The 2017 annual report of the Human Rights House Zagreb is based on a year of monitoring and 60 interviews with individuals from 46 civil society organizations and members of the academic community. Although comprehensive, the report does not intend to claim that it covers all violations and human rights problems in 2017.

Although the rapid regression of human rights standards that Croatia witnessed during the illiberal rule of the "Patriotic coalition" has stopped, in 2017 there was no significant progress that would reverse the negative trend of social relativization and political marginalization of human rights.

Conflict hampers rights protection

The state of the economy, burdened with numerous structural problems and stagnation of socio-economic opportunities, makes it difficult to realize the social and economic rights of all citizens. Young people and vulnerable groups are particularly affected. In this context, social opportunities are often used as a way to facilitate the strengthening of social groups that call for return to traditional values and systematically distort and abuse the language and human rights standards to limit the rights of others and different.

Political relations are also burdened by the conflict of conservative and liberal values. This conflict within the parliamentary majority has served to paralyze the formulation and implementation of public policies aimed at protecting and promoting human rights.

The stated social, economic and political tendencies, with emphasis on a low level of political motivation for resolving accumulated problems, the relativization of human rights and the low level of civic competencies, represent a long-term challenge to the sustainable democratic development of Croatian society based on respect, protection and the promotion of human rights.

The annual report Human rights in Croatia: 2017 overview.