LGBT Rights in Croatia - Discrimination Issues

Discrimination Issues

The 2008 Anti-Discrimination Law includes sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as prohibited bases for discrimination in access to public and private services and to establishments serving the public.

Other anti-discrimination directives are included in many acts since 2003:

• Penal Code (includes hate crime legislation and "racial and other discrimination")
• Gender Equality Law
• Criminal Procedure Law
• Law on Science and Higher Studies
• Media Law
• Electronic Media Law (anti-discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression)
• Law on Same-sex Relationships
• Labour Code
• Sport Law
• Asylum Law
• The Law on volunteering (anti-discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression)

In 2009, the European Committee on Social Rights found several statements in a Croatian mandatory Biology course textbook, including that “Many individuals are prone to sexual relations with persons of the same sex (..). It is believed that parents are to blame because they impede their children’s correct sexual development with their irregularities in family relations. Nowadays it has become evident that homosexual relations are the main culprit for increased spreading of sexually transmitted diseases (e.g. AIDS)”, or “The disease has spread amongst promiscuous groups of people who often change their sexual partners. Such people are homosexuals because of sexual contacts with numerous partners, drug addicts (..) and prostitutes” to be discriminatory and in violation of Croatia's obligations under the European Social Charter.

In November 2010 the European Commission's annual progress report on Croatia's candidacy stated that that Croatia's numerous homophobic incidents are worrying since inquisitions need to make further efforts in combating hate crimes. The European Parliament, as stands in its 2010 resolution, expressed "its concern at the resentment against the LGBT minority in Croatia, evidenced most recently by homophobic attacks on participants in the LGBT Pride parade in Zagreb; urges the Croatian authorities to condemn and prosecute political hatred and violence against any minority; invites the Croatian Government to implement and enforce the Anti-Discrimination Law”.