Article 157a.
In 2007, in its second periodic report to the Human Rights Committee, Croatia stated:
68. Article 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia states:
During a state of war … individual freedoms and rights guaranteed by the Constitution may be restricted. …
69. The extent of such restrictions shall be adequate to the nature of the danger, and may not result in the inequality of persons in respect of race, colour, gender, language, religion, national or social origin.
Croatia, Second periodic report to the Human Rights Committee, 2 December 2008, UN Doc. CCPR/C/HRV/2, submitted 28 November 2007, §§ 68–69; see also § 427.
Croatia’s military manuals provide that wounded and sick persons shall be cared for and protected without distinction.
Croatia, Compendium “Law of Armed Conflicts”, Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Defence, 1991, p. 45; Rules of Conduct for Soldiers, Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Defence, 1992, p. 3; Basic Rules of the Law of Armed Conflicts – Commanders’ Manual, Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Defence, 1992, Rule No. 71, p. 10; Instructions “Basic Rules of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts”, Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Defence, 1993, p. 11, Articles 1–3.
Croatia’s Criminal Code (1997), as amended to 2006, provides for the punishment of anyone, who:
… publicly states or disseminates ideas on the superiority or subordination of one race, ethnic or religious community, gender, ethnicity, or ideas on superiority or subordination on the basis of colour for the purpose of spreading racial, religious, sexual, national and ethnic hatred or hatred based on colour or for the purpose of disparagement shall be punished.
Croatia, Criminal Code, 1997, as amended to 2006, Article 174(3).
The Criminal Code further states that it is a crime against humanity:
[To order] within an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination of one racial group over another racial group or groups that an inhumane act described in this Article be committed or an act similar to any of these offences so as to maintain such a regime (the crime of apartheid).
Croatia, Criminal Code, 1997, as amended in June 2006, Article 157a.
