Executive Summary: Joint Request for Inquiry Regarding Croatia’s Treatment of Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants, Submitted to the Committee Against Torture by the Centre for Peace Studies and AsyLex
September 2025
The Centre for Peace Studies (CPS), a Croatian non-profit organisation established nearly 30 years ago, is dedicated to promoting non-violence, human rights, and social change, with over a decade of experience in the field of migration and asylum.
AsyLex is a non-profit organisation – founded in Switzerland in 2017 – that provides legal advice to asylum seekers, assisting with Swiss asylum procedure, appeals, family reunification, detention cases and accessing international human rights mechanisms. CPS and AsyLex (the ‘Organisations’) have provided legal representation for numerous asylum seekers in their countries of residence. In doing so, the Organisations collected numerous testimonies from clients about the violence they endured at the hands of Croatian law enforcement and border officers, both in Croatia and at its borders.
Accordingly, the Organisations submitted a joint Request for Inquiry to the Committee Against Torture (the ‘Committee’) into the systemic practice of torture and other cruel and inhuman behaviours against asylum seekers and other migrants, which violate Croatia’s obligations under the Convention Against Torture (‘CAT’).
Specifically, the Organisations are concerned with Croatia’s repeated breaches of Art 12 of CAT, which requires quick, thorough, and impartial investigations into allegations of torture. The Organisations believe that the Croatian judicial system routinely fails to investigate and prosecute instances of torture against migrants adequately. This belief is based on client testimony, as well as the reporting of other NGOs and Croatian human rights institutions. In its legal work, CPS has found that representing asylum seekers in torture cases involving police officers is often blocked by unfair procedures, prolonged delays, and the State’s failure to collect and preserve crucial evidence. CPS has also observed that such cases are rarely initiated ex officio, that is, without a direct criminal complaint. Indeed, the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) confirmed the systemic nature of this particular failure in multiple rulings, including in M.H. and Others v. Croatia, and Daraibou v. Croatia. These cases indicate Croatia’s violations of Art. 12 are part of an alarming and entrenched practice by the State, meant to further deter asylum seekers from submitting asylum applications or transiting through Croatia while en route to other European countries.
The Request for Inquiry also describes the types of torture happening in Croatia, based on client testimonies, the ECtHR cases mentioned above and extensive reporting from journalists and human rights organisations. This includes: violent pushbacks at the Croatian border; beatings; threats of death or injury; sexual and gender-based violence; purposeful intimidation, humiliation, and/or dehumanisation; strip searches and forced undressing; denial of food, water, and/or medical care, and detention in unsafe facilities. Survivors frequently report long-term psychological trauma – including PTSD – and/or severe physical injuries or medical issues as a result of these CAT violations.
In light of these findings, CPS and AsyLex called on the Committee to initiate a full inquiry into Croatia’s conduct. The Organisations hope that the Committee can use the Inquiry to establish accountability, recommend immediate measures to end torture and inhuman treatment of migrants in Croatia, and guarantee effective access to justice for asylum seekers and other migrants across the country.