CROATIA: Support to the changes of the pre-trial proceedings in criminal matters (Twinning)

The overall objective of this Twinning Light project was to support the Croatian Ministry of Justice in its reform of the criminal procedure law. This comprehensive task broke down into two specific objectives, namely, first to elaborate a comparative study on existing types of preliminary proceedings in some EU Member States and second, to develop a national strategy for conducting preliminary criminal proceedings in Croatia. This second specific objective of the project included the preparation of recommendations for legislative and institutional reform as well as the elaboration of an action plan for the implementation of the reform.

The reform concept was developed by means of a broad discussion process including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, public prosecutors’ offices, the judiciary, the police, bar associations, universities and civil society, in particular Human Rights NGOs and victim support agencies. On EU Member State side, the project team comprised longstanding international experts in the field who had shared their valuable expertise and cooperated successfully in previous Twinning projects of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR).

A comprehensive final document containing analysis, comparison, recommendations and action plan was presented in November 2006 in both English and Croatian and can be downloaded below.