Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 - Croatia

REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

• Population:
  – total: 4,477,000
  – under-18s: 971,000
• Government armed forces:
  – active: 61,000
  – reserves: 220,000
  – paramilitary: 40,000
• Compulsory recruitment age: 18
• Voluntary recruitment age: 16 with consent
• Voting age (government elections): 18
• Child soldiers: indicated in government armed forces
• CRC-OP-CAC: not signed
• Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/API+II; ILO 138

• There are indications of under-18s in government armed forces as voluntary recruitment is permitted from the age of 16. The state reserves the right to conscript 16-year-olds at times of imminent threat.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation

The 1990 Croatian Constitution (Article 47.1) declares that: "Military service and the defence of the Republic is the duty of all capable citizens".⁴⁹⁹ Conscription is regulated by the Defence Law which was first published in 1991⁵⁰⁰ and subsequently amended in 1993, 1996 and 2001, and the Regulations on Military and Civilian Service (1997 and 2000).⁵⁰¹

According to information provided by the Government to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, persons are subject to recruitment in the year in they attain the age of 17, but examination and registration take place at the age of 18 and recruits declared fit for service are only sent into the military in the year they reach 19.⁵⁰² This information has been confirmed by the government in a recent communication to the Coalition.⁵⁰³ However in the event of "imminent threat to the independence and integrity of the Republic of Croatia or in the event of war, the President of the Republic can decree the recruitment of persons who have attained the age of 16 years and military service of recruits at age 17".⁵⁰⁴ The government stated that recruitment in such circumstances does not amount to conscription and that a proclamation by the Croatian Parliament is required before this decree can be issued.⁵⁰⁵

The length of service is 6 months.⁵⁰⁶ Postponement of military service is possible until the age of 27.⁵⁰⁷ Women are not required to perform military service⁵⁰⁸ but in certain circumstances women up to the age of 50 may be obliged to serve in the reserve forces.⁵⁰⁹

In post-conflict Croatia there have been discussions about the ongoing need for conscription with some reports suggesting it will be retained⁵¹⁰ and others suggesting temporary exemptions for certain Serb nationals.⁵¹¹ Under the Agreement on Peaceful Reintegration of the Croatian Danube Region the conscription opt-out deadline for ethnic Serbs was deferred to February 2001.⁵¹²

According to information given by Croatia to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, applications for voluntary recruitment can be made in the year of reaching the age of 17 ,⁵¹³ and thus may include 16-year-olds. The Croatian Ministry of Defence affirms that voluntary recruitment of under-18s is only possible at the request of the conscript and with parental or guardian consent.⁵¹⁴ It is believed that Croatia exempts former volunteers from performing compulsory military service.⁵¹⁵

Military Training and Military Schools

According to information provided by UNICEF there are military schools in Croatia but not at the primary or secondary education levels.⁵¹⁶

Child Recruitment

In its report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Government declared that "in spite of large-scale war operations on the territory of the Republic of Croatia against a much better-equipped enemy, the President has not used the above-mentioned legitimate authority", referring to the right to recruit 16-year-olds during situations of imminent threat to the Republic.⁵¹⁷ Rather, the Government claimed that at the beginning of the war with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a number of persons from 17 years of age "who had not been recruited nor had served the army, joined the armed units of the Croatian Army of their own accord" and that "[a]ccording to the information available to the competent authorities, these persons were released from the army and sent for recruitment and military service in compliance with above-mentioned legal provisions".⁵¹⁸

499 Blaustein and Flanz op. cit.

500 Official Gazette No. 49/1991.

501 Official Gazette No. 57/1996 and 74/1993. Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit.; letter from Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to CSC on 16/3/01.

502 Initial Report of Croatia to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/8/Add.19, 7 December 1994, para. 339; Comments on the Report of the Working Group on a draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflict, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1999/WG.13/2/Add.1, 8 December 1998. Additionally, the Croatian Ministry of Defence stated that "recruitment consists of the assessment of conscripts' capability for military service and of the determining of service -- in other words speciality. The registration, medical examinations and recruitment are not performed within the system of the Armed Forces and during the same conscripts are not given the uniform nor is he in any contact with fire arms" Furthermore, "[a]s the terms of service in the Croatian armed forces is 10 months, the obligation for such conscripts to serve in the reserve forces commences at the age of 18. Therefore, persons younger than 18 are not liable to serve in the reserve forces because they have not served the term of military training, so in the event of armed conflict they cannot be actively engaged in the conflict." (Communication to CSC, 12/11/99).

503 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16/3/01 op. cit. reasserts that draft registration takes place in the year the recruit becomes 17, they are sent for medical tests in the year they become 18, and are finally sent for service in the year they become 19.

504 Croatia report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit., para. 339; also Ministry of Defence on 12/11/99 op. cit.

505 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16/3/01 op. cit.

506 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16/3/01 op. cit. Duration of military service pursuant to the amended Defence Act (Official Gazette No. 16, 27/2/01).

507 Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit; also Ministry of Defence, 12/11/99 op. cit.

508 See also AI, Out of the Margins, op. cit.;http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/military/; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12/11/99 to CSC.

509 Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit; AI op. cit.; Comments on the Report of the Working Group, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1999/WG.13/2/Add.1, 8/12/98.

510 In February 1999 it was reported that although professional brigades will remain the mainstay of the more than 50,000 strong Croatian Army (Hrvatska Vojska – HV), conscription will be retained.20 "BBC Monitoring International Reports: Croatian Minister willing to consider longer conscription opt-out for Serbs", BBC Monitoring Service, 17/8/99.

511 Two months later, the Croatian Defence Minister said "he was prepared to consider a possible extension for exemption of Serb nationals from the Croatian Danube (eastern Slavonia) from military service, however, that he did not agree they should be permanently excused." Information received from UNICEF, 22/6/99.

512 Letter from Croatian Ministry dated 16/3/01 op. cit.

513 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12/11/99 op. cit.

514 Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit.

515 Croatia report to Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit., para. 339; also Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit.

516 Kusovac, Z., "Pavao Miljavac – interview", 3/2/99, http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/military/miljavac.htm.

517 Croatia report to Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit., para. 340.

518 Horeman and Stolwijk op. cit.