Croatian Helsinki Committee

Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (CHC; Croatian: Hrvatski helsinški odbor, HHO) is the leading organisation for protection and promotion of human rights in Croatia. Founded on March 31, 1993 (first as a branch of the International Helsinki Federation, and since April 14 2003 as a local NGO under Croatian law) by independent intellectuals, artists, lawyers, journalists committed to protection and promotion of human rights.

Contents

Goals

It has been dedicated to the following goals:

CHC provides assistance in an average of 1200-2000 cases of violation of human rights each year, involving up to 5000 persons.

The organisation has continuously informed the public about human rights issues and has been initiating debates about systemic causes of the gravest problems; thereby it has a certain impact on systemic improvements.

Members and employees

Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights is the association of up to 30 members committed to protection and promotion of human rights.[1] Its professional office involves 10 employees. Membership in the organisation and paid work are strictly separated; the members (including the Chairman, lawyers etc.) work on a strictly voluntary basis, and the employees are not members of the association. Thereby the organisation secures adherence to its main mission and prevents shift of goals towards shorter-term or narrower interests.

Membership and cooperation

Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights cooperates with similar organisations in the region of South-Eastern Europe (other post-Yugoslav countries, but also Albania, Greece, etc.), as well as throughout Europe.

Field offices

Besides the central office in Zagreb CHC also keeps four field offices (Slavonia /Osijek, Vukovar/; Karlovac; Knin, Split; Dubrovnik), by which it ensures coverage of the most critical areas of the country, notably the areas that were directly affected by the war 1991-1995. CHC is a member of the International Helsinki Federation, the Human Rights House Network, and the Balkan Human Rights Network; it cooperates with Croatian judiciary, public administration and other relevant institutions, both in dealing with cases of violations of human rights and in developing new systemic solutions.

Results

In June 2006 CHC was selected by the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia as the National Focal Point for Croatia, on the basis of its involvement in monitoring and protection of human rights, particularly ethnic minorities.

Controversy

On 23 November, 2007 Ivo Banac became the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee [2]. During next 13 months he was involved in a financial scandal [3] and 11 members left the Croatian Helsinki Committee because of things not related with that scandal. Between the dissenters there were the long time Croatian Helsinki Committee president Žarko Puhovski, vice presidents Veljko Miljević and Zdravko Bazdan and executive direktor Goranka Lalić.[4]

On 21 November, 2009, Ivan Zvonimir Čičak became the president of the CHC.[5]

Presidents

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Ustrojstvo i članstvo" (in Croatian). HHO official web site. Croatian Helsinki Committee. January 2, 2009. http://www.hho.hr/ustrojstvo-i-clanstvo-1. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 
  2. ^ Ivo Banac novi predsjednik HHO-a
  3. ^ Ivo Banac sam sebi iznajmio stan
  4. ^ Quo Vadis HHO , published in Novi List of 13 December 2008, page 6
  5. ^ "Ivan Zvonimir Čičak ponovno postao predsjednik HHO-a" (in Croatian). Večernji list. 2009-11-21. http://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/ivan-zvonimir-cicak-ponovno-postao-predsjednik-hho-a-clanak-54362. Retrieved 2010-10-11. 

External links