BIRN and Vuk TesijaZagrebBIRNFebruary 6, 202317:35Latest survey presented by Ombudsperson shows people feel most discriminated against on grounds of nationality and politics – with police, media and healthcare systems among the worst offenders.
Tena Simonovic Einwalter/ Photo: Twitter-OmbudsmanHR
Croatian Ombudsman Tena Simonovic Einwalter presented the results of last year’s survey on the attitudes and level of awareness of discrimination, noting that more people expressed a feeling of being discriminated against than before – more precisely, 27.8 per cent of them.
The judiciary, media and police behaviour, apart from work and employment, were the areas where respondents perceived that they were discriminated against the most.
This survey was conducted by phone on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents, and is the fourth in a series of such surveys.
The biggest increase in the perception of widespread discrimination was found in the field of healthcare, which jumped from 16 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent in 2022.
A relative majority of respondents – 38 per cent – singled out nationality and political belief (over 28 per cent) as the characteristics on the basis of which individuals are most discriminated.
Religious affiliation and sexual orientation followed. Almost a fifth of the respondents cited Roma, 16 per cent cited LGBT people, 10 per cent cited people with disabilities and 9 per cent cited women as the social groups most affected by discrimination.
Slightly more than a third of the respondents said individuals and public law bodies were the most discriminating, while 15 per cent blamed employers.
To protect their rights, 40 per cent of respondents said they took certain steps against discrimination. The majority (52.2 per cent) of those who did not react to discrimination stated: “If I had done something, nothing would have changed”, and almost 20 per cent said they feared that reacting would make their situation worse.
As many as 69 per cent of respondents said they would report discrimination against others, to which the Ombudsman says is a “socially desirable response”.
The Ombudsman said the majority of citizens show openness towards different social groups, and the greatest openness is observed among younger people, people with a higher level of education and people from urban areas.
“We are making progress, slowly but surely, as far as certain prejudices and stereotypes are concerned,” ahe said.
“An important conclusion of this research is that citizens say that there is more discrimination. This can mean two things. This may mean that there really is more of it, but it may also mean that people are more aware of what discrimination is, that it exists and are aware of saying that there is discrimination,“ she added.
More than 40 per cent of respondents still do not know that a special law on combating discrimination exists, which indicates the need to continue raising their awareness.
Snjezana Vasiljevic, professor at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, reported that the long-awaited National Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and Suppression of Discrimination had been submitted for consultation, and should be adopted by the end of the March, along with action plans.
but Boris Jokic, from the Institute for Social Research, said the plan does not include primary and secondary education, and it should in order to reach all citizens more quickly. He said that this is difficult to do because the structures of political power are not interested.
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