Statelessness has a very negative impact on an individual’s life. Having a nationality is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which Croatia has ratified as legally binding documents. Nationality is necessary for full participation in society and is a prerequisite for the exercise of all other fundamental rights, from the right to education, social rights, the right to work, medical treatment, etc. Stateless persons can exercise only one right in accordance with national legislation, the right to be issued a travel document /Convention passport/, but even this is very complex and time-consuming in practice.
In 2017, the CRP Sisak began active work in the fight against statelessness, and as a result, in 2019, it established the Coordination for Statelessness in the Republic of Croatia.
Therefore, we were the first in the Republic of Croatia to establish a Coordination consisting of all relevant stakeholders (UNHCR, Ministry of the Interior, Office of the Ombudsman, Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities, Croatian Institutes for Social Work, Red Cross, Croatian Employment Service, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, etc.), thus initiating the identification and comprehensive resolution of the issue of statelessness in the Republic of Croatia.
On June 14, 2019, in the premises of the Office of the Ombudsman in Zagreb, CRP SISAK held the 1st meeting of the Coordination for Statelessness, on the topic of resolving the issue of statelessness in the Republic of Croatia.
The aim of the meeting was to establish forms of future cooperation regarding resolving the issue of statelessness, raise awareness, and exchange information and knowledge on this topic, as well as collect statistical data between all Coordination stakeholders.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, and Igor Lekić and Monika Čavlović, representative of UNHCR Croatia, Kristina Benić Belavić, representative of the Ministry of the Interior Višnja Stanić Šajatović, Aleksa Đokić and Dženana Kalamujić on behalf of the Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities, Milena Čalić Jelić on behalf of the Serbian National Council, Ivana Karamarko and Nuša Rosić on behalf of the association “Kali Sara”, Dražen Klarić on behalf of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Petra Lovasić from the Center for Social Welfare Rijeka, attorney Ivana Canjuga, Ivan Jakić on behalf of the Croatian Employment Service, professor Snježana Vasiljević Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb and President of the Council of the Roma National Minority of Sisak-Moslavina County Stanoje Nikolić, while the following apologized for their absence: professor Frane Stanišić Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Juliette Delescluse from the Doctors of the World association and Natalija Havelka from the Center for Peace Osijek association.
Conclusions of the first working meeting of the Coordination: national standardization of the issue of statelessness, interpretation of national standardization and cooperation of countries in the region, with an emphasis on the Republic of Serbia and BiH.
On October 23, 2020, the PGP Sisak held the 2nd meeting of the Coordination for Statelessness. The topic of the meeting was the issue of statelessness in Croatia and Europe.
The meeting was attended by: Chris Nash from ENS (European Network on Statelessness), and other members of the Coordination for Statelessness: on behalf of the Office of the Ombudsman, deputies Maja Kević and Tena Šimonović Einwalter, and advisors Igor Lekić and Monika Čavlović, on behalf of UNHCR Croatia, Indira Beganović, Jan Kapić and Kristina Benić Belavić, Višnja Stanić Šajatović on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior, representatives of the National Migration Network Lidija Pentavec and Zvonimir Vrbljanin, Aleksa Đokić and Dženana Kalamujić on behalf of the Office for Human Rights and National Minorities, Ivana Perkušić on behalf of the Center for Peace Osijek, the Roma association Kali Sara, and guests Professor Aleksandar Maršavelski, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Snežana Trkulja on behalf of the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Zagreb, Dr. Vladimir Đerić, lawyer from Belgrade.
Conclusions of the second working meeting of the Coordination: continuation of work on resolving the issue of determining the identity of third-country nationals, with an emphasis on Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and considering the fact of non-existence of citizenship as a basis for discrimination and possibly initiating relevant changes.
Although the planned meeting(s) of the Coordination for Statelessness has not been held in recent years, mostly due to the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic on society as a whole, and the devastating earthquake in Banovina and Sisak in 2020, CRP Sisak has been working all these years on solving individual cases of stateless persons and at risk, successfully solving some of them, and through individual cases we establish trends and look for solutions to identified problems.
Through the interaction and permanent relationship with the members of the Coordination for Statelessness, where the Ministry of the Interior is one of our members, which adds to the weight and seriousness of solving the problem of statelessness in the Republic of Croatia, CRP Sisak continues its work in the field of statelessness in the Republic of Croatia.
Sisak, 6 November 2024
CRP SISAK
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