Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities

Last updated
Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities
Zakon o uporabi jezika i pisma nacionalnih manjina
Hrvatski sabor logo.jpg

Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities (Croatian : Zakon o uporabi jezika i pisma nacionalnih manjina [1] ) is law which defines use of minority languages in Croatia. Additionally Croatian Constitutional law on national minorities rights and The Law on Education in language and script of national minorities explicitly define rights on usage of minority languages in Croatia. [2]

Contents

Rights

Serbian language as co-official minority language in municipalities in Croatia Serbian language in municipalities in Croatia.jpg
Serbian language as co-official minority language in municipalities in Croatia

Local governments to which this law applies (Municipalities of Croatia with at least one third of members of ethnic minority or municipality where right is defined by international agreement) are required to explicitly prescribe equal official use of minority language or script throughout its territory, regulate in detail realization of those rights and expressly prescribe all particular rights guaranteed by Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities. [3] They are required to define these rights in their local statutes. [3]

Implementation

In April 2015 United Nations Human Rights Committee has urged Croatia to ensure the right of minorities to use their language and alphabet. [4] Committee report stated that particularly concerns the use of Serbian Cyrillic in the town of Vukovar and municipalities concerned. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erdut</span> Municipality in Slavonia, Croatia

Erdut is a village and a municipality in eastern Croatia some 37 km east of the major city of Osijek. Lying on the border with neighbouring Serbia, it was the site of the signing of the Erdut Agreement, which initiated the UNTAES transitional administration over the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia.

Jakšić is a town and a municipality in Slavonia, Croatia. The population of the village was 4,437 in 2001, with 93% being Croats. It is located in the middle of a valley called Vallis Aurea known for its natural wealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markušica</span> Municipality in Slavonia, Croatia

Markušica is a village and a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. Markušica is located south of the river Vuka and northwest of the town of Vinkovci. The landscape of the Markušica Municipality is marked by the Pannonian Basin plains and agricultural fields of corn, wheat, common sunflower and sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negoslavci</span> Municipality in Syrmia, Croatia

Negoslavci is a village and a municipality in Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. It is located south of the town of Vukovar, seat of the county. Landscape of the Negoslavci Municipality is marked by the Pannonian Basin plains and agricultural fields of maize, wheat, common sunflower and sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jagodnjak</span> Municipality in Baranja, Croatia

Jagodnjak is a village and a municipality in the Osijek-Baranja County, Croatia. Landscape of the Jagodnjak Municipality is marked by the Drava river with surrounding wetland forest and by Pannonian Basin plains with agricultural fields of corn, wheat, common sunflower and sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Šodolovci</span> Municipality in Slavonia, Croatia

Šodolovci is a village and a municipality in Osijek-Baranja County in eastern Croatia. In the seven villages of the Šodolovci Municipality there were 1,653 inhabitants at the time of 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krnjak</span> Municipality in Karlovac County, Croatia

Krnjak is a village and a municipality in Karlovac County, Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vrhovine</span> Municipality in Lika-Senj, Croatia

Vrhovine is a town and a municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. The municipality is part of Lika.

Civljane is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. With only 239 inhabitants, it is the smallest municipality in Croatia by population. Civljane is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nijemci</span> Municipality in Syrmia, Croatia

Nijemci is a village and a municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pačetin</span> Village in Slavonia, Croatia

Pačetin is a village in the municipality of Trpinja, Vukovar-Syrmia County in the easternmost part of Croatia. At the time of the 2011 Census the population of the village was 541. Village lies north of the Vuka River and west of the M601 railway. Its major landmark is the Church of St. Nicholas from the 18th century. County road Ž4111 passing through the villages of Pačetin, Bobota and Vera connect all three villages with D2 road and D55 road. Pačetin is 28.6 km southeast of Osijek, the economic and cultural centre of Slavonia and 17.2 km from the Osijek Airport. County seat Vukovar is 17.3 km east of Pačetin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bršadin</span> Village in Syrmia, Croatia

Bršadin is a village in the Trpinja Municipality in Croatian easternmost Vukovar-Syrmia County. Bršadin is located north of the Vuka river and west of the town of Vukovar on the main road to Vinkovci.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinkovački Banovci</span> Village in Syrmia, Croatia

Vinkovački Banovci is a village in Croatia in the region of Syrmia. The village is a part of the Nijemci Municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosniaks of Croatia</span>

Bosniaks of Croatia are one of the ethnic minorities of the Republic of Croatia. According to the 2021 Croatian census, there were 24,131 Bosniaks, or 0.62% of the total population, making them the third largest ethnic group in the country after Croats and Serbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serb Autonomous Regions</span>

From August 1990 to November 1991, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, several Serb Autonomous Regions, or Districts were proclaimed in the Yugoslav republics of SR Croatia and SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in light of the possible secession of the republics from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These were autonomous Serb-inhabited entities that subsequently united in their respective republic to form the Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera, Croatia</span> Village in Slavonia, Croatia

Vera is a village in Trpinja Municipality in eastern Croatia. The village is the northernmost settlement of the Vukovar-Syrmia County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia</span>

The Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia is constitutional law which defines rights of national minorities in Croatia. It is one of in total three Constitutional Acts in the Croatian legal system, with the other two being the Constitutional Act on Implementation of the Constitution of Croatia and the Constitutional Act on the Constitutional Court of Croatia. In its current form, the Act entered into force on 23 December 2002. Its earlier version, under the title Constitutional Act on National and Ethnic Communities or Minorities was passed in December 1991 as a precondition of the international community for the recognition of Croatian independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Act is hierarchically under the Constitution of Croatia and must comply with it, but above ordinary state laws and decisions, and above statutes and decisions of lower levels of government, which all must be in accordance with this law. Additionally, two special laws were created to define rights regarding education in minority languages and specific rights on the usage of minority languages in public life. Additionally, the Constitution of Croatia itself has articles directly relating to the protection of national minorities, and lists traditional minorities in Croatia.

The Serbian language is one of the officially recognized minority languages in Croatia. It is primarily used by the Serbs of Croatia. The Croatian Constitution, Croatian Constitutional law on national minorities rights, Law on Education in Language and Script of National Minorities and Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities define the public co-official usage of Serbian in Croatia. Serbian and Croatian are two standardized varieties of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language. The majority of Serbs of Croatia use Ijekavian pronunciation of Proto-Slavic vowel jat except in the Podunavlje region in Vukovar-Syrmia and Osijek-Baranja Counties where local Serb population use Ekavian pronunciation. Post-World War II and Croatian War of Independence settlers in Podunavlje which have come from Bosnia, Dalmatia or Western Slavonia either use their original Ijekavian pronunciation, adopted Ekavian pronunciation or both of them depending on context. In 2011 Census majority of Serbs of Croatia declared Croatian standardized variety as their first language with Ijekavian pronunciation always being required standard form in Croatian. While Serbian variety recognizes both pronunciations as standard, Ekavian is the more common one as it is the dominant one in Serbia, with Ijekavian being dominant in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minority languages of Croatia</span>

The Constitution of Croatia in its preamble defines Croatia as a nation state of ethnic Croats, a country of traditionally present communities that the constitution recognizes as national minorities and a country of all its citizens. National minorities explicitly enumerated and recognized in the Constitution are Serbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, Rusyns, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Russians, Bulgarians, Poles, Romani, Romanians, Istro-Romanians ("Vlachs"), Turks and Albanians. Article 12 of the constitution states that the official language in Croatia is Croatian, but also states that in some local governments another language and Cyrillic or some other script can be introduced in official use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections</span>

The 2019 Croatian national minorities' councils and representatives elections took place on 5 May. The elections were the fifth minority elections since 2003 and near 254,000 citizens of Croatia were entitled to vote on them. In total, 352 councils and 109 representatives were up for election. 14 minority groups were electing their councils while 20 minority groups were electing representatives. 6,686 candidates in total participated in elections which were conducted at 846 polling places. Elections for councils took place in 19 counties of Croatia, City of Zagreb, 68 cities of Croatia and 108 municipalities of Croatia. Elections for representatives took place in 19 counties, City of Zagreb, 34 cities and one municipality.

References

  1. "Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o uporabi jezika i pisma nacionalnih manjina u Republici Hrvatskoj". narodne-novine.nn.hr. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  2. Serb Democratic Forum. "Provedba Ustavnog zakona o pravima nacionalnih manjina u jedinicama lokalne i područne (regionalne) samouprave" (PDF) (in Serbian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 Ministry of Public Administration. "NAPUTAK ZA DOSLJEDNU PROVEDBU ZAKONA O UPORABI JEZIKA I PISMA NACIONALNIH MANJINA U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ" (PDF) (in Croatian). Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 B92 (3 April 2015). "UN calls on Croatia to ensure use of Serbian Cyrillic" . Retrieved 2015-04-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)