Situation of the Roma

The most important legal document that defines not only the Roma but all national minorities in Croatia is the Croatian Constitution. The Constitution defines 22 national minorities in Croatia. The Republic of Croatia guarantees special rights and freedoms to national minorities which they enjoy individually or together with other persons belonging to the same national minority, on the basis of the Constitutional Law on National Minorities. The most important rights that the Constitution provides are as follows:

 

• Own language and letter
• Education in own language and letter
• Culture autonomy
• Religion freedom
• Representation in Croatian parliament and other governmental institutions. 

 

Official Roma flag: blue represents the sky, green represents the ground and the wheel represents the migrating nature of the Roma nation.

 

The Croatian Government adopted the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion, for the period from 2013 to 2020. The strategy is in line with the identified needs and challenges related to social inclusion of the Roma at all levels: local, regional, national and EU. The strategy contains general and specific objectives set as guidelines for policy-oriented socio-economic inclusion of Roma communities by 2020. In order to define the ways of implementation of the Strategy, the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy was made.

 

References:

HRVATIĆ, N. i IVANČIĆ, S. (2000). »Povijesno-socijalna obilježja Roma u Hrvatskoj«,
Društvena istraživanja, Zagreb, god. 9, br. 2-3(46-47), str. 251–266.

ŠTAMBUK, M. (2000). »Romi u Hrvatskoj devedesetih«, Društvena istraživanja, Zagreb, god.
9, br. 2-3(46-47), str. 291–315.