Review article
SOCIAL RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA: RIGHT TO ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE SERVICES
Helga Špadina
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta J. Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Abstract
In the last few years, Resolutions, Recommendations and Opinions of the Council of Europe and European Parliament have been instrumental in emphasising that insufficient legal protection of social rights of migrants, particularly in the area of limiting or preventing an access to health care, results in violations of fundamental human rights and breaches obligations arising from international human rights conventions. This paper presents the view that the scope of the access to health care services for migrants in Republic of Croatia has still not harmonized with the provisions of European and international conventions and Charters that Republic of Croatia has ratified. This is evident in yearly Conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights, which continuously criticises non-compliance of Croatian legislation to the provisions of European Social Charter in the area of right to medical assistance for non-residents. In addition, Croatian legislation omits to incorporate Recommendations of Council of Europe, European Union and international conventions according to which the State Parties or Member States should focus on needs of particularly vulnerable groups of migrants, including female migrants, undocumented migrant children and undocumented migrants and members of their families, and try to increase their scope of the right to access to medical services. Consequently, Croatian legislation constantly neglects the necessity of introduction of special protection measures in the area of pre-natal, natal and post-natal health care for female migrants. In this context, the paper presents an attempt to contribute to expert discussions on the right to healthcare for migrants in the Republic of Croatia and the current state on (in)compliance of national regulations to regional and international legal obligations of the Republic of Croatia.
Keywords
social rights; access to healthcare; vulnerable migrants
Hrčak ID:
130956
URI
Publication date:
30.8.2014.
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