IV        Implementation of the articles of the Convention

IV.VIII

Article 10

1. The Parties undertake to recognise that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing.

2. In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if those persons so request and where such a request corresponds to a real need, the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as possible, the conditions which would make it possible to use the minority language in relations between those persons and the administrative authorities.

3. The Parties undertake to guarantee the right of every person belonging to a national minority to be informed promptly, in a language which he or she understands, of the reasons for his or her arrest, and of the nature and cause of any accusation against him or her, and to defend himself or herself in this language, if necessary with the free assistance of an interpreter.

National legislation (Pursuant to the Article 10 of the FCNM):

The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia

Article 12 (see under Item IV.III National legislation); Article 15 (see under Item IV.II National legislation)

Article 29

(1) Everyone shall have the right to the independent and fair trial provided by law which shall, within a reasonable term, decide upon his rights and obligations, or upon the suspicion or the charge of a penal offence.

(2) In the case of suspicion or accusation for a penal offence, the suspected, accused or prosecuted person shall have the right:
- to be informed in detail, and in the language he understands, within the shortest possible term, of the nature and reasons for the charges against him and of the evidence incriminating him,…

Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities

Articles 10,  12, 13 (see under Item IV.III National legislation)

The Law on the Use of the Language and Script of Ethnic Minorities in the Republic of Croatia

The Law on Criminal Procedure – Final Draft (NN.62/03)

Article 7.

(1) Croatian language and Latin script shall be used in criminal proceedings unless second language or scripts are officially introduced in particular court areas.

(2) Parties, witnesses and other participants in the process are entitled to use their own language. In case the proceedings are not run in the language of this particular person, oral translation of what that person or the others say as well as the translation of related documents and any other written evidence shall be ensured. The interpreter shall translate.   

(3) Prior to his or her first move, the person mentioned in paragraph 2 of this Article who may also decline to use this right in case he or she knows the language in which the proceedings are run, shall be informed on his or her right to translation. Information and the statement by the person in question shall be noted in the minutes of the proceeding.

(4) Court summons and decisions shall be written in Croatian language and Latin script. Lawsuits, appeals and all other court depositions shall be submitted in Croatian language and Latin script. In case second language or script were officially introduced in certain court area of responsibility, court depositions may be submitted to the court also in that language or script. After the court hearing has already started, person submitting the court deposition can no longer, without the court permission, recall his or her decision on the language he or she would use in the court process. 

(5) Arrestee, defendant, under detention as well as the person serving time shall be delivered the translation of court summons, decisions and court depositions in the language he or she uses in the court process.

(6) Foreigner under detention may submit the court depositions in the court hearing in his of her own language, and prior and upon that only in case of reciprocity.

Law on Civil Procedure

Article 105.

(1) The use of the language and script of national minorities in civil procedures shall be regulated by a special law.

(2) Expenses of translation into the languages of respective national minority resulting from the implementation of the provisions of the Constitution and other laws regulating linguistic rights of persons belonging to national minorities shall be covered by the court budget.

Law on General Administrative procedure

(1) Administrative procedures shall be conducted in the official language and script of the respective administrative body.

(2) Persons belonging to any nation or minority shall be guarantied the freedom to use their own language and script in administrative procedures under conditions regulated by special laws.

Comments on the implementation of the Article 10 of the FCNM:

- The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia provides for the free use of own language and script and cultural autonomy and also stipulates that in some units of local self-government, besides the Croatian language and Latin script, second language and Cyrillic or any other script can be officially introduced under the conditions stipulated by the law. 

The Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities provides for the exercise of the right to equal official use of the language and script used by persons belonging to a national minority in the area of a local self-government unit, when members of a particular national minority comprise at least one third of the population of such a unit (2001 census data are to be considered relevant). Compared to provisions of the Law on Use of Language and Script of National Minorities, the Law on the Rights of National Minorities makes a positive step forward. Provisions of the Law on Use of Language and Script of National Minorities predetermined introduction of second official language equal to Croatian language by requesting for the respective minority to constitute majority in the area of respective city or municipality. Earlier provisions were unclear since it was impossible to conclude whether this majority was the relative or the absolute one. Nowadays threshold is precisely established. Constitutional Law provides for the possibility to regulate the right to equal official use of minority language and script, in case the minority constitutes less than one third of the population in the respective city or municipality, by international agreements and statutes of the unite of local self-government.    

- In some opinions, the threshold of one third of the population belonging to a national minority of such a unit required to exercise the right to equal official use of minority language and script, is high with a lower figure of between 10 and 20 per cent being considered reasonable by bodies such as the CoE Advisory Committee.[1] For example, in the city of Vukovar, the only bigger urban area in the Republic of Croatia inhabited by traditionally settled Serbian national minority that constitutes 32,88% of the population in that area, according to the provisions of the Constitutional Law, it is impossible to introduce Serbian language and script as second official language and script. Hungarian national minority submitted an official request for introduction of Hungarian language into official use in the city of Beli Manastir although this minority constitutes only 8,5 per cent of the population in that city. The president of the city council of Hungarian national minority, Mr. Robert Jankovic, said that their request drew the attention of media and caused certain negative public reaction without any justified reason. He reminded that Hungarian minority exercised this same right even before 1991.[2] Therefore, this request by the Hungarian minority could be considered as a reference to “acquired” rights.[3] The exercise of the right to official use of the language and script in some units of local self-government depends, at first, on the political will of the representatives of local self-government (for example, the statutes in the Istria county introduced Italian language as equal to Croatian in official use) and adjustment of the census results with possible changes in the ethnic composition of the population caused by the return of refugees and displaced persons. 

- Some Units of Local Self-Governments, such as municipalities Vojnic, Krnjak, Gvozd, Donji Kukuruzari, Dvor, Korenica, in which the threshold is satisfied (1/3 of the population) for legal exercise of the right on equal official use of Serbian minority language and script, did not build this provision into their statutes although they were obliged to do so. State administration offices that are, according to the law, obliged to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Law on the Use of the Language and Script of National Minorities and the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities did not react and order respective municipalities to amend their statutes.[4]