International conference on the implementation of the Law on free legal aid

Zagreb 26 July 2010 - UNHCR Representation in Croatia, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, Centre for Human Rights and the Coalition for Promotion and Protection of Human Rights organized today in Hotel International an international conference entitled "Access to justice: A year of implementation of the Law on Free Legal Aid".

The conference was organized as a part of the cross-border component of the UN's Millennium Development Goal Fund (MDG-F) project and the East East program of cross-border co-operation of the Open Society Institute and gathered together a great number of legal experts and representatives of governmental institutions as well as from the nongovernmental sector from Croatia, the region and Europe.

The Croatian Parliament adopted the Law on Free Legal Aid in 2008 targeting low income citizens and residents in Croatia who face social and economic hardship and cannot afford professional legal counsel when accessing certain rights.

Since the Law on Free Legal Aid entered into force in February 2009, according to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia's official data, until 1 March 2010, 6.049 requests for legal aid have been filed, out of which, 4.271 were approved which represents a 71 per cent approval rate.

The rationale behind this conference was to share experiences in implementing the Law in the past year, the perceived problems and difficulties, suggestions for the improvement of the system and all open issues presented by the stakeholders.

The conference was opened by the Minister of Justice, Drazen Bosnjakovic, UNHCR Representative, Wilfried Buchhorn, EU Delegation representative, Paolo Betozzi and the President of the Assembly of the Coalition for Promotion of Human Rights, Ljiljana Bozic-Krstanovic.