OSCE Mission's Head opens training for minority council representatives in Croatia

SISAK, CROATIA, 6 October 2003 - Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Ambassador Peter Semneby yesterday opened the first of a series of training seminars for members of newly-constituted national minority councils in Croatia.

Minority councils were elected in May 2003 as part of the implementation of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities. They are advisory bodies to local governments on minority issues. Additional councils will be elected at the same time as the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In his opening statement, Ambassador Semneby stressed the importance of the Constitutional Law's guarantees regarding minority representation of elected bodies at national and local levels as well as in state administration and judiciary.

"This law provides an important means through which the voice of the minority community in Croatia can be heard in all areas of public decision-making," Semneby said.

"Now the challenge is to fully implement the Law. That includes establishing councils of national minorities as representing the interests of the minority community. It also includes large-scale minority participation in the elections and rules in place ensuring such participation."

The training is taking place in the central Croatian town of Sisak. Participants include up to 40 minority council members from the Serb, Bosnian, Albanian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian and Ukrainian communities from six counties.

Council members are trained on how to work effectively to promote minority rights within their communities and focused on the rights and responsibilities of minority councils at the municipal, town and county levels.

The training was funded and sponsored by the OSCE Mission to Croatia in co-operation with the national level Council for National Minorities and the Serb Democratic Forum (SDF).