Suchergebnisse

This presentation provides a framework of only the most important legal and political issues concerning the European Public Prosecutor. These issues, just like the general position of the European Public Prosecutor in European and national legal systems, are the result of compromise where the quality of coherence and the consistency of profiling the institution of the European Prosecutor have given way to the prospect of introducing the legally and politically very important institution of European Public Prosecutor.

The president of the Republic of Croatia analyzes the progress made by his country since the end of the Balkan conflicts. He points to its progress toward European integration and provides advice for Croatia's neighbors on how to heal past wounds by looking to a future of cooperation that is free of narrow nationalistic agendas.

This article analyses problems with which the Republic of Croatia, as a country in transition, has to contend during war crimes proceedings. A major characteristic of the recent wars waged on the territory of the former Yugoslavia is that war crimes were committed, though on a different scale, by all parties involved, irrespective of the political and other motives that prompted them to engage in armed conflict. Political unwillingness is the principal reason why national courts, including those in the Republic of Croatia, did not prosecute war crimes in accordance with internationally acceptable standards. The international community responded by setting up the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the main objectives of which are to establish justice, render justice to victims and determine the historical truth. Implicitly, despite political and other opposition to its work, the ICTY is helping to define legal and ethical standards appropriate for a democratic society in the countries established on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This is particularly important for the reason that all these countries aspire to membership of the European Union. The work of the ICTY, as well as proceedings before domestic courts, is therefore an important legal, political and moral catalyst on their way towards accession to the European Union. This is fully confirmed by the example of the Republic of Croatia.

The establishment of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 (ICTY) and the adoption of its Statute heralded a new page in the history of international, particularly international criminal, law. For the first time since World War II, an international criminal court was established. The Tribunal was created in order to achieve important legal and political goals: to punish perpetrators of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991; to prevent further crimes; to facilitate the peace process; and to serve as a test for a future permanent international criminal court.

IN ENGLISH: Freedom to believe and not to believe is guaranteed by the Croatian Constitution. This paper will consider some cases of positive and negative praxis of respecting/violating of this right at the example of some minority religious communities and irreligious people in Croatia. Paper covers the next main points: religious situation in Croatia, legal framework of the state - Church (religious communities) relationship, examples of respecting religious freedom and examples of violating the right to religious freedom in the state, political and civil society. Conclusions will show that Croatia has developed a model which privileges the Catholic Church, accepts and cooperates with some other traditional religious communities, but occasionally discriminates against some other religion, and people with different religious and irreligious convictions. --- IN CROATIAN: Sloboda vjerovanja i nevjerovanja garantirana je hrvatskim Ustavom. Ovaj rad razmatra primjere pozitivne i negativne prakse poštivanja/kršenja tih prava na primjeru manjih vjerskih zajednica i kategorije nereligioznih ljudi u Hrvatskoj. Rad se bavi sljedećim temama: religijskom situacijom u Hrvatskoj, pravnim okvirom odnosa između države i Crkve (vjerskih zajednica), primjerima poštivanja vjerske slobode i primjerima kršenja prava na vjersku slobodu u državi, političkom i civilnom društvu. Zaključci pokazuju da Hrvatska razvija model koji privilegira Katoličku crkvu, koji prihvaća suradnju s nekim drugim tradicionalnim vjerskim zajednicama, ali povremeno diskriminira neke druge zajednice i ljude s drugačijim religioznim i nereligioznim uvjerenjima.