On Monday, May 16, the Ministry of Justice introduced a new programme of free legal aid for the members of Roma national minority in Croatia. The free legal aid programme is a part of anti-discrimination measures towards Roma communitites, underlined in the National Programme for Roma people. Overall cost of the programme for this year is 55.000,00 € and will be carried out by 32 lawyers from Zagreb and Medjimurska, Brodsko-Posavska and Primorsko-goranska County. (18-MAY-05)
In spite the fact that the National Programme recognized measures for stimulating wider socio-political inclusion of Roma people into the society two years ago, they are still facing great problems in fulfillment of their fundamental rights.
The free legal aid programme is designed to help Roma people in solving their statutory issues, like citizenship, permanent and temporary residence, birth certificates as a precondition for realization of other rights like education, housing, employment, health and social care. The list of lawyers entrusted with the direct implementation of the programme will be passed on to the mobile teams composed of civil servants established for informing the Roma communitites on their rights as defined by the National programme.
However, Lovorka Kusan, one of the lawyers that will participate in the programme, and experienced activist for Roma issues in the Croatian Law Centre expressed concern related to the implementation of the programme.
– I don’t wan’t to criticize the programme before it started, but I’m sceptical when it comes to informing the Roma communities on the project activities. The key issue will be on how to ensure the long-term and effective communication with the members of Roma minority. It was yery indicative, for that matter, that there was no Roma people present in the Ministry of Justice when the lawyers where presented to the public. – said Lovorka Kusan.
The NGO’s involved in the emergence of the HRH in Zagreb have been conducting similar activitiy within their project „Improvement of position of Roma population in Croatia“. From December 2004, when the project started, activists from Croatian Law Centre provided, via free telephone line and field work, free legal aid in more then 200 cases.
