Reports

“Like We Were Just Animals”

Pushbacks of People Seeking Protection from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The 94-page report, “‘Like We Were Just Animals’: Pushbacks of People Seeking Protection from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” finds that Croatian authorities engage in pushbacks, including of unaccompanied children and families with young children. The practice is ongoing despite official denials, purported monitoring efforts, and repeated – and unfulfilled – commitments to respect the right to seek asylum and other human rights norms. Border police frequently steal or destroy phones, money, identity documents, and other personal property, and often subject children and adults to humiliating and degrading treatment, sometimes in ways that are explicitly racist.
A man displays two broken phone screens
Nadia, a Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, hugs her friend Khadidja, beside makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad on May 11, 2023. 

World Report 2024

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  • September 23, 2010

    “Once You Enter, You Never Leave”

    Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Intellectual or Mental Disabilities in Croatia

    This 74-page report documents the plight of the more than 9,000 persons with intellectual or mental disabilities living in institutions in Croatia and the lack of community-based programs for housing and support.

  • February 11, 2007

    Narrowing the Impunity Gap

    Trials before Bosnia’s War Crimes Chamber

    This 61-page report evaluates the chamber’s work in conducting trials. Although a relatively new institution, the chamber has made substantial headway in trying cases, including the trial of 11 defendants charged with genocide for their role in the Srebrenica massacre.
  • December 13, 2006

    Weighing the Evidence

    Lessons from the Slobodan Milosevic Trial

    This 76-page report examines key evidence introduced at trial, the most comprehensive account to date of the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
  • September 4, 2006

    Croatia: A Decade of Disappointment

    Continuing Obstacles to the Reintegration of Serb Returnees

    This 41-page report analyzes the key human rights problems affecting Serbs returning to Croatia, including violence and intimidation, the loss of housing rights and limited access to state employment. Successive government programs to assist returning Serbs have failed to deliver real benefits, with the qualified exception of a program to rebuild war-damaged homes.
  • July 26, 2006

    Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

    A Topical Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

    This unique 861-page book organizes the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia by topic, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, individual criminal responsibility, command responsibility, affirmative defenses, jurisdiction, sentencing, fair trial rights, guilty pleas and appellate review.
  • October 13, 2004

    Justice at Risk:

    War Crimes Trials in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro

    This 31-page report examines domestic war crimes trials that have taken place since 2000 for crimes committed during the armed conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Human Rights Watch has also monitored various of these trials.
  • August 27, 2004

    Q & A: Milosevic Trial (ICTY)

    Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s defense is scheduled to begin at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on August 31. This series of questions and answers provides background information, explains key concepts, evaluates the progression of the trial thus far, and describes what is yet to come.
  • February 20, 2004

    Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

    Topical Digests of the Case Law of the ICTR and the ICTY

    This 285-page book organizes the tribunals’ decisions by topic, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, individual criminal responsibility, command responsibility and sentencing.
  • September 2, 2003

    Broken Promises

    Impediments to Refugee Return to Croatia

    Eight years after the end of the war in Croatia, ethnic discrimination continues to impede the return of hundreds of thousands of Croatian Serbs displaced by the war. This 61-page report describes the plight of displaced Croatian Serbs and urges that progress on return be made a condition of Croatia’s application to join the European Union.
  • June 1, 2001

    Indictment Against Slobodan Milosevic and Others

    Indictees: Slobodan Milosevic, at the time President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Milan Milutinovic, the President of Serbia; Nikola Sainovic, the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia; Colonel General Dragoljub Ojdanic, the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army; and Vlajko Stojiljkovic, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia.
  • November 17, 2000

    Memorandum on Human Rights and Rule of Law Priorities in Yugoslavia

    The November 24-25 summit in Zagreb, with the participation of fifteen European Union (E.U.) states and Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia, provides a unique opportunity for the E.U.
  • December 1, 1999

    Croatia's Democracy Deficit

    A Pre-Electoral Assessment

    In the run-up to important parliamentary elections, civil and political rights are seriously restricted in Croatia, Human Rights Watch said in this report. The report describes this political repression as the "human rights legacy" of the late President Franjo Tudjman, who died earlier this month. Parliamentary elections in Croatia are scheduled for January 3, 2000.
  • March 1, 1999

    Second Class Citizens

    The Serbs of Croatia

    On January 15, 1998, the United Nations transferred authority over Eastern Slavonia, Baranja andWestern Sirmium (hereafter, Eastern Slavonia) to the Croatian government, bringing the lastremaining Serb-held territory of Croatia back under Croatian control Despite positivedevelopments in terms of the repeal of some discriminatory legislation, and a generally stablesecurity situation, Serbs remain s
  • April 1, 1997

    Croatia: Human Rights in Eastern Slavonia During and After the Transition of Authority

    Eastern Slavonia, the only remaining Serb-held region of Croatia, was scheduled to revert to Croatian control by July 15, 1997. Some 120,000 to 150,000 Serbs who lived in that region will come under the authority of their bitter opponent during the war. While the transition of authority in Eastern Slavonia was designed to be carried out peacefully under the auspices of a U.N.