Further to the complaints of the Croat National Council in the Republic of Serbia about discrimination and denial of the Croatian language, the Protector of Citizens initiated the investigation to control the regularity and legality of the operations of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and the Institute for the Improvement of Education in the Republic of Serbia.

The Protector of Citizens has requested the competent authorities to submit case data and relevant documentation within 15 days.

Croat National Council’s complaint to the Protector of Citizens reads that the Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language, upon the request of the Institute for Improving Education, has adopted a stance according to which the Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Slovenian languages should be categorized under South Slavic languages and the Croats are categorized under the nations using the Serbian language, but naming it Croatian, and that such a definition is found in the published Serbian language textbooks for eight graders.

The Protector of Citizens has pointed out that the Republic of Serbia confirmed the European Charter on regional and minority languages in 1992, thus accepting the Croatian language as a minority language and taking up the obligation to protect it and work towards its preservation.