All News on Social Issues in Croatia

Democracy Digest: Gloom, Doom and Silver Linings

Four out of the five categories that make up the average score deteriorated. Civil liberties: down. Political culture: down. Functioning of government: down. Electoral processes and pluralism: you guessed it.

The only category that registered an uptick was "political participation", reflecting "a rising tide of popular protest" that "shook regimes run by despots and democrats alike".

Serbia Orders Activists to Leave After Confronting ‘Chetniks’

Serbia has ordered three volunteers from a humanitarian NGO called No Name Kitchen, NNK, to leave the country after an altercation at an abandoned factory in Sid, where they confronted members of a nationalist association called Sokoli (The Falcons).

Croatia Commemorates Holocaust amid Divisions over WWII History

Croatia's Anti-Fascist League, which includes some groups of ethnic minorities like Serbs, Jews and Roma, held a commemorative gathering on Sunday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day - one of a series of events held in the country in recent days to commemorate the Holocaust and the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945.

BIRN Fact-check: Has Croatian Unemployment Really Hit Historic Low?

According to official data released this month by Croatia's Bureau of Statistics, unemployment hit an historical low of 5.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2019.

Migrants in Bosnia Find Care between Cold Concrete Walls

Conditions are far from ideal, but for more than 2,000 migrants and refugees in Bosnia the cold concrete walls of a former refrigeration factory is the best they can get, biding their time to cross into Croatia.

Croatia Has Lost Half a Million Workers in Ten Years

Croatia has lost 500,000 workers over the last ten years - from 2008 to 2018. This is what Davorko Vidović claims, counselor for Labour Policy and Employment at CCE.

Human Rights Progress Faltering in South and Central Europe: HRW

The latest report from Human Rights Watch, published on Tuesday evening, says that discrimination and violence against minorities, domestic violence, pressure on media and problems with dealing with the wartime past continued to be major issues for Balkan states and Central Europe last year.

Serbia Faces Yugoslav-Era Debt Repayments for Years to Come

While Croatia and Slovenia have paid off their debts inherited from Yugoslavia, Serbia is still paying. And Belgrade's refusal to recognise Kosovo as independent has only increased its burden.

Bosnia’s Courts Convict More Migrant Smugglers

More than 90 per cent of judgments were pronounced on the basis of plea agreements. Sanctions ranged from conditional sentences to three years in prison. Ancillary penalties of several dozen thousands euros were also imposed and the proceeds of migrant smuggling worth over 10,000 euros were seized, along with several vehicles used to execute the crimes.

Week in Review: The Balkans in 2020

Playing the Identity Card

In 2020, Montenegrin voters will go to the polls to elect a new Parliament and government. Elections must be held by October. Yet they will be closely watched for a number of reasons other than their actual outcome.

Heroes of 2019: People Who Took Action for Positive Change

Adil Amanet and the Husic family. Photo: Klix.ba

In 2019, the migrant crisis hit Bosnia and Herzegovina more severely than it did four years ago when the whole of Europe was dealing with a vast number of people moving towards Western Europe along the so-called Balkan route.

Migrants wander through Bosnia in Balkan winter

Bosnia's notorious Vucjak camp may have closed down after an international outcry, but the plight of migrants stranded in the country while trying to reach Western Europe is far from over.
The tent camp near the northwestern town of Bihac stood on a former landfill and near a minefield, becoming a symbol of migrant suffering as they travel through the Balkans.