UN calls on Croatia to ensure use of Serbian Cyrillic

UN calls on Croatia to ensure use of Serbian Cyrillic

NEW YORK -- The UN Human Rights Committee has urged Croatia to ensure the right of minorities to use their language and alphabet.

This particularly concerns the use of Serbian Cyrillic in the town of Vukovar.

The report of the UN committee on the state of human rights in Croatia, published on its website, expressed concern that persons belonging to national minorities face problems in enjoying the right to use their own language, "particularly (Serbian) Cyrillic."

Croatia "should undertake additional measures, including positive measures, to promote inter-ethnic tolerance in its diverse society, as well as to provide full implementation for the right to equal usage of minority languages and scripts in accordance with its constitutional and legal framework, with special emphasis on the usage of Cyrillic script in the city of Vukovar and municipalities concerned," the report said.

Croatia should also, the document stated, "take additional measures to promote inter-ethnic tolerance in its diverse society."

The committee also expressed concern "about the practice of ethnic profiling by law enforcement officials targeting certain ethnic minorities, particularly Roma, who appear to be disproportionately affected by frequent identity checks and interrogations, in the absence of any suspicion of wrongdoing."

The committee reiterated its previous concern "at the continued reports of racist attack against members of ethnic minority groups, particularly against Roma and Serbs." The reports also expresses concern over "the the lack of adequate investigation and prosecution as well as the lack of adequate compensation for the victims," and recommends "special...