Vesna Crnić-Grotić was elected member of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in June 1998, just a few months after its entry into force. She was part of the delegation which conducted the very first on-the-spot visit of the Charter, to Croatia, where traces of the war were still visible in many places.
Since then, she participated in over 30 on-the-spot visits and in the adoption of over 150 evaluation reports.
She has contributed to the first interpretation of the treaty provisions and to its development over the years, making sure that it is ready for the future.
As member and Chair of the Committee of Experts, Vesna's commitment has shaped the monitoring of the Charter and the work of its Expert Committee. A tireless promoter of the Charter, she has taken part in countless meetings organised by civil society and national authorities. In 2021, after almost a decade chairing the Committee, she stepped back from her position to make room for the new generation of members.
As an international and human rights lawyer, she has played a key role in advancing the protection and promotion of regional or minority languages in Europe. She is a professor of International Law and former Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka.
From the numerous times she travelled for the Council of Europe, she keeps a special memory of a particularly long and adventurous journey during a very snowy December in northern Europe.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
