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Democracy and Minority Rights: Religious Minorities in the Croatian Law and Practice

War conflicts that happened on the territory of former Yugoslavia in 1990s have been unimaginable for Europe after the World War II. The roots of those conflicts have been connected largely to the religious differences and intolerance whereby the religion has been equalized with the nation. Even tough religious tensions continue to be present in neighboring countries, the situation in Croatia has been gradually improving since the end of the War (1991-1995). One of the causes of the conflict is most certainly a non-democratic communistic regime under which constituent peoples and minorities in former Yugoslavia had lived for decades. Frustrations and dissatisfaction, wrong national politics, suppression of national feelings had erupted in the bloody fratricidal War of 1990s. Although those 1990s have brought the freedom from the totalitarian regime, it is still a long road to the democracy, rule of law and achievement of the basic human rights. Croatia is a country in transition towards the democracy. It is a widely accepted belief that a degree to which one state respects international norms of protecting human rights, as well as the rights of minorities, determines how much that state is democratic. Almost all states in the world have minorities, and the majority of those minorities represents precisely those which differ from the majority of the population by their religion and religious believes. The relation of majority towards the minority in terms of the respect and tolerance towards members of other people, nations, ethnic groups and minorities are the foundations of one democratic society. The processes of reconciliation, cross-religious tolerance, invitation to co-existence and renewal of trust among religious communities in multi-confessional environment have ultimately become a priority for the majority of religious communities. This paper will analyze the legislative practice of the Republic of Croatia and the efforts done to implement international and national regulations of protecting religious minorities. The special attention will be given to the question of a level (degree) that Croatian society has reached in achieving tolerance and dialogue among religious communities in the post-war period.

human rights; minority rights; international law; religious minorities; Republic of Croatia

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