On the first working day, the Delegation of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms of the Parliament of Montenegro met with: Ms. Lora Vidović, the National ombudsman, Ms. Mila Jelavić, the Ombudsman for Children, Ms. Anka Slonjšak, the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities, and Ms. Sanja Oluški Radaković, the Head of Professional Service of the Institution of the Ombudsman for Gender Equality. Additionally, the meetings with representatives of the Office for Human and National Minority Rights and the Chairman of the Council for National Minorities were held. In the afternoon hours, members of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms visited the Child Protection Center of the City of Zagreb and the National Community of Montenegrins in Croatia.

At the meeting with the ombudsmen, the members of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms were acquainted with the manner of operation of the four ombudsmen in Croatia, that were established by separate laws, and according to ombudsmen, that model is more advantageous to the model of one Ombudsman, because in this manner greater attention can be paid to these special categories of population and their rights. The institution of the National Ombudsman was established by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in 1992, and it is a central body for prevention of discrimination and national preventive mechanism against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In his/her work, the National Ombudsman acts in accordance with the principles of promotion and protection of human rights, autonomy and independence and the principle of justice, equality and ethics, impartiality and good governance. The National Ombudsman acts upon complaints from the citizens, but he/she can also initiate the procedure of his/her own accord in case there is an individual or group violation of rights. The National Ombudsman does not act in cases that are under court procedure, unless there is a case of unreasonably long duration of procedure or a clear abuse of power.

The Ombudsman for Children informed the members of the Committee that the institution of Ombudsman for Children has existed for ten years. It has the authority to monitor the compliance of laws and other legislation in the Republic of Croatia that are related to protection of rights and interest of children with the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, Convention of the Rights of the Child and other international documents, application of all provisions relating to protection of the rights and interests of children, as well as violation of individual rights of children and studies general occurrences and manners of violations of rights and interests of children. Additionally, it informs the public on the state of rights of the children, informs and offers advice to children on the manner of exercising and protection of their rights and interests, cooperates with children, and can also participate in the procedure that precedes the adoption of provisions that relate to the rights of the children.

The Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities pointed out that the institution of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities has existed for five years, and that it had been founded at the initiative of the persons with disabilities, in cooperation with the line ministries, and based on the model from Austria and Sweden. The position of the persons with disabilities in the Republic of Croatia, which make up for 11.5% of the total population is improving day after day, but there is still a lot of work to be done, especially with regard to the ensuring the accessibility of objects to these persons.

Head of Professional Service of the Institution of the Ombudsman for Gender Equality said that they acted upon complaints against discrimination based on gender, marital or family status and sexual orientation. Additionally, they follow implementation of the Law on Gender Equality of the Republic of Croatia and other legislation in relation to gender equality. She pointed out that in practice the largest number of complaints was received from women due to discrimination in the labour market.

The funds for work of ombudsman are allocated in the state budget. All ombudsmen are obliged to submit performance reports to the Croatian Parliament. The ombudsmen said that they had a good and continuing, almost daily cooperation with the Office for Human and National Minorities Rights of Republic of Croatia, as well as other working bodies, to attend a large number of meetings of the Committee, depending on the topic.

Members of the Delegation of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms informed the interlocutors form the Republic of Croatia on the manner the institution of the Ombudsman of Montenegro operated, stating that the Ombudsman was a national mechanism for prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the institutional mechanism for prevention of discrimination. Additionally, they said that the Ombudsman had four deputies: for prevention of torture, protection of discrimination, state administration and rights of the child. They pointed out the specific model of funding of the institution of the Ombudsman, because the request for allocation of budget funds for the Ombudsman was submitted by the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, as an oversight working body, at the request of the Ombudsman. They said that the cooperation of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms with the Ombudsman has been very good, that the Ombudsman has been participating at many meetings of the Committee, as well as other activities organised by the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms.

The members of the Committee were interested in the manner of proceeding by complaints of the citizens, whether that was only within the authority of ombudsmen or the committees also had its role, so they were informed that ombudsmen acted upon the complaints of the citizens, while in the Croatian Parliament there was a separate Committee for applications and complaints of the citizens, but a certain number of applications was also submitted to the Office for Human and National Minorities Rights.

At the meeting with the Deputy Head of the Office for Human and National Minorities Rights, Ms. Bahrija Sejfić, the members of the Committee were introduced to the competences of this institution that deals with policy of promotion and protection of human rights, especially the rights of national minorities, as well as consideration of the state of play of certain areas, segments and components of human and national minority rights. Additionally, it monitors the implementation of the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe on protection of national minorities and coordinates drafting of the report on implementation of the Framework Convention, so the drafting of the fourth report is underway. They also introduced the members of Delegation to multiple national plans and programmes, among which are the following: the National program for the protection and promotion of human rights, the National Plan to Combat Discrimination, the National Plan to Combat Trafficking of Persons, the National Programme for the Roma and Action Plan for the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 - 2015. They pointed out that Croatia is currently presiding over the Decade of Roma Inclusion, after which Montenegro will assume that role. The Office is cooperating with the line ministries and other bodies of state administration, as well as with bodies of local and regional self-administration, national Ombudsman, special ombudsmen and the Council for National Minorities, and there is also the National Committee for prevention of trafficking in human beings, the Operative Team and the National Coordinator, which, in cooperation with other state bodies endeavour to contribute to diminishing of this occurrence. They have two national shelters for victims of trafficking in human beings, which are mostly headed by the NGOs. The Constitutional Law on Rights of National Minorities has provided to national minorities, 22 in total in Croatia, 19 of which are organised into councils, to exercise all rights and it was deemed as a very quality law. National minorities encounter problems in the area of employment, use of the language and script and access to media, but their state is improving. They participate in the decision making process at all levels, and there are eight representatives of minorities in the Croatian Parliament.

The President of the Council for National Minorities in Croatia, Mr. Aleksandar Tolnauer, said that the Council was an independent body, founded under the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities that was adopted by the Croatian Parliament in 2002. The Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities is, according to assessments by numerous experts and relevant institutions, one of the best laws, and the region and Europe can envy them on the extremely good solutions incorporated in the law. The Council was founded with the aim to enable a more quality and efficient participation of national minorities in the public life of the Republic of Croatia.

The Council is the umbrella body of national minorities at the state level which connects institutions and the interests of national minorities, which has the right to propose to the Parliament and the Government discussions on the issues that it considers important, especially with regard to implementation of the Constitutional Law and special laws that regulate the rights of national minorities.

The Chairman of the Council for National Minorities of Croatia stated that the Council has 20 members, and that it has three types of representation. The composition of the Council, into which the parliamentary representatives of national minorities enter automatically, is interesting. Five members of the Council are representatives of national minorities from professional, cultural, religious and scientific circles and representatives of minority associations, which are appointed by the Government, at the proposal of the association, legal persons and citizens that belong to national minorities. They have a double legitimacy, because they were nominated by their minority associations, and then confirmed by the Government. Third group, seven of them, are representatives of the Council for national minorities. The Council also deals with distribution of funds to the national minorities for projects, but those funds are distributed according to closely determined criteria and the control of spending those funds, as well as monitoring of project implementation are very clear, detailed and closely regulated.

Representatives of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms were especially interested in the manner and criteria for distribution of funds to national minorities, existence of joint projects that the national minorities apply for funds, representation of people who belong to national minorities in state administration, public and political life, use of language, especially in proceedings before court, as well as for the use of national symbols.

In the afternoon hours, the members of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms visited the Child Protection Center of the City of Zagreb, acquainted themselves with the manner of work of this institution, the activities that it has been implementing and were convinced that the Child Protection Center was a successful model of working with children that were victims of violence, underwent mental and physical  torture, and concluded that this institution provides them with maximum professional rehabilitation and resocialisation, provided by the expert, educated, professional and multidisciplinary team. In conversation with the Director of Child Protection Center, Ms.  Gordana Flander they were informed that the institution has been active for ten years, that it currently employs 35 persons, and that its basic purpose was to provide psychological, social, psychiatric, defectologic and paediatric assistance to children with various traumatising experiences, as well as their parents, in order for them to face the consequences of these experiences in a better and more successful manner. The Center provides treatment for children who have been abused sexually, physically and emotionally, as well children who have been neglected. With diagnostic and forensic processing, the experts of the Center offer individual and group counselling and support to children and parents. The Center organises and implements education and professional development for persons in institutions that deal with the abused children. According to surveys, the emotional abuse of children makes up for 30%, and around two thirds of children are exposed to at least occasional emotional abuse by parents. One child in five is a victim of some type of sexual abuse.

The main goal of the Center is to provide efficient and systematic held to abused and neglected children and their families, and for every child there is a specialised team approach in order to solve their problems.

The NGO Brave telephone – a phone line for abused and neglected children, also operates within the Child Protection Centre of the City of Zagreb, whose main goal is protection of children from abuse and neglect.

The members of Delegation of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms deemed the work and the existence of this Center as very significant, and they thought that, modelled upon this, there should be an institution like this in Montenegro, established separately, or within the current health care system, and that the manner of its funding should be regulated as well, considering that the Center in Zagreb has benn funded via the Health Fund and the funds from the budget of the City of Zagreb.

The Delegation also visited the National Community of Montenegrins in Croatia, and in conversation with Mr. Radomir Pavićević, the Head of the National Community and its associates, they were informed on the position of Montenegrins in Croatia and the activities that they have been implementing in the area of preservation of national identity. According to results of the Census of 1981, there were 9818 Montenegrins in Croatia, and in 2011 there were 4517. Montenegrins in the Republic of Croatia, as well as people belonging to other national minorities are organised on two bases: via associations and clubs, and via councils and representatives. The basic mission of associations and clubs is to preserve national and cultural identity of Montenegrin national minority in the Republic of Croatia, introduce the public to tradition and culture of Montenegro, as well as contribute to general cultural events from the area where the people belonging to Montenegrin corpus are inhabited. They implement numerous activities in the area of information publishing, as well as other cultural manifestations. Via the council, they exercise their civil rights. It was assessed that the National Community of Montenegrins in Croatia has a good state of rights and is one of the most organised national communities, and they hope that this would be the case in all other areas of Croatia.

At the end of the first working day, the delegation of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms met with Mr. Pedja Grbin, President of the Croatian Parliament Friendship Group with the Parliament of Montenegro.

The first day of the study visit was assessed as very successful, and the exchange of experiences, good practice, constructive conversations, and the contacts will be of significant use to all members of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms in the following period.