Law on Legal Assistance Deprives Citizens of their Rights and Pushes NGOs to the Margins

26 July 2007

A coalition of more than 20 NGOs came out yesterday, July 25, 2007, to express its opposition to the Draft-Law on the Right to Legal Assistance, i.e. its First Reading adopted recently in the Croatian Sabor (the parliament).

They oppose the fact that the Draft denies the citizens in the lower income groups from access to adequate and timely legal assistance and the fact that it is in collision with the Constitutional principle for equal access to the courts. At the same time, it prevents the non-governmental organizations to provide legal assistance and introduce the conditions for a monopolistic position for barristers.

Ariana Vela from GONG emphasizes that the Law is opposed to the constitutional principle of equal access to the courts of law, for it provides for a narrow circle of legal matters for which free legal assistance may be approved, thus discriminating against the citizens and creating a monopoly for the barristers in all other matters. Furthermore, the socially disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens won�t be able to get legal assistance on a majority of matters, since the Draft restricts the circle of people that are entitled to it, due to unclear criteria for determination of the economic status of the citizens.

Associations are very much irritated by the fact that the Law minimizes their well-established practice and role in provision of legal assistance (so far, they have offered legal assistance in more than 100,000 cases). The Law, they say, disregards and neglects the culture of civic action for common good and human rights. They consider the proposed provisions that would allow them advisory role in front of administrative bodies and not in courts, an attempt to marginalize their work.

Ljubica Matijevic Vrsaljko from B.a.B.e. warns that, should the Sabor adopt this Draft, the ill, poor, socially vulnerable groups would lose the opportunity to get legal asistance. Neva Tolle from the Autonomous Women�s House Zagreb especially warned about the situation of victims of domestic violence. She emphasizes that, in the last two and a half years, the association provided legal assistance to 498 women, while the Draft prescribes that associations cannot file lawsuits, appeal decisions, take care of alimony payments, file charges and seek protective measures.

They are determined to continue to provide legal assistance as usual, in spite of the Law and the possibility for criminal prosecution. Nonetheless, the associations demand that the Draft is revoked from procedure, set-up of a new working group and true public debate on the Law, in order to secure that the citizens will enjoy their rights as guaranteed by the international conventions and the Constitution.

The Coalition includes: SMART; CESI; GONG; Serb Democratic Forum; O-Zone; Centre for Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights Osijek; Izvor; Autonomour Women�s House Zagreb; Zelena akcija; OGI; CMS; B.a.B.e.; HHO; Centre for Peace, Legal Counsel and Psychosocial Assistance � Vukovar; Karlovac Human Rights Committee; Dalmatia Solidarity Committee; Organization for Civic Initiatives; Human Rights Project � Sisak; Osijek Coalition for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights; Croatian Women�s Network; Rosa Centre for Women Victims of War.