World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIACroatiaThe election in January of a new president pledging to promote human rights, andthe opening of a crucial chapter on European Union membership talks in June,put human rights on the agenda in Croatia. But the gap between commitmentsand progress remained. There was little movement towards deinstitutionalizingpersons with intellectual or mental disabilities, and questions about access overshadoweda long-awaited program to benefit Serb former tenancy rights holders.In absentia trials and concerns over fairness undercut domestic war crimes prosecutions,and the EU called into question Croatia’s commitment to freedom ofexpression and information.Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesMore than 9,000 persons with intellectual or mental disabilities remained in institutionsas of September, with numbers rising. A master plan for deinstitutionalizationand extensive social welfare reforms, both expected in 2010, have yet tobe published at this writing. There were also few advances in creating communitybasedhousing and support programs, such as personal assistants and other helpwith daily activities that would allow people to leave institutions.There was no progress in reforming the legal capacity system, which routinelyresults in persons with intellectual or mental disabilities being denied the abilityto make decisions and exercise rights, contributing to their institutionalization.In September the State Attorney’s Office in Rijeka brought criminal chargesagainst the former director of Lopaca Psychiatric Hospital for 2008 abusesagainst Ana Dragicevic, who was forcibly institutionalized because of her sexualorientation, and four other unnamed patients.The Croatian government and parliament again failed to amend the officialCroatian translation of article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities, which erroneously allows confinement in a residential institution tobe categorized as a “community living option.”415