NGO in Croatia

Non-Profit-Making and Non-Governmental Organisations

AIM Zagreb, 15 September, 1999

"One of the main problems of operation of democracy in Croatia is that the citizens shrink from active involvement in resolution of problems and from forcing the responsible relevant state agencies to do their duty and what they are paid to do." With these words, Toni Vidan, president of Green Action, once described the situation in which non-governmental organisations in Croatia operate. Because of that reluctance of the citizens, non-governmental organisations often have difficulties in implementation some of their initiatives, and the regime very perfidiously uses the absence of a broad civil support to NGOs for undisturbed implementation of its policy. And like every other regime, the current Croatian one disregards both the wide spectre of human rights and specific interests of individuals or groups, but also is not concerned with satisfaction of the needs of certain minor portions of the society. Moreover, at this moment, the ruling party in Croatia, the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) seems to have invested all its potentials into annulment of these specific interests imposing two patterns of human behavior only - the male and the female - both developed according to standards the democratic world has abandoned a long time ago. Each and every even the slightest deviation from the imposed framework is considered by the regime to be undesirable which is best reflected in its attitude to non-governmental organisations.

Until 1997 when the Assembly passed the new Law on Associations, about 20 thousand non-governmental organisations operated in Croatia. Unfortunately, nobody knows the exact figure, do that the figure of 20 thousand is just approximate. According to certain sources, there were 25 thousand, according to others 18 thousand, some claimed that there were only 15 thousand, but most probably there were between 19 and 20 thousand which is a figure mentioned at the time by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, that is, by its Department of Human Rights. After the Law on Associations had come into force (15 July, 1997), the associations were given a time limit of six months for re-registration pursuant the new Law. In April last year, Jasna Prka from the Ministry of Administration of the Republic of Croatia, stated that by the end of this deadline about 15 thousand applications for re-registration were submitted and decisions made about them. Therefore, when speaking about the number of the currently active associations in Croatia, this fact can still be taken as the most relevant one, and it can be concluded that there are 15 thousand NGOs in Croatia, on the local and the state level.

The most prominent non-governmental associations are certainly those dealing with human rights. The war in Croatia has brought an incredibly large number of cases in which individuals were denied the most fundamental rights, even the very right to live. Inefficiency of the administration and often their intentional degradation and violation of human rights resulted in an increased number of associations which started advocating the rights of minorities, particularly of the Serbs, the rights of returnees, they began resolving the problems of providing accommodation and food and drugs for the elderly and the disabled... In their activities they were often prevented to work in most devious ways and there were even cases of physical assaults against certain activists. Such developments increased the interest of the media for everything concerning developments and activities of the associations dealing with protection of human rights, which had the effect of a knife that cuts both ways. While the few independent media supported activities of NGOs, pro-regime media under intense influence of HDZ pictured their activists as the enemies of the state describing them as "yellow, black and white devils" (president Tudjman himself used this expression), as destroyers of the young democracy, as mercenaries (although HDZ itself was growing thanks to the money arriving via most queer channels from abroad).

The media became the battlefield of very frequent assaults of the authorities on non-governmental organisations, and this situation has not changed to this day. Croatian Helsinki Committee, the most influential organisation for protection of human rights, was at the same time the most common target, but other organisations cannot brag that they were spared either. Because of these attacks, all the other non-governmental organisations have remained in the shadow, although they form a very large percentage of the total number of NGOs. Hardly anybody has even heard of associations such as Slow Food of Croatia, Association of Parents of Children with Difficulties in Development, Jesuit Refugee Service, Croatian Eye Bank or Croatian Association for Criminal Sciences and Practice, although their activities contribute to the advancement of the society in general. Women's groups (or associations for promoting women's human rights) were by far more successful in penetrating through the blockade in the media, and interest has grown lately for the activities of organisations dealing with environment protection.

Yellow associations are a special Croatian problem, and trade unions were the first to feel it. Back in 1990 already, the then prime minister of Croatia, Josip Manolic, openly said to the president of the League of Independent Trade Unions, the most powerful central umbrella organisation of trade unions, Davor Juric, that he would not negotiate with him, but with Croatian Trade Union, which was just being established at the time. Later on, the latter developed into Croatian Union of Trade Unions (HUS), but all the other trade union organisations believed that HUS was just a means of the regime for imposing laws, contracts and processes which are convenient for it, especially during the scandalous transformation which turned into plunder and ended with a high unemployment rate. Juric himself warned on several occasions that more than 700 trade unions operated in Croatia, which prevented a better organised and more meaningful approach to resolving any problem from the domain of trade unions. "Yellow NGOs" were founded even in the area of environment protection, there are those which deal with the questions of the counsel of the defence, women's issues, and even foundations which finance the work of certain associations.

Humanitarian aid is still a big problem in Croatia. During the war, numeorus organisations were engaged in its distribution, but the regime interfered even in this sphere. Many organisations were founded which got involved in this job, but it later turned out that only members of a single ethnic group (most frequently the Croats banished from Bosnia & Herzegovina) or creed received aid. There are such cases even today, especially on the territory of former "Republic of Serb Krajina".

A special series of problems in the operation of non-governmental organisations is created by the legal framework. There are primarily restrictions imposed by the mentioned Law on Assocations. The provisions of this Law the director of the Centre for Development of Non-Profit-Making Organisations (CERANEO) Gojko Bezovan considers to be controversial are the one on temporary ban of an association, the reasons for the ban in case it acts contrary to the law and statute, the problem of the ownership of former social organisations (very complex issues very badly solved by law, so that Bezovan even considers it to be contrary to the Constitution). The problem is also in the height of fines prescribed for offences committed by associations. Even the activities the associations are entitled to carry out are also problematic; this was the reason for the Esperanto society to be prevented from organising language teaching courses for its members. Selectivity in the attitude to associations is illustrated by Bezovan by the fact that certain associations are permitted to issue audio and video recordings and according to their activities they are in the sphere of the value-added tax, while others do not have this possibility. A big problem is also the uneven standard of activities the associations are permitted to carry out if they are founded by the Ministry of Administration and if they are founded in district offices.

"The next problem is when activities in the sphere of social welfare are concerned because the Law on Socil Welfare is violated because it permits that a significant share of social welfare be carried out by assocations. On the other hand, according to what is written in the Law on Associations, it does not permit founding of associations for this purpose. This is a problem of conception", says Bezovan. "In this sphere it is believed that associations may be engaged in activities of pastime, amusement, leisure, protection of the environment and advocating certain things, like the human rights. This is quite alright. But if a more modern cenception is applied such as the one that exists in other countries in transition, serious problems arise". Besides, certain associations are subject to other laws, like for example, associations of students which are also subject to the Law on Students' Assembly, sports societies which are regulated by the Law on Sports, foreign associations which are registered separately in the Register of Foreign Associations, there is also the Law on Foundations and Endowments (the difference between endowments and foundations according to law is only in their duration), but there is also the Law on Humanitarian Organisations and Humanitarian Aid. Trade unions have problems with the Labour Law, and all the associations have difficulties with the law which regulates public gatherings and peaceful protests - dealines for applying for a gatthering are very long so it is imposible to react to developments with adequate speed, there are problems with security the law requires, and until recently a big problem was the site of gathering which was left to local communities to decide about, so the biggest problem arose in Zagreb where only certain squares (mostly outside the city centre) were assigned for organisation of protests.

Generally speaking, the legal framework for the activities of associations is very chaotic, and this is what almost all presidents and activists of NGOs, but also many lawyers, agree about. There is also much criticism addressed by the Council of Europe and various other international institutions. In fact, the only one that does not admit the inadequacy, inconsistency and contrariness of laws is the government, but it is even rarely possible to hear voices of the opposition in the Assembly against this confusion. Indeed, the attitude of politicians, both those in power and those in the opposition is a special problem for non-governmental organisations. For instance, when the Law on Associations entered into asembly procedure, an ad hoc coalition of non-governmental organisations was founded, called the Initiative for the Third Sector. A broad spectre of NGOs joined it with the total membership of 120 thousand persons. Nobody showed interest for the complaints and criticism of this coalition, and its representativces were received only by a junior advisor of the president of the state who "took note" of their remarks. But they have never been even taken into consideration!

The Initiative for the Third Sector, however, very meticulously worked out the comments and amendments which is very seldomly done in Croatia. Because of overproduction of laws (almost 200 issues of the official gazette are published every year) it is very difficult to keep up-dated about all the regulations that are coming into force or that are drafted and put in assembly procedure. There are comparatively few organisations which have experts in law, and those that do, these lawyers are mostly engaged in disentagling the confusion in the existing laws, those which refer to specific cases. Problems even arise because of badly elaborated cases, which the public attorney warned against in his report for last year, noting that he could do nothing if a case was not legally interpreted to detail.

Lack of awareness of the real role of non-governmental organisations, as well as the open manifestation of contempt towards them, is constantly present in behavior of assembly deputies. Miroslav Kis, president of the Committee for Human Rights and Rights of Ethnic Minorities of the Croatian State Assembly, once declared that "it is not the duty of committees, mine inclusive, to send non-governmental organistions Assembly materials" because "this is done by the secretariat of the Assembly which receives proposals mostly from the government since it is usually the proposer, sometimes even the only authorised one". In other words, the one who should be interested the most for remarks and complaints of NGOs showed total absence of a will to communicate with them and take into account their opinion. Kis is not even a deputy of HDZ, but a completely independent one, so based on his words it can easily be concluded what stand on NGOs prevails among other deputies.

Financing associations is a special set of problems including a few laws which have not been mentioned so far, but also state agencies which are often selective in allocating funds and this is accompanied by very rigid tax policy. The current VAT of 22 per cent will affect very negatively the development of associations in Croatia, because it has increased the expenses of operation of non-profit-making organisations which have very limited funds mostly provided from membership fees, domestic and foreign donations, and just for a part of NGOs from the state budget. A serious problem in Croatia is also that untaxed donations, even very high amounts of them, may be given only to organisations operating in the sphere of culture and arts, and in fabulous amounts to organisations in sports. For example, if you own a trading company, you can give up to half a million kunas which are untaxed to a sports club. If you are an income tax payer, you can give up to fifty thousand kunas for sports which are exempt from taxes. But for care of, say, children or disabled persons, you can give nothing. Some of these exemptions are prescribed by the Law on Sports, although it is in fact a tax matter.

Since recently, the Decision on criteria for financial support of associations which are of interest for the Republic of Croatia is also in force in Croatia. Previously it was prescribed that associations which impement the policy of the government of the Republic of Croatia would be financed. This has changed and now it is stated that those associations which advocate and implement the highest constitutional values will be financed. But criteria according to which money is distributed have remained unclarified. In 1997, about ten million dollars were distributed to associations from the state budget, but this year the amount was much smaller, just 1.5 million dollars, distributed through the recently founded government office for associations. But there are almost no data about the money distributed to NGOs by units of local administrations. But, distribution of money from the state cashbox showed that the money is not distributed according to the proclaimed criteria. Just one example: father Anto Bakovic and his Croatian Populist Movement received money from the budget, although Bakovic is known as a nationalist (even chauvinist) of the worst kind, while his journal Narod is a hotbed of hatred of everything that is not Croat.

Laws create problems even to names of associations. Associations cannot bear foreign names, due to which ATTACK (Autonomous Factory of Culture) had problems with its registration. ATTACK met with a new problem when its founders wished to open their web-site: attack.hr, which was refused because "attack" is not a Croatian word. On the other hand, if the name of associations contains the word Croatia in any form or case, this is additionally sanctioned, due to which Amnesty International Croatia had certain minor problems. Indeed, it is stated in the Law that the word Croatia should be used in the manner which stresses the good name and dignity of the Republic of Croatia, which - except that its an irrelevant provision - shows that the law-makers were more concerned about form than the content.

Members of associations very often criticise the attitide opf media towards them. Even independent media show interest for the work of an association only when problems arise in it. For example, nobody would have ever showed any interest for the existence of Croatian Hunting League if problems had not arisen because of its property. Associations have too little money to start their own publications, and even if they did have it, they certainly would not be cheap which means that they would not be accessible to most people. Work with the media or more precisely work on presentation in the media also requires cadre, which means money, which is scarce. Demand for truly pluralist and open media which would present what associations really do and which problems they encounter in their work would certainly contribute to better perception of NGOs in the whole society.

The inevitable result would be that the state would not be able to ignore associations which would mean that it would not be able to act as it pleases, but as it is required to act. Indeed, if their operation had been presented in a different manner in the media, it would not have been possible to pass a Law on Associations like the one now in force about which Vesna Terselic from the Anti-War Campaign of Croatia says that it just "reflects the negative stand of political forces which are now leading Croatia concerning independent citizens' inititives". In other words, "the Law sends a clear message that activities non-governmental organisations are engaged in are an inconvenience, and not a welcome assistance and supplement to government projects. The Law just continues the tradition of obedience" based on the idea that "the state exists to supervise every activity".

Juraj Hrzenjak who analysed a number of laws says that "after looking into the Constitution or the Law on Local Administration, Law on Associations, I have not found, either indirectly or directly that municipalities and cities, their councils and administrations, and even district assemblies are obliged to refer, consult with, or God forbid, respect the opinion of non-governmental organisations concerning any issue from their sphere of activity". Due to such relation of forces between the authorities and NGOs, scandals erupt such as the current reconstruction of Zagreb squares which are turning into a grotesque because the authorities have their own conception of the matter and never seek the opinion of societies of architects (or any other).

While speaking at a round table discussion on non-governmental organisations, director of Croatian Helsinki Committee Bojan Munjin did not conceal his discontent with the situation in the state and the position of NGOs. "We are forced to organise round table discussions here in order to arrive at certain principles of free association of citizens. This tires, exhausts and indeed dulls the edge of normal free development in the society". "With less politics and more understanding of the real meaning of free citizens' initiatives, because free citizens' participation is necessary in the dialogue with the governemnt, officials, members of parliament, we will have better legislature", added at the same round table discussion Pavel Demes from the Slovak Service Centre for the Third Sector. Croatian government does not seem to care about it, as if it were working deliberately against good legislature.

One should not forget the fact that a person learns to respect human rights, that is, learns to be tolerant to different opinions, interests, views and objectives from the day he/she is born. Unfortunately, Croatian school system still uses textbooks written in the language of conflict, and not "the language of cooperation, communication and criticism which would be constructive" as it is called by Vesna Kesic of the Group for Women's Rights B.a.B.e. The reality of war was simply transferred to the pages of textbooks, but war terminology was not replaced by that of peacetime. Specific interests of individuals or small social groups which should be realised through non-governmental organisations thanks to such up-bringing in schools will not be fully achieved for a long time. The situation seems petrified, and this frustrates all those who have in any way joined the work of the third sector, that of non-governmental organisations.

MILIVOJ DJILAS

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