ECHR Slates Croatia’s ‘Ineffective’ Response to Homophobic Attack

An exterior view of the European Court of Human Rights. Photo: EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER.

A leading LGBT association in Croatia welcomed Thursday’s European Court of Human Rights ruling condemning the country’s response to a violent homophobic attack in a nightclub a decade ago as “ineffective”.

“The verdict clearly stated that Croatia violated the prohibition of inhuman treatment and torture of a person due to their sexual orientation. Today’s outcome is a great victory for LGBTIQ rights in Croatia, but also much more,” Zagreb Pride association said.

The ECHR found “in particular that the minor-offence proceedings against the applicant’s aggressor had not addressed the hate-crime element of the offence and had resulted in a derisory fine”.

A man attacked Pavla Sabalic in a club on January 13, 2010, after she revealed her sexual orientation to him. The police later brought successful minor offences proceedings against the offender but only for breaching the peace and public order, and he was fined a mere 40 euros or so.

After Sabalic realised that the police had not instituted a criminal investigation against her attacker, she lodged a criminal complaint with the State Attorney’s Office.

But this body rejected her complaint on the grounds that the man had already been prosecuted for minor offences. The domestic courts upheld this decision.

The ECHR has told Croatia to pay to Sabalic 10,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages and another 5,200 euros for court costs and expenses.

While welcoming the verdict, Zagreb Pride said similar “police failures” happen regularly in Croatia.

“In the period between 2014 and 2017 alone, Zagreb Pride recorded three hate crimes on the streets of Zagreb for which the police filed misdemeanour charges,” it said, adding that as the police are a “key element of the criminal proceedings”, it is up to them to determine all the circumstances of such offences.

It added that while the “legal framework is good” in Croatia, it needs to be consistently and more thoroughly implemented.

According to a survey it published in May last year, 60 per cent of LGBT respondents said they had experienced some form of discrimination in relation to their sexual orientation, either at school or work, or in contact with institutions such as the police, judiciary and health systems.