The first day of October marks the International Day of Older Persons. The day was established by the United Nations more than 30 years ago to highlight the important role older persons play in our societies and to raise awareness of the challenges they face.

The rights of older persons and combating discrimination against them are among the areas of focus of the Ombudswoman’s work. This issue is also the subject of the special report “Rights of Older Persons in Croatia”, which the Ombudswoman submitted to the Croatian Parliament in March 2026.

Older persons also feature prominently in the Ombudswoman’s annual reports to the Croatian Parliament, primarily in the chapters on the Rights of Older Persons and Age Discrimination, but also across a number of other chapters.

In addition to highlighting the many challenges faced by older persons, the Ombudswoman’s reports contain numerous recommendations for improvements across different areas and systems. On the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons, we therefore wish to draw attention to some of these recommendations.

The aim is to recall these recommendations and, alongside direct cooperation with the authorities to which they are addressed, encourage their prompt implementation so that older persons can experience tangible improvements in their everyday lives as soon as possible. Timely debate in the Croatian Parliament on the special report and the annual reports, which is still pending, would also contribute to this goal.

Below we highlight some of the recommendations from the special report “Rights of Older Persons in Croatia”. The full set of recommendations is available here.

Ageism and age discrimination

• To the Ministry of Health, to propose amendments to the Mandatory Health Insurance Act that would enable employed persons to provide care for elderly and dependent parents and other close family members.

Poverty and older persons

• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, to increase the amounts of the guaranteed minimum benefit and the national benefit for older persons and introduce their indexation twice a year.
• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, to urgently design and implement, in cooperation with older persons and civil society organisations, concrete measures aimed at halting the increase in poverty among older persons.

Pensions

• To the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, to reduce delays in its procedures by ensuring faster payment of the first pension.

Violence against older persons

• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, to design measures for the protection and support of older persons exposed to psychological or economic violence or neglect, as forms of violence that are more difficult to identify and less visible, and to supplement the Protocol on Procedures in Cases of Domestic Violence with these specific measures.
• To the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, to propose, during the next amendments to the Criminal Code, an extension of the list of characteristics referred to in Article 87(21) concerning hate crime so as to include age.
• To the Croatian Parliament, to establish a National Day for Combating Violence against Older Persons.

Homes for older and dependent persons

• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, in cooperation with county-level regional self-government units, to reduce waiting lists for residential accommodation by ensuring an efficient and transparent application system for admission to state-run and decentralised homes for older and dependent persons.
• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, to urgently develop a long-term policy for the recruitment of qualified staff in homes for older and dependent persons.
• To founders and homes for older and dependent persons, to ensure conditions for the rapid and effective evacuation of immobile residents in emergency situations.

Right to health

• To the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the competent professional chambers, to continuously provide training on combating discrimination against older persons in the healthcare system.

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia

• To the Government of the Republic of Croatia, to urgently adopt an Action Plan for the Care of Persons with Dementia.
• To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy, the Ministry of Health and county-level regional self-government units, to develop residential capacities and community-based services for persons with dementia and members of their families.
• To the Croatian Health Insurance Fund, to include at least one anti-dementia medicine on the Fund’s Basic List of Medicines.

Modern technologies and older persons

• To all public authorities, to ensure that public services remain available in traditional forms and not exclusively in digital form.

Protection of human rights and combating discrimination against older persons at the international, regional and national levels

• To the Government of the Republic of Croatia, to support the adoption of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.
• To the Government of the Republic of Croatia, to ratify the Council of Europe’s Revised European Social Charter.
• To the Croatian Parliament, to adopt a long-term strategic document aimed at ensuring the full enjoyment of the rights of older persons.