The Civil Rights Project Sisak /hereinafter referred to as CRP Sisak/ is an association that has been present in the free legal aid system (FLA) since 2009, and to this day ensures continuity and quality assistance in providing primary legal aid to beneficiaries of weaker financial status. As a registered provider of primary legal aid with the Ministry of Justice and Administration, CRP Sisak is the only authorized provider of primary legal aid with headquarters in the Sisak-Moslavina County, which territorially covers the entire Sisak-Moslavina County and part of Karlovac County, among other parts of the Republic of Croatia.
CRP Sisak has secured three mandates in the Commission for Free Legal Aid within 20 years of active provision of free legal aid.
In accordance with the Act on Free Legal Aid /Article 47/, the Commission for Free Legal Aid was established to monitor the legal aid system as an advisory body to the Ministry.
In March 2019, CRP Sisak was appointed to the Free Legal Aid Commission /second mandate of CRP/. During the two-year mandate, only three sessions were held /two in 2019 and one during 2020/; and this is a direct violation of the provisions of Art. 5, paragraph 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Free Legal Aid Commission, according to which sessions are convened at least three times a year, and more often if necessary.
After the expiration of the mandate in March 2021, it took more than a year and a half to form a new Free Legal Aid Commission, with new mandate holders.
The Free Legal Aid Commission in the new mandate was only established on August 26, 2022 /third mandate of CRP/. The Commission held four sessions, one of which in 2022, and three sessions in 2023 – September 22, October 27 and December 14.
Here we must emphasize that 2021 is a repeat of the year when not a single session of the Commission was held until March, and the negative trend continues in 2024 – without a single session held.
We have emphasized that the Rules of Procedure of the Commission for Free Legal Aid stipulate that sessions of the Commission are held at least three times a year, and more often if necessary.
Namely, the Commission is intended as an impartial body that must be familiar with the situation in the field of authorized providers of free legal aid, so that it can monitor the situation and decide on the free legal aid system through an advisory role at the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation.
We must emphasize that the Commission for Free Legal Aid has continued to play only a figurative-formal role in the system of monitoring free legal aid throughout all these years. In addition to the lack of continuity in the convening of the Commission, no tender proposals are submitted for assessment and evaluation to the members of the Commission, and we are talking about a direct violation of the legal provisions of the Act on Free Legal Aid, Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Act.
The Commission for Free Legal Aid, therefore, continues to represent a gap between the normative and functional levels.
We are writing this at a time when the mandate of the Commission for Free Legal Aid expired, on August 26, 2024, and the procedure for electing a new Commission has not yet been initiated, and the end of the year is approaching.
We hope that the new mandate holders will understand the seriousness of the institution of the Commission for Free Legal Aid much more seriously, more responsible and, above all, more professionally.
In Sisak, 20 November 2024
CRP SISAK
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