"The recent judgment handed down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of the death of Afghan migrant girl Madina Hussiny shows that it is important for Croatia to amend its (legal) system," Public Ombudswoman Tena Simonovic-Einwalter said told state news agency Hina.

The Strasbourg-based court recently upheld its earlier ruling that in the case of the death of the six-year-old Afghan child, Madina Hussiny, “who was hit by a train after allegedly having been denied the opportunity to seek asylum by the Croatian authorities and ordered to return to Serbia via railway tracks,” Croatia has violated the rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights.

Croatia is found to have violated the girl’s right to life, and to have ill-treated other children from that family wile detaining them.

The court says that the “applicant children’s detention had amounted to ill-treatment, and that the decisions around the applicants’ detention had not been dealt with diligently.” It also held “that some of the applicants had suffered a collective expulsion from Croatia, and that the State had hindered the effective exercise of the applicants’ right of individual application by restricting access to their lawyer among other things.” The court also “found in particular that the investigation into the death had been ineffective.”

“The court sees this case as something that raises questions about the control of migration exercised by Croatian authorities,” Simonovic-Einwalter said, adding that the impact of this case “surpasses the particular situation of the family concerned.”

Simonovic-Einwalter said that the judgment should be “analyzed in detail” and implemented “thoroughly,” and also to amend the system, “because we, as a country, want to comply with our national laws, with European law, international law and human rights.”

She also also recalled that within six months the Office of the Croatian Representative before the ECHR is supposed to adopt an action plan to rectify the violations established by the court in this case.

“The purpose of rulings made by the ECHR is to bring justice for individuals and also to help change the practice and laws, if necessary, so as to make sure that the legal standards of the protection  of human rights are respected,” she said.

Earlier this year, Simonovic-Einwalter submitted to the Parliament her annual report for 2021, which included an analysis and assessment of the human rights in Croatia and 156 specific recommendations for improving the rights of people.

A novelty in the 2021 report is a chapter on the right to good governance, which is the result of numerous complaints lodged by Croatians complaining about their inability to contact public authorities, red tape, and other difficulties when dealing with authorities.

“The complaints also show that Croatians are often not familiar with their rights and do not know how to exercise them or how to protect themselves. That’s why it’s important,” she said, that public administration bodies “make significant efforts to increase accessibility, transparency, and efficiency, in order to improve the currently low trust in institutions.”