Focus Human Rights

Nr. 06 / December 2014

Human Rights paving the way to EU

Duan Gamser

In a post-conflict region such as the Western Balkans (WB), steady and careful monitoring
of the situation regarding human rights is of particular importance. In spite of the humanrights-unfriendly heritage and in spite of other transition problems, the countries of WB are
doing a great deal to improve their human rights record. Yet they are still just around or
slightly above the world average, while lagging far behind the mainstream of the EU.
Throughout the 20th century, the WB region
experienced few periods of stability. Instead, the
states of this region were embroiled in wars,
revolutions, destruction of empires, changing of
borders and a number of war crimes ranging
from ethnic cleansing to genocide. The latest of
those turbulent times, the infamous 1990`s,
witnessed the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia.
During the consequent wars even those small
and shallow, mainly facade, structures responsible for the protection of human rights that had
emerged during few last decades of the Yugoslav socialist model collapsed. Since then, a
prolonged period of simultaneous post-conflict
and post-communist transition has followed,
partially under the auspices of the European
Union.

Even though broadly praised, freedom has largely

been perceived just as the freedom of a certain
ethnicity (or group thereof) from foreign (alien)
domination. The freedom of the individual to
enjoy basic human rights while respecting the
rights of others, as well as to live in an orderly
environment where those rights were protected
by equitably carried and applied laws is still a
new concept. Similarly economic freedom was
never valued highly, since one revolution after
another led to major social turmoil, changing the
social fabric through the massive annihilation of
property rights, forced migrations, or the demise
of old political elites whose place was taken by
new ones who often exercised their power
through rent seeking and implementing new
models of redistribution of wealth.

Democratic traditions in the region are weak.

Even periods of mere electoral democracy have
been shorter than periods of dictatorship or authoritarianism of various types. Rule of law has,
all too often, been regarded as a luxury, even as
an alien concept. Few people regard it as the
main prerequisite necessary to create a decent,
civilised living and working environment based
on the respect of human rights, freedom and
democracy.

In 2013, Croatia became a full member of the

EU. Montenegro and Serbia already started their
accession negotiations. Albania has been granted
candidate status in June 2014. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as well as Kosovo are not even
close to becoming candidate countries.
Ever since its commitment in 2003 to eventually accept all Western Balkans countries as
full members, the European Union has served as

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a powerful magnet for the countries of the region. Through the accession process, they have
implemented a number of reforms which would
otherwise most probably not have been attempted.
Unfortunately to many people in the region, the
EU is still seen as just a rich peoples club. They
regard it as abundant source of donations and
the panacea for all their problems. From such a
perspective, freedom of movement within the EU
is perceived primarily as freedom to migrate to
more developed parts of the EU in search of
better paid jobs (or any jobs at all), or worse, in
search of social welfare benefits. The notion of
the EU as a community of values which has
secured peace among its members for more than
half a century is little understood. Nor is it
clearly understood that economic prosperity and
social stability are also based on a strong respect
for human rights. Therefore, reforms in the accession countries, including those that should
have improved the human rights situation, are
all too often carried out as a sort of homework,
as mere ticking the boxes along the road to the
imagined EU paradise. Once the EU is joined, it is
understood by many as the end of the painful
reforms and a sort of graduation after which
nothing else was left there to be improved anymore.

FNFs annual Freedom Barometer

In 2013, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for

Freedom (FNF) launched a project aimed at evaluating freedom in the five countries of the
Western Balkans encompassed by the activities
of the FNF Office in Belgrade (Croatia, BiH, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania). Macedonia and
Kosovo were not included, for technical reasons,
but they might be at a further stage of the project.

The project titled Freedom Barometer Western

Balkans 2013 has measured, on a scale between
1 (worst) and 10 (best), the respect for human
rights in those five countries. The index was
created by merging the already proven indices
made by other organisation (such as ). At the end
of the day, it showed that the overall human
rights score was the highest in Croatia (6.22),
followed by the one in Montenegro (5.66), while
it was somewhat lower in Albania (5.01), in BiH
(4.89), and in Serbia (4.76).
The respect for various aspects of human rights
is not evenly spread throughout the region. Some
of the five monitored countries have got a remarkable record in certain aspects, while lagging
far behind the remaining four in some other
aspects. Even though as was expected of a
fresh member of the EU Croatia proved to have
the highest average score, there are fields
wherein a lot more is to be done to improve the
record. Likewise, even though lagging behind
Croatia on average, every one of the other four
countries of the region had its moment of glory, namely one or more aspects of human
rights, which it could be proud of and where it
could serve as a role model for all the others.

Croatia
Unlike the war-time early-1990s, Croatia has no
more problems with kidnappings or extrajudicial
killings. Torture or other ill treatment in custody
or prison is rare. Members of the security forces
are well trained in the field of professional conduct and they, generally speaking, respect human rights. Yet, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) still face various unnecessary administrative or other problems upon their
return.
In the field of industrial relations, trade unions
have a bit more space (and influence) than elsewhere in the region. Especially notable is their
presence in media and participation in public
debate. A number of state-supported ombudspersons, as well as numerous civil society organisation (CSOs), monitor the state of human
and civil rights. Their contributions are often
present in media discussions.
Gender rights and freedom of expression are
relatively well protected in Croatia, but minority
rights are still in very bad shape. A notorious
case is the row over the use of Serb Cyrillic alphabet in multiethnic places in eastern Croatia.
During the debate on the implementation of the

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constitutional provisions for the protection of

linguistic minorities (or those who used a different alphabet), the alleged collective guilt of the
Serb minority for the 1991 war was implicitly
invoked. The Croatian political elite is divided on
the issue of the parallel use of a minority alphabet the current centre-left government is
poised to implement the constitutional provisions, while the centre-right and right-wing
opposition groups either oppose it or advocate a
referendum on the issue.
Hate speech including speech targeting ethnic
or other minorities, e.g. meant to offend them
indirectly, or the one invoking parts of WW2
folklore which a majority in Croatia understood
as pro-fascist is still widespread. Furthermore,
hate speech, especially during sporting events, is
all too often treated as socially acceptable behaviour, or at worst as a misdemeanor.

garding extrajudicial killings. Some suspicious

cases have been painstakingly investigated but
so far have not produced any results in terms of
prosecution.
Security forces have recently undergone extensive trainings on human rights sensibilities, yet
their awareness is still insufficient. Ill-treatment
in custody is still quite common.
Freedom of labour associations in Montenegro is
relatively well protected, yet their output is
meager. Working conditions of many are still bad
and there is still discrimination in the workplace.
Political parties control employment, not least in
the public sector, but to a degree also in private
companies run by prominent members affiliated
to political parties. Nepotism, clanship, or even
old-style tribalism is common in various areas of
life.

There was a drop in homophobic violence between 2012 and 2013. Unlike previous years, gay
pride rallies were held relatively peacefully, not
least in the capital Zagreb but also in the third
biggest town Split. However, homophobic speech
witnessed a rebirth during the autumn 2013, in
the wake of the national referendum on the
definition of marriage (where, on 1 December
2013, the majority de facto banned same-sex
marriages and prepared the stage for eventual
legal challenge for future law on same-sex civil
unions).
War crimes prosecution is painstakingly slow,
but in its final results increasingly fruitful. Less
promising has been the treatment of human
rights abuses during communist era. There, impunity still persists. In the notorious case of an
ex-Yugoslav secret police agent indicted for
participation in the assassination of a Croatian
dissident in Germany in 1983, Croatian authorities reacted only when Germany and other EU
countries threatened them with sanctions. They
repealed the previously proclaimed amnesty,
arrested the suspect (as well as his then superior) and extradited the ex-agent to Germany.
Since independence in 1991, there has been
almost no lustration of the secret services cadre
in respect to their human rights abuses prior to
1989 (except lustration, or sometimes selflustration, along ethnic lines).

Montenegro
Montenegro boasts very low levels of disappearances and kidnappings. This is not the case re-

Minority rights are generally poorly protected

(here: Roma children in Belgrade). Flickr / _SiD_
(CC-BY-NC-ND)

The number of women in senior management

positions is low. Women comprise ca. 40% of the
workforce, while just 20% of them are among
managers. In the police forces, there are no
women at all as senior managers. In the entire
Department of Police, among 185 managers,
only 13 are women. Comparably, in Germany
(itself also troubled in that respect), women
share 28% of all managerial positions. In the
USA, they share ca. 40%. Overall, women are
paid less than their male counterparts on the
same work.
The treatment of minorities (the Roma case being especially striking) is very bad. Also, the disabled are insufficiently protected.

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Most political parties practice zealotry and political divisiveness, including at the local level.
Religious dignitaries often join or even champion the hate speech. As for CSOs, some of
them try to act independently, while a number
of them are tied to political parties or to the
governments at various tiers of power. On the
positive side, though, government institutions
themselves respect the freedom of religion,
gathering, association, thought or expression
relatively well.
Government officials sent divergent signals regarding LGBT equality, while Montenegrin society is prevalently (and quite often violently) homophobic. In July 2013, the first Gay Pride Rally
was held in the coastal town of Budva, with a
clear government support and strong police protection, amid counter demonstrations and homophobic riots. In October 2013, another such
rally was held in the capital town Podgorica, this
time with fewer incidents against it.
Lustration of the security services cadre for their
pre-1989 (as well as for their Miloevi-era)
abuses of human rights did not happen, except,
sporadically, when vendettas along political
party or other ideological lines were pursued.

Albania
On average, human security risks are around the
world average. They are low regarding disappearances but high regarding torture or other ill
treatment in custody or in prison, as well as
regarding extrajudicial killings, especially in regard to arbitrary arrest and detention.
There is also a high prevalence of child labour.
Working conditions are poor, while there is a
high level of discrimination in the workplace,
particularly through nepotism or political cronyism. Involuntary labour and human trafficking
are widespread, while the freedom of labour
associations and legal opportunities for collective bargaining are seriously limited.
The implementation of the restitution of private
property collectivized during the communist era
is hindered. Likewise, the process of postcommunist lustration was often misused for
vendetta against political opponents. Generally,
the respect for civil rights is weak.
Freedom of religion is very highly respected and
the level of inter-faith tolerance is admirable.
Ethnic minorities enjoy basic rights. However,

women or some other minorities rights are highly compromised.

While inter-faith and even inter-ethnic tolerance
is a moment of glory for Albania, the treatment
of the members of the LGBT community is a
moment of shame. In spite of the state-of-theart legislation, strong homophobia persists in
Albania and the local LGBT population is not just
discriminated against, but suffers total exclusion
from society. Legislation, which theoretically
protects against discrimination, is a dead letter
that even lawmakers or other state officials do
not take seriously. Violence against members of
the LGBT community is common, while there is
almost no police protection (to the contrary,
sometimes there is a police participation in such
violence). LGBT organisation - even though legal
and properly registered without much red tape
in reality operate underground.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kidnappings and extra-judicial killings are no
longer common in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
However, the respect for human rights shown by
security forces is variable. There are a number of
cases of arbitrary arrest and a prevalence of
torture or ill treatment in custody.
Poor working conditions, trafficking and discrimination in the workplace (political, racial, ethnic
and gender) are the worst problems in the area
of industrial relations, while freedom of collective bargaining is also limited. Discrimination in
employment especially affects Roma and other
non-constituent ethnic minorities, women,
youth, or the middle-aged. In much of the public
sector, but in many crony companies as well,
political opponents receive worst jobs if any at
all.
Minority rights are generally poorly protected,
especially of those who are not members of the
three constituent ethnicities. The infamous
Sejdi & Finci case, whereby those two dignified
intellectuals were by the Constitution denied
the right to compete as candidates for the position of a member of the state Presidency, because they were of Romany or Jewish ethnic
background respectively and not of any one of
the three constituent ethnicities (Bosniak, Serb
or Croat), is actually hindering BiH`s accession to
the EU. Namely, due to inter-entity and other
political disputes, BiH has so far proved unable
to amend its Constitution in accordance with the
(Sejdi-Finci favourable) ruling of the European

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Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Without a

satisfactory constitutional answer to this challenge, BiH will not be able to continue with her
accession to the EU.
Freedom of thought and expression (including
freedom of the press) in BiH is limited, while
freedom of religion is particularly restricted for
those living outside their own ethno-religious
neighbourhood. There is a widespread discrimination against the Roma, including in their access to civil registry. Refugees and IDPs often
face un-reasonable administrative and/or political obstacles, or selective justice.
Women rights are protected considerably less
than mens and their salaries are, comparatively,
considerably lower. Homophobia is strong: LGBT
events, even when indoors, are often an occasion
for violent counter-events, riots, or at least insults and threats.
Hate speech and impunity for war crimes are a
part of everyday life. Many serious offenders use
to live (often as mid-level state or local government officials, or other honourable citizens)
side by side with their former victims, whom
they tortured, raped, harassed - or whose relatives they killed during the war in 1990`s. The
authorities of a BiH`s entity Republic of Srpska
did not accept the rulings of the institutions of
international justice in as far as the crimes in
Srebrenica were described as genocide. Numerous authorities throughout BiH, at various tiers
of government deny one or another aspect of
the war crimes of the 1990s. Hate speech and
war crimes denial overwhelm the school curricula, which is anyway heavily contested along
ethno-political lines.
On the other hand, human rights NGOs or other
freedom defenders enjoy relatively acceptable
treatment, which is perhaps due just to the massive presence of international community. Their
cooperation with likeminded NGOs in the neighboring countries of the region is on the rise, both
in size and in quality. Overall, it is human rights
NGOs in BiH that do most of the work on the
post-war reconciliation, both within the BiH and
across her borders.

Serbia
In Serbia, the risk of kidnapping, unlawful killing
or disappearance is low, which is a remarkable
improvement as compared to 1990s or to the
immediate post-2000 period. Attempts are made
to overcome the omerta within the security sec-

tor regarding the assassinations of journalists

during that era. For that purpose, a truth commission of a sort was established. However, so
far, those crimes were explained partially at
best, while in some cases not at all.

LGBT populations situation needs to be improved

swiftly. Flickr / Goran Zec (CC-BY-SA)

Arbitrary arrests are still a huge problem in Serbia. Whereas the judiciary is in a catastrophic
shape (slow, inefficient, biased, corrupted) and
the lack of rule of law is undoubtedly the single
gravest obstacle to freedom, it has been hard to
even tell which particular arrests were really
arbitrary and who was to blame for keeping in
custody people who were later acquitted (some
of them, seemingly also arbitrarily, even compensated). Besides, there are numerous cases of
torture or other ill treatment in custody.
Treatment of refugees and IDPs is poor. Roma,
LGBTs or members of small or new religious
communities are also treated unequally in many
aspects.
Unequal treatment of small especially those
non-traditional religious communities owes
not least to the biased implementation of laws
but is embedded in the very legislation. Political
considerations matter regarding registration of
religious communities and the disputes thereof,
which is demonstrated through government
measures which are catalyzing the divide within
the Islamic Community in Serbia (by favouring
just one side in the dispute), as well as through
discrimination (or even non-acceptance) of the
subsidiaries of foreign Orthodox Christian
churches in Serbia (such as Romanian, not even
to mention the non-canonical Macedonian or
Montenegrin ones).
Year upon year (except in 2010), the Belgrade
Gay Pride Parade has been banned, or ordered to
be kept indoors, for security reasons. Thereafter,
the real or alleged security threats to the event
were never fully explained, nor were they dealt
with by the police or by other security structures.

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Hate speech and vandalism against minority

groups or human rights watchdogs is common.
The victims rarely enjoyed adequate support by
government officials. Thus the message has been
conveyed that while the government may say
that such attacks were unacceptable, their protests were mere lip-service.
Prosecution of war criminals is continuing, albeit
slowly, and with subtle sabotage on each and
every step. Insider witnesses who agree to testify
face threats. The law on lustration for human
rights abuse during previous (communist or nationalist) autocratic regimes (all those after
1976) expired in 2013, without any attempts at
its implementation. Anyway, lustration is, at
best, limited to prosecuting (some of) the worst
war criminals of the late 1990s. Lustration for
the pre-1989 abuse of human rights is simply a
non-issue, for the vast majority of people, nationalist or cosmopolitan oriented alike.
There is a high level of discrimination in employment: against women, certain age groups
(under 25 or over 50) and ethnic minorities. Political partisanship also plays a major part in
filling public sector jobs, in particular at the
local level. Trade union activities are scarce in
the private sector, while politicized and overinflated in the public sector.
Restitution of the private property nationalized
after 1945 is lagging behind the overall process
of transition. Following the package of laws on
property issues passed in 2011, restitution had
kick started smoothly during 2012, but it slowed
down during 2013. There are signs that some
local governments are trying to sabotage/delay
the process.
During the last couple of years, breakthroughs in
fighting domestic violence have been made,
mostly due to civil society efforts. Safe houses
were built for the victims, mainly women, initially through private philanthropy, encouraged
by independent media and NGOs. Meanwhile,
the intense campaigning for the establishment
of safe houses has turned the entire social climate upside down and produced a brand new
sensitivity and dynamics regarding treatment of
domestic violence. This has encouraged many
politicians in local governments to join in, and
co-finance safe houses from the local budgets,
and to change the regulation and procedures
regarding the treatment of domestic violence.

On the other hand, human trafficking of all kinds

and child labour, including misuse of children for
illicit activities, still remain as a very serious
issue. Serbia is a domicile, a destination and a
transit country for various human traffickers. It
is also a domicile country of a number of
mainly fake asylum seekers to the EU, which
neither the affected EU countries nor Serbia
herself so far know how to curtail. At the same
time, the attitude of ordinary people towards
genuine asylum seekers, e.g. those coming to
Serbia from north or north-east African countries, is shameful. In many places, demonstrations were held against sheltering refugees in
local communities.
On one hand, the astonishingly rapid switch
from a patriarchate notion where beating women was a male right to the notion that domestic
violence was utterly un-acceptable and that all
such perpetrators should be jailed was a moment
of glory for Serbia. On the other hand, the
treatment of Somali or other asylum seekers by
people on the ground who were supposed to
welcome and accept them as their temporary
neighbors - was undoubtedly a moment of
shame.

Immediate expectations by the EU

In its annual progress reports, the European
Commission analyzed among other EUaccession-relevant fields of life the human
rights situation in Montenegro, Serbia, Albania
and BiH. The EUs annual reports have been an
important guideline for the governments of the
region as well as for political parties or CSOs on
what to focus on and what to improve in the
immediate future period.
The Montenegro Progress Reports concentrated
on the problems of vulnerable groups (especially
in the judicial process), on the conditions in
prisons and on advancement of the position of
RAE (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian) population as
the most endangered ethnic minorities. It was
noted that homophobia was still strong, despite
government engagement, and that more protection of the activists was needed.
In the Serbia Progress Reports, the focus was on
media freedom and on minority rights. It was
noted that a commission had been appointed to
have investigated assassinations of journalists,
but to no immediate avail. Other major problems
mentioned were the lack of transparency of
ownership in media, as well as misuse of tabloid

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press by the parts of the government for the sake

of power struggle between coalition partners, or
even more often, and worse, for derogation of
the opposition parties or independent regulatory
institutions. As for LGBTs, minorities or other
vulnerable groups, including media and human
rights defenders, the EC asked for more attention
to their protection, especially in cases when the
attacks or threats are coming from extremist
groups.

Accession to the EU has helped to implement a

number of reforms. Flickr / Dennis Jarvis (CC-BY-SA)

According to the reports on Albania, the country

has made some breakthroughs regarding antidiscrimination and freedom of electronic media,
but there is a lot more to be done. Especially
urgent tasks for the government have been the
implementation of the recently adopted antidiscrimination strategies and legislation. That
goes for LGBT population, as well as for Roma,
whose position needs to be improved swiftly. In
the field of economic and social rights, the EC
stressed the need to improve the position of
people with disabilities and children at risk, as
well as to better tackle the issues of the restitution of property, compensation and illegal construction (the last is also to do with fighting
corruption).
As for BiH, an extensive passage of its 2013
Progress Report dealt with human rights. There
was progress noted in many fields, yet many
tasks still awaited implementation. First and
foremost, the EC reminded that BiH had still to
ban the death penalty. Even though BiH has
been de facto abolitionist country regarding

death penalty, the penalty was still there in the

penal code of its entity Republic of Srpska. The
same entity was warned of the ill treatment of
prisoners in custody (including in the police stations in the entity capital Banja Luka), while
another entity, FBiH, was encouraged to further
diminish the backlog in execution of criminal
sanctions due to overcrowding of prisons. Regarding freedom of expression, various measures
are expected in respect to electronic media:
political, institutional and financial independence of the Communication Regulatory Agency
needs to be enhanced, while the three BiH`s
public broadcasters should have their independent position secured vis-a-vis executive power.
Access of citizens to information should be improved. In many areas, there should be more
inter-entity harmonization of the laws relevant
for the protection of human rights. Likewise,
segregation in some schools according to ethnicity (two schools under the same roof) and a
country-wide practice of mono-ethnic schools
were marked as obstacles to the development of
an inclusive multi-cultural society. Aside of that,
BiH should do more for the implementation of
the legally stipulated children`s rights, for the
protection of socially vulnerable and/or people
with disabilities and for the implementation of
the anti-discrimination rules regarding LGBT
population. Among ethnic minorities, the Roma
are by far the first ones to need considerably
better protection.

Conclusion and recommendations

In spite of the human-rights-unfriendly heritage
and in spite of their own existing misconceptions
or other transition problems, the countries of
Western Balkans are doing a great deal to improve their human rights record. Yet they are still
just around or slightly above the world average, while lagging far behind the mainstream of
the EU. Even Croatia as the most advanced
among them faces occasional backlashes in
some fields.
On the other hand, even the least successful
among them managed to make breakthroughs in
certain fields, of which they should be proud. In
this regard, the Western Balkan countries might
learn one from another, without conceit, envy or
self-overestimation, the same way they are
learning from the EU. The latter, as a powerful
magnet, should continue to exercise its influence. It should concentrate on the implementation of the laws that advanced human rights,
institution-building and promoting and anchor-

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ing of the European values in Western Balkans. It

should furthermore set a good example, via EU
institutions as well as via conduct of the (old
and new) member states.
Domestic, regional or EU-based NGOs have
played an important role in the process. As for
the FNF, its Freedom Barometer will continue to
monitor the human rights situation in the countries of the region, along with monitoring other,
interconnected aspects of freedom such as the
rule of law, political freedom, or economic freedom. The German liberal political foundation FNF
could help in a number of other ways too
politicians and opinion leaders in the Western
Balkans countries to improve their respective
human rights record.
During the last two decades, a great deal of
political know-how has been transferred to liberal and other democratic politicians in the region, from the field of local governance to the

one of policy making at the highest levels of

power. This process is resuming. Liberal politicians should be encouraged to make a bolder,
more pragmatic use of all those knowledge, skills
and experience, in cooperation with other forces
on the political stage that could have made a
positive difference. It is liberals who should, in
broader coalitions, be guardians of human rights.
They can and should reshape, redesign and repaint coalition policies in the direction of the
stricter respect for human rights, individual freedom, civil liberties, rule of law and other liberal
values. Organisations such as FNF have a huge
advantage of being present both in the developed democracies of the EU such as Germany
and in the developing ones such as those in
Western Balkans. They know a great deal about
ups and downs of liberal policies, in both places.
No one could facilitate the exchange of such
liberal experience better than them.

FREEDOM BAROMETER WESTERN BALKANS was established in 2013 as an offspring of FNFs FREEDOM
BAROMETER SOUTH EAST AND EAST ASIA. It measures freedom in Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia,
Montenegro and Albania (and since 2014 also in Greece and Bulgaria). In contrast to most other
indices, this project is not limited to one aspect of freedom be it political or economic. Instead,
the FREEDOM BAROMETER tries to combine the most significant elements of economic, civil, and
political freedom and assess them from a specifically liberal perspective.
For a detailed in-depth analysis you can browse the results and download our reports from the
website www.freedombarometer.org.

The author, Duan Gamser, is a consultant

from Belgrade, Serbia, and a member of the
FNF Freedom Barometer Western Balkans
team.

Imprint
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
International Politics
Asia and Human Rights Department
Karl-Marx-Strae 2
D-14482 Potsdam Germany
humanrights@freiheit.org
www.freiheit.org

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