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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

sentence for public disorder in March 2016. 

Prior to completing that sentence, he was 

charged with a new offence of undermining 

state security in relation to an attempted 

uprising in Dabou in 2015 and was held 

pending trial at the end of the year.

MUTINIES

At least 10 people were killed and dozens 

wounded in mutinies and clashes between 

the security forces and demobilized soldiers. 

Four people were killed between 12 and 14 

May during a mutiny in Bouaké which spread 

to other cities. It was led by soldiers who had 

been integrated into the army in 2011 and 

were demanding the payment of bonuses. On 

13 May a group of mutineers went to the 

office of “Cellule 39” and shot at them, in 

response to “Cellule 39” condemning the 

munity. Issoufou Diawara was killed after he 

was shot in the back, and several were 

wounded. The violence ended when the 

government agreed to meet the mutineers’ 

payment demands.

On 22 May, four demobilized soldiers were 

killed in clashes with police when they held 

protests calling for an agreement equivalent 

to the one obtained by the mutineers. They 

said they were unarmed when police fired on 

them. (The demobilized soldiers were former 

members of armed groups who fought on the 

side of President Ouattara during the 

2010-2011 election violence.)

There was no indication that suspected 

perpetrators, including security forces, would 

be brought to justice for human rights 

violations by the end of the year.

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

The ICC trial of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles 

Blé Goudé for crimes against humanity, 

including murder and rape during the post-

electoral violence, continued. In July, the ICC 

Appeals Chamber ordered the Trial Chamber 

to review its ruling to deny Laurent Gbagbo’s 

provisional release.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) 

delayed until 2018 the publication of its 

assessment of lasting pollution at the 18 sites 

where 540,000 litres of toxic waste were 

dumped in Abidjan in 2006. The waste had 

been produced by the company Trafigura. 

The authorities had still not assessed the 

long-term health risks to individuals of 

exposure to the chemicals in the waste or 

monitored victims’ health. Compensation 

claims against the company continued 

although many had not received payments.

CROATIA

Republic of Croatia

Head of state: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović

Head of government: Andrej Plenković

Discrimination against ethnic and sexual 

minorities persisted. Refugees and migrants 

entering irregularly were returned without 

access to an effective asylum process. 

Croatia accepted less than a 10th of the 

refugees and asylum-seekers it had 

committed to relocate and resettle under 

EU schemes. Access to abortion remained 

restricted.

CRIMES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Of the over 6,000 people who went missing 

during the 1991-1995 war, the fate and 

whereabouts of more than 1,500 remained 

unclarified. The International Commission on 

Missing Persons reported that Croatia failed 

to make significant steps towards fulfilling the 

rights to truth, justice and reparation for 

victims, including by failing to account for 

over 900 unidentified mortal remains in its 

mortuaries.

DISCRIMINATION

Discrimination against ethnic and sexual 

minorities remained widespread.

Civil society organizations criticized new 

government proposals for a national strategy 

and action plan to fight discrimination that 

were presented in March. The policies 

subsequently adopted by the government in 

December failed to reflect and adequately 

address human rights violations faced by 

Serbs, Roma and sexual minorities.

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In February, the European Court of Human 

Rights found in Škorjanec v. Croatia that the 

authorities had failed to guarantee the 

applicant’s right to be free from torture and 

other inhuman or degrading treatment by 

failing to adequately investigate and 

prosecute the racist motives of the assailants 

who violently attacked and beat the applicant 

and her partner, who is Roma, in 2013.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

Croatia continued to return to Serbia refugees 

and migrants who entered the country 

irregularly, without granting them access to 

an effective asylum process. These push-

backs by police, sometimes from deep inside 

Croatian territory, routinely involved coercion, 

intimidation, confiscation or destruction of 

private valuables and the disproportionate 

use of force by the police.

In July, the Court of Justice of the European 

Union ruled that Croatia had acted against 

the rules of the Dublin Regulation (which 

defines which EU member state has the 

obligation to evaluate the asylum claims) by 

allowing transit for refugees and migrants 

through the country in 2015 without 

examining applications for international 

protection.

The NGOs Are You Syrious and Centre for 

Peace Studies documented that between 

January and April, at least 30 asylum 

applications – including those from families 

with children – had been dismissed on the 

grounds of “security concerns” during a 

routine security check carried out by the 

Security and Intelligence Agency as part of 

the asylum process. The notes of these 

applications were marked as “classified” and 

could not be seen and thus could not be 

rebutted or challenged on appeal by those 

seeking asylum or their legal representatives. 

Cases with classified notes led to an 

automatic rejection by the Ministry of Interior. 

Subsequently, the failed asylum-seekers were 

at risk of expulsion from the country and at 

heightened risk of refoulement – a measure 

forcing an individual to return to a country 

where they would risk serious human rights 

violations.

Unaccompanied minors represented a 

quarter of all asylum-seekers in the country. 

By the end of the year, fewer than 200 

asylum-seekers had been granted 

international protection.

Croatia committed to accept 1,600 refugees 

and asylum-seekers under the EU 

resettlement and relocation schemes by the 

end of the year; by mid-November, fewer 

than 100 people had been relocated, and 

none had been resettled.

In June, amendments introduced to the Law 

on Foreigners forbade the provision of 

assistance in accessing basic needs, such as 

housing, health, sanitation or food, to foreign 

nationals irregularly residing in Croatia, 

except in cases of medical and humanitarian 

emergencies or life-threatening situations.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

The criminal justice system continued to fail 

many victims of domestic abuse by routinely 

treating abuse as a minor offence.

In June, the European Court of Human 

Rights found in Ž.B. v. Croatia that the 

authorities violated the right to respect for 

private and family life of a victim of multiple 

instances of domestic violence. The 

authorities had failed to criminally prosecute 

the alleged perpetrator and establish the 

facts, suggesting that the victim should have 

acted by herself as a subsidiary prosecutor 

and pursued private prosecution.

Croatia had yet to ratify the Council of 

Europe Convention on preventing and 

combating violence against women and 

domestic violence.

RIGHT TO HEALTH

In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on the 

right of everyone to the enjoyment of the 

highest attainable standard of physical and 

mental health noted with concern the 

renewed and pending revision of the 1978 

Act on Health Care Measures for Exercising 

the Right to a Free Decision on Giving Birth, 

which could potentially restrict access to 

abortion. Individual doctors, and in some 

cases health care institutions, continued to 

refuse abortions on grounds of conscience, 

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