TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

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in other countries . The biggest priority facing the country was the reform ofthe justice system in preparation for membership of the E .U .There is a huge backlog of cases before the courts, currently 1'/z million casesare waiting to be heard and another 2 million are to be filed this year, totalling3'/2 million . It was proving difficult to find a model or formula to speed up thesystem . Civil cases are the biggest problem, and so is re-organising thejustice system and finding ways to encourage judges to work more than fourto five hours a day . One measure being adopted to redress the problem wasthe development of a justice academy to train more judges .A Mediation policy is being developed this year even though it has nottraditionally been practiced as part of their system . The major issuesconfronting the criminal justice system are human trafficking, illegalimmigration and prostitution .In the old communist system being a judge was not considered to be a careerwith a high status and not suited for an ambitious person as they weregenerally told what to do . The image of the Judicial System was still not gooddue to the huge backlog of cases and land register problems . When Croatiabecame independent, there was a backlog of about 800,000 cases which hadnow increased to 1'%million . Finland, Austria and the US are involved inhelping resolve these problems . Finland is assisting them to create anIntegrated Court Management system while Austria is helping with theresolution of the land register problem, which will require the establishment ofan entirely new land register. The US is assisting in the Alternative DisputeResolution/Mediation project . Experts from Germany are providing theexpertise to set up the Justice Academy which should be operating from 1January 2005In relation to the crime rate Croatia does not have many prisoners . There areseveral categories of labour prisons where the prisoners work on farms andgo home on weekends or work and then spend time in the prison in theevenings . A very productive furniture factory which last year earned the State50 million krona is run using prison labour .Prisoners are paid about 50% less than the normal salary . In many cases,this type of rehabilitation works better than having prisoners in closed prisons .A rehabilitation approach has been pursued since the early 90s and theprograms are well resourced to the ratio of one worker for every four to fiveprisoners .We were told that Croatia is keen to change the judicial system to reflect thecommon law tradition . The Hague Tribunal was set up as a result of the warand a lot of interventions were made to accommodate The Haguerequirements in order to get some of the cases back to Croatia . The reasonfor wanting to bring those trials back to Croatia is because The Hague intendsto operate until 2010 but has no exit strategy .Travel Report, Hon . Michael Atkinson, M.P. and Ms . Vini Ciccarello MP., August, 2004 44
If the Croatian system is not up to scratch the cases will need to go to thirdcountries . Seminars with The Hague tribunal have been conducted forCroatia . The common law rules of evidence have been incorporated into thecriminal code but the crucial and sensitive decision for Croatia is whether toget rid of investigating judges .A significant problem facing the country remained the increase in organisedcrime .Travel Report, Hon. Michael Atkinson, M.P . and Ms. Vini Ciccarello M.P ., August, 2004 45
Page 1 and 2: SUPPORT SERVICES OFFICE- 9 FEB 2005
Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTIONThe Hon . Michael Atkin
Page 5 and 6: SLOVENIAGeneral backgroundSlovenia
Page 7 and 8: President, Milan Kucan, who was Pre
Page 9 and 10: when plans for the partial privatis
Page 11 and 12: founded a Slovenian language school
Page 13 and 14: Monday, 2nd August, 2004Mr Samuel Z
Page 15 and 16: cultural exhibitions play a signifi
Page 17 and 18: The Attorney-General reported on on
Page 19 and 20: acquis communautaire and those form
Page 21 and 22: Immigration is not a contentious po
Page 23 and 24: Monday, 2nd August, 2004Mr Igor Ome
Page 25 and 26: The State has adopted a number of s
Page 27 and 28: We learnt that there are 193 Munici
Page 29 and 30: CROATIAGeneral backgroundCroatia ex
Page 31 and 32: judicial system and progress human
Page 33 and 34: Economic OverviewBefore independenc
Page 35 and 36: CROATIANS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIADemogra
Page 37 and 38: CROATIA PROGRAMWednesday 4th August
Page 39 and 40: more common, the Government has not
Page 41 and 42: About 90 per cent of all the financ
Page 43: 2003 President of the Democratic Ce
Page 47 and 48: " Centre for Communication" Forensi
Page 49 and 50: There is great co-operation in figh
Page 51 and 52: Wednesday 4th August, 2004.Mr Domag
Page 53 and 54: Wednesday 4th August, 2004 .Mr Mila
Page 55 and 56: Thursday 5th August, 2004 .Mr Valer
Page 57 and 58: Mr Florean said that the defence ba
Page 59 and 60: So far, there have been no proceedi
Page 61 and 62: officers and a further 12 Croatian
Page 63 and 64: 1993 - 2001 Member of H .D .Z . Cou
Page 65 and 66: eal opportunity to achieve a synerg
Page 67 and 68: BiH is moving slowly towards becomi
Page 69 and 70: oversees the R .S .s first multi-et
Page 71 and 72: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA PROGRAMTuesday,
Page 73 and 74: Karadjic and Mladic .tried for thei
Page 75 and 76: With support and help, the Dayton A
Page 77 and 78: Tuesday, 9 August, 2004Dr Sano Vlas
Page 79 and 80: Wednesday, 11 August, 2004The party
Page 81 and 82: create better conditions .suggestio
Page 83 and 84: within Administration . The demogra
Page 85 and 86: Australia formally recognised the s
Page 87 and 88: Foreign Affairs and Defence have De
Page 89 and 90: anking sector; adoption of new laws
Page 91 and 92: THE SERBIAN COMMUNITY IN SOUTH AUST
Page 93 and 94: The main problem facing the country
Page 95 and 96:
funding constraints they are primar
Page 97 and 98:
His Holiness has published Devich,
Page 99 and 100:
Tuesday, 17 August, 2004Mr Vojislav
Page 101 and 102:
Ms Radmila HrustanovicBelgrade Mayo
Page 103 and 104:
The Mayor felt that everyone had to
Page 105 and 106:
they have free time until 5 .00 p.m
Page 107 and 108:
they have to accept that competitio
Page 109 and 110:
international law and specifically,
Page 111 and 112:
Thursday, 19 August, 2004Mr Aleksan
Page 113 and 114:
Summary of report and recommendatio
Page 115 and 116:
MEDIA - AustraliaSlovenia Programme
Page 117 and 118:
Croatian Program, 5EBI FMAtkinson's
Page 119 and 120:
Bosnian Program, 5EB1 FMAtkinson's
Page 121 and 122:
Malaysian Government and is now ope
Page 123 and 124:
Serbian Program, 5EB1 FMMichael Atk
Page 125 and 126:
Milosh water originates from . . .
Page 127 and 128:
Media - BiHDelegation from South Au
Page 129 and 130:
Wednesday, 11 .8 .2004 Sarajevo Mor
Page 131 and 132:
LIBERATION (OSLOBODENJE) Wednesday,
Page 133 and 134:
Friday, 13 .August, 2004 .BANJA LUK
Page 135 and 136:
Sarajevo, 10.8.2004 .Public announc
Page 137 and 138:
Serbia and Montenegro were still de
Page 139 and 140:
AppendixDocuments ObtainedInformati
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TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

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