About us
The Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) monitors the actions of police officers of the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) in the area of border surveillance, irregular migration and international protection. The IMM has been established back in early June 2021 and has been operational for more than 4 years, first based on the “Cooperation Agreement to Implement the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the Actions of Police Officers of the Ministry of the Interior in the Area of Illegal Migrations and International Protection” of 8 June 2021, followed by the “Cooperation Agreement for the Implementation of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for the Protection of Fundamental Rights in the Actions of Police Officers of the Ministry of the Interior in the Area of Border Protection, Illegal Migration and International Protection” of 4 November 2022 (Cooperation Agreement), both cooperation agreements being concluded pursuant to Article 5, paragraph 7 of the State Border Surveillance Act (Official Gazette 83/13, 27/16, 114/22, 151/22).
The objective of the IMM is to contribute to the respect of fundamental rights by monitoring the actions of police officers of the MoI, with particular emphasis on the respect of the principle of non-refoulement, prohibition of collective expulsion, prohibition of torture or other forms of ill-treatment. The establishment of the IMM marks the beginning of an impartial, independent and expert dialogue with the MoI with the aim of identifying normative, institutional, systematic, operational and technical, as well as human factors which contribute to or cause unlawful actions in the area of border surveillance, irregular migrations, and international protection.
The IMM is composed of the following civil society organisations (CSO) Croatian Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences (CALS), Centre for Cultural Dialogue (CCD), Centre for Balkan Criminology and Security (CBCS), Croatian Red Cross (CRC) and Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang in her personal capacity.
The IMM is managed by its Coordination Board, comprised of one representative of each of the CSOs and Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang. The IMM Coordination Board operates completely independently and fully autonomously with regards to the MoI, particularly with regards to the IMM monitoring missions and the IMM findings and recommendations issued to the MoI.
The members of the IMM Coordination Board are:
Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac, Head of the Coordination Board (CALS)
Ms Selma Ilić, Deputy Head of the Coordination Board (CRC)
Mr Nermin Botonjić, M.A., Secretary of the Coordination Board (CCD)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Krunoslav Capak, dr. med., Member of the Coordination Board (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Goran Livazović, Member of the Coordination Board (CBCS)
Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang, Member of the Coordination Board
The IMM Monitor Team is comprised of 2 experts provided to the IMM by each of the CSOs comprising the IMM. The IMM Monitors, in particular their monitoring missions and monitoring reports, are fully independent and completely autonomous, in the meaning that IMM Monitors have full power of ‘investigative initiative’ (as foreseen by the Cooperation Agreement) whereby their expert assessments and recommendations are beyond any influence of the IMM Coordination Board. In this regard the Coordination Board has the role of a coordinating expert unit that ensures monitoring missions, operations and activities are optimally distributed geographically, through time and by type of monitoring activity in view of fundamental rights risk assessments and NMN’s available resources.
The members of the IMM Monitoring Team are:
Prof. Dr. Nadan Rustemović, dr. med. (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Mario Starešinić, prim. dr. med. (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Davorin Lapaš (CALS)
Prof. Dr. Damir Primorac (CALS)
Mr Samir Ilijazi, mag. iur. (CCD)
Mr Admir Muhić (CCD)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marija Baković (CBCS)
Prof. Dr. Dunja Degmečić, prim. dr. med. (CBCS)
Mr Živko Šimunović (CRC)
Mr Branislav Tomić (CRC)
The objective of the IMM is to contribute to the respect of fundamental rights by monitoring the actions of police officers of the MoI, with particular emphasis on the respect of the principle of non-refoulement, prohibition of collective expulsion, prohibition of torture or other forms of ill-treatment. The establishment of the IMM marks the beginning of an impartial, independent and expert dialogue with the MoI with the aim of identifying normative, institutional, systematic, operational and technical, as well as human factors which contribute to or cause unlawful actions in the area of border surveillance, irregular migrations, and international protection.
The IMM is composed of the following civil society organisations (CSO) Croatian Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences (CALS), Centre for Cultural Dialogue (CCD), Centre for Balkan Criminology and Security (CBCS), Croatian Red Cross (CRC) and Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang in her personal capacity.
The IMM is managed by its Coordination Board, comprised of one representative of each of the CSOs and Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang. The IMM Coordination Board operates completely independently and fully autonomously with regards to the MoI, particularly with regards to the IMM monitoring missions and the IMM findings and recommendations issued to the MoI.
The members of the IMM Coordination Board are:
Prof. Dr. Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac, Head of the Coordination Board (CALS)
Ms Selma Ilić, Deputy Head of the Coordination Board (CRC)
Mr Nermin Botonjić, M.A., Secretary of the Coordination Board (CCD)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Krunoslav Capak, dr. med., Member of the Coordination Board (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Goran Livazović, Member of the Coordination Board (CBCS)
Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang, Member of the Coordination Board
The IMM Monitor Team is comprised of 2 experts provided to the IMM by each of the CSOs comprising the IMM. The IMM Monitors, in particular their monitoring missions and monitoring reports, are fully independent and completely autonomous, in the meaning that IMM Monitors have full power of ‘investigative initiative’ (as foreseen by the Cooperation Agreement) whereby their expert assessments and recommendations are beyond any influence of the IMM Coordination Board. In this regard the Coordination Board has the role of a coordinating expert unit that ensures monitoring missions, operations and activities are optimally distributed geographically, through time and by type of monitoring activity in view of fundamental rights risk assessments and NMN’s available resources.
The members of the IMM Monitoring Team are:
Prof. Dr. Nadan Rustemović, dr. med. (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Mario Starešinić, prim. dr. med. (CAMS)
Prof. Dr. Davorin Lapaš (CALS)
Prof. Dr. Damir Primorac (CALS)
Mr Samir Ilijazi, mag. iur. (CCD)
Mr Admir Muhić (CCD)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marija Baković (CBCS)
Prof. Dr. Dunja Degmečić, prim. dr. med. (CBCS)
Mr Živko Šimunović (CRC)
Mr Branislav Tomić (CRC)
The IMM Monitors oversee the actions of police officers of the MoI and whether they respect fundamental rights of irregular migrants and applicants for international protection in enforcing the regulations governing state border control and the provision of international protection. At least 20 monitorings (announced and unannounced) of actions taken by police officers are carried out as part of the IMM operations, building the empirical evidence-basis for IMM’s annual report about the actions of police officers of the MoI in the area of border protection, illegal migrations, and international protection.
At the very core of IMM’s operations are the IMM Monitoring Activities conducted by the IMM Monitors. The monitoring activities are oversight activities of MoI police officers’ actions in the area of border surveillance, irregular migration and international protection, conducted at the external border, including the green border, at border crossing points / in police stations / police administrations of the Republic of Croatia with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia as well as in reception centres and reception centres for foreigners. Said oversight activities are conducted either directly (in vivo) through random and unannounced as well as announced on-the-spot checks (inspection of facilities and conditions, as well as shadowing of police officers’ actions), or indirectly through case file analysis (either on-the-spot or remotely, based on electronic copies of case files), analysis of data contained in MoI’s Information System (either on-the-spot or remotely, based on electronic printouts of data contained in MoI’s Information System), interviews with irregular migrants and applicants for international protection, interviews with police officers of the MoI and analysis of the General Police Directorate’s activities and reports related to alleged unlawful actions towards irregular migrants and applicants for international protection. The continuous implementation of one or more target-specific monitoring activities at one single monitoring location constitutes a Monitoring Operation, whereby at the same monitoring location more than one monitoring operations may be conducted, dependant on the target and/or focus of the monitoring operation(s). Finally, the continuous implementation of one or more monitoring operations, typically lasting a full day and commonly covering more than one monitoring location, constitutes a Monitoring Mission.
The administrative and logistical support for the work of the IMM is provided by IMM associates who report exclusively and directly to the IMM Coordination Board. Furthermore, the MoI has appointed a contact officer for IMM cooperation and logistical support in order to ensure the uninterrupted and timely exchange of information and performance of other tasks which enable the implementation of IMM’s activities.
Within the framework of its tasks and competences, the IMM is equipped with precisely those powers which enable it to carry out impartial, independent and efficient monitoring. It should be noted that the IMM does not perform the tasks nor does it have the powers of the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia (DORH), the Ombudswoman or the Internal Control Service of the MoI, but it shall closely cooperate with these institutions with regard to any irregularities detected.