Non profit
Rude youths, tough workplace
Poll reflects Croatians' perception of discrimantion
If you’re poor, gay or Roma you may be picked on, say Croatians. If you’re young, almost half of your fellow citizens think you’re be rude and lack morals.
This, according to a public opinion survey on perception of discrimination, conducted by the Centre for Peace Studies, the Croatian government’s Human Rights Office and the Ombudsman.
The survey found that 58 percent of Croatian citizens believe that discrimination in the country is most present in the areas of labour and employment.
Labour relations and employment are followed by the judiciary (30 percent), actions of the Police (24 percent) and healthcare, which was pointed out as an area of discrimination by 22 percent of the polled.
The survey investigated the perception of discrimination related to some objective personal characteristics. The polled citizens say that discrimination based on ethnic and social background as well as property status is prevalent in Croatia. Those two were pointed out by one third of the polled citizens, 26 percent believe there is discrimination based on religious beliefs, while sexual orientation, political affiliations and disability were noted by 21 percent of the polled each.
In terms of social groups, the citizens believe that the discrimination of homosexual persons, the poor and Roma is most present in Croatian society. Also, about one quarter of the citizens wouldn’t approve of their son or daughter marrying a person of different nationality, faith or colour of skin.
The polled citizens also express certain doze of age-based discrimination – 34.3 percent believe that elderly persons are less capable than the young, while 40% of the polled found the younger generations to be ill-mannered, lacking any moral principle.
Persons that hold dissenting views got it even worse, with two-thirds of the citizens saying that “there are people who hold such political views that they should be banned from appearing in the media”.
The question is: would the answers have been different in any other European country?
