OSCE Mission supports key role of Croatian Constitutional Court

ZAGREB, 17 June 2003 - The OSCE Mission to Croatia said on Tuesday it supported the key role of the Constitutional Court of Croatia and was surprised to see negative comments in the media by the President of the Croatian Association of Judges, Vladimir Gredelj, purporting to rely on a Mission draft document.

This document had been informally shared with the Government in order to elicit its views prior to the finalization of a report on the workings of the court.

In its statement, the OSCE Mission stressed that the comments attributed to Judge Gredelj did not accurately reflect the fundamentally positive observations made by the Mission concerning the role and function of the Constitutional Court, as the institution responsible for safeguarding basic rights and freedoms.

It went on to note positively the significantly increased activity of the Constitutional Court in addressing the problem of unreasonable delays in proceedings in the lower courts. Most of the weaknesses in the Court's performance related to factors beyond the Court's control.

The Mission statement added that the failure of government bodies and judicial institutions to adhere to the Constitutional Court's judgments presented a challenge to that Court's constitutional role and the rule of law.

It was also concerned that the Constitutional Court might be overwhelmed by the need to address an ever-increasing number of complaints about delays in lower courts.

The Mission has secured funding from the Government of Norway to assist the Court to develop public information in both print and electronic form.