The annual Civic Space Report by the European Civic Forum for 2025 documents a worrying state of civic space in Croatia — ranging from nine years without a fundamental strategy for civil society, through SLAPP lawsuits and attacks on the funding of associations, to the systematic exclusion of civil society organizations from decision-making processes.
For the fifth consecutive year, Croatia has been evaluated as a country with limited civic space according to the CIVICUS Monitor — an international index that follows the conditions of civil society’s work around the world. The report, published in June 2025 by the European Civic Forum and written by the Human Rights House Zagreb, paints a bleak picture: Croatia’s response to challenges concerning the rule of law, human rights and democracy remains weak, primarily due to the lack of adequate civil dialogue and a low level of mutual trust between the state and civil society.
Since February 2025, not a single session of the Government’s Council for Human Rights, which was chaired by the former deputy prime minister, has been held. This multisectoral body, composed of representatives from key government departments and civil society organizations, was crucial for fostering dialogue between the state and civil society. Implementation of the National human rights plan and the National gender equality policy have been stalled, as the action plans for the years of 2024 and 2025 have not been adopted.
Since 2016, Croatia has had no fundamental strategy for the development of civil society. The Government’s Council for the Development of Civil Society has for years been dysfunctional and irrelevant, on top of which the number of sessions held in 2024 was practically negligible.
The report draws particular attention to political pressure on organizations that monitor elections and the rule of law. During the 2024 presidential election campaign, the Prime Minister called into question the future funding of the organization Gong, in response to their work on electoral ethics and integrity. This was perceived as a potentially politically motivated interference in the independent allocation of public funds. Such a message from high political circles negatively affects the work and perception of civil society in Croatia, as stated by the report.
Activists from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights were targeted with threats and public vilification campaigns due to their activities criticizing the glorification of convicted war criminals and demanding the removal of commemorative markings from the main city square.
Particularly the organizations working on anti-corruption issues, sexual and reproductive rights, civic education, gender equality, health rights, anti-discrimination, LGBTIQ+ rights, human rights and democracy in the digital environment remain chronically underfunded.
SLAPP lawsuits remain a significant problem in Croatia and primarily affect journalists, negatively impacting their work, media freedom and freedom of speech. Alongside journalists, civil society groups and activists are also targeted. According to a report by Friends of the Earth Croatia, SLAPP lawsuits and investigations have become typical repressive measures in the past decade, used to criminalize environmental rights defenders, silence critical voices and impose financial burdens on organizations.
Administrative burdens in accessing funding remain a key problem hindering the work of associations. Some organizations see this as a reflection of a clear lack of trust in civil society organizations and their work — in order to justify their role and usefulness, organizations must continuously fulfill excessive administrative requirements that go beyond standard practices and legally prescribed obligations.
E-consultations remain the dominant form of public participation, but they are perceived as a tool for fulfilling formal obligations rather than as an instrument of genuine dialogue. Public discussions on proposed laws and public policies are often conducted as a formality rather than in a substantive way, which weakens participation opportunities and negatively affects the quality of public policy. The main problem is that consultations are not organized at the beginning of the policy-drafting process, but at the end, when the draft law or strategy has already been developed.
Recommendations:
The report concludes with a series of concrete recommendations addressed to the Croatian Government: the first and most urgent recommendation calls for a new National plan for creating an enabling environment for the development of civil society until 2027 to be developed and adopted without delay, through an inclusive, honest, and constructive process that will systematically address the problems civil society faces — from the funding framework and access to decision-making processes, to the institutional framework for civil society. The conclusion of this process should be reached by the end of 2025. Furthermore, the report explicitly calls on the Croatian Government to stop attacking and threatening the funding of associations; to adopt concrete legislative measures against SLAPPs in line with the EU Anti-SLAPP directive; to restore the work of the Council for Human Rights; and to reset the work of the Council for the Development of Civil Society so that it functions in accordance with its mission.
About the Report:
The report was written by the Human Rights House Zagreb as part of the Net4Defenders project, and was published as part of the European Civic Forum’s annual Civic Space Report for 2025.
The Civic Space Report 2025 was published by the European Civic Forum (ECF) in June 2025. The ECF is a pan-European network of nearly 100 associations and non-governmental organizations from 29 European countries, founded in 2005 with the aim of protecting civic space, enabling civic participation and building civic dialogue for greater equality, solidarity and democracy in Europe. Gong is a member of the ECF.
The report covers the situation in a number of European countries and draws on monitoring conducted by the Civic Space Watch platform, which collects data on the state of civic space at national and European levels through contacts with a network of organizations in the field, as well as media and social media monitoring.
