HOTI v. CROATIA JUDGMENT 1 In the case of Hoti v. Croatia, The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, President, Aleš Pejchal, Krzysztof Wojtyczek, Ksenija Turković, Armen Harutyunyan, Pauliine Koskelo, Tim Eicke, judges, and Abel Campos, Section Registrar, Having deliberated in private on 3 April 2018, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: PROCEDURE 1. The case originated in an application (no. 63311/14) against the Republic of Croatia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by Mr Bedri Hoti (“the applicant”) on 15 September 2014. 2. The applicant was represented by Ms N. Owens, a lawyer practising in Zagreb. The Croatian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms Š. Stažnik. 3. The applicant alleged that he had not had an effective possibility to regularise his residence status in Croatia, and that he was discriminated against in that respect. He relied on Article 8 of the Convention, taken alone and in conjunction with Article 14, and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 12. 4. On 9 February 2015 the application was communicated to the Government. In addition, third-party comments were received from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the UNHCR) (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of Court). THE FACTS I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 5. The applicant was born in 1962 and lives in Novska. He is of Albanian origin.