SECOND AMBASSADOR’S POLICY FORUM: JUDICIARY REFORM IN CROATIA

Washington D.C., June 5, 2003 - Diplomats and legal experts participated in a roundtable discussion entitled, the Ambassador’s Policy Forum on the ongoing reform in the Croatian and transitional countries’ judiciary, which took place at the Croatian Embassy in Washington.

During the roundtable, second in a row, hosted by Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to U.S., Dr. Ivan Grdesic, Deputy Chief of Mission Dr. Kresimir Pirsl reviewed the judiciary reform in Croatia, designed to foster the rule of law. Pirsl said that reform comprises of modernization of Croatian judiciary, introduction of continuing legal education and new technical equipment aimed to help judiciary to effectively handle their job and foster productivity.

The Ambassador’s Policy Forum also provided a presentation on the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) judiciary reform activities in former communist states. CEELI was set up by the American Bar Association in 1990 with an aim to help reforms. The CEELI has been active in Croatia since 1993 and has awarded Croatian President Stjepan Mesic last year for promotion of the rule of law

CEELI Executive Director David Tolbert said that CEELI operates in 28 transitional countries and has, since 1990, included more than 5000 US legal professionals to volunteer in its activities.

CEELI President Homer Moyer presented the organizations’ new project, CEELI Institute in Prague, Czech Republic, that will educate legal professionals and promote the rule of law in the region.

The event also pooled more than 30 participants, ambassadors of Azerbeijan, Georgia, Moldova and Belarus, diplomats from other European embassies and representatives of the U.S. State Department.

In March, Ambassador Grdesic hosted the Embassy’s first Ambassador’s Policy Forum, aimed at increasing the awareness of the significance of the Sava Initiative in the U.S. political and business community. Sava Initiative is the regional trans-border, water management plan, agreed and signed in 2002 by the governments of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Slovenia - the four Southeast European Countries that share the Sava River Basin.

Ambassador’s Policy Forum is a Croatian Embassy’s initiative that aims to foster debate and inform Washington D.C. political and business community on important future oriented bilateral, as well as regional policy issues.