who were already receiving pensions at that time, are still alive today and whether their individual situations present documented cases of denial of acquired pension rights. In these circumstances, the Committee stresses that compliance with the Convention could be assessed only on a case-by-case basis at the national level, identifying the pensioners concerned and the volume of their acquired rights. Therefore, considering that acquired rights are individual rights, and given the lack of documented evidence as regards the number and identity of the actual beneficiaries concerned, more than 25 years after their pensions were suspended, as well as the actual amounts of these pensions pursuant to the Croatian social security system, the Committee considers that it is not in a position to pronounce itself as regards the situation of every potential beneficiary concerned. In view of the above, the Committee recalls that for safeguarding the acquired rights in such complex situations, Part IV of the Convention specifically provides for mutual assistance of the Members concerned.” Therefore, it could be assumed that the ILO was not in position to enter into the merits as they were lacking documented cases, i.e. subsequent target group of pensioners (Croatian citizens) who during the armed conflict were not in position receive their due pension payments neither from official Croatian pension fund nor from the so-called para-fund established in the nongovernment controlled territories. The Ministry of Labour and Pension System of Croatia continued to claim that the new bilateral agreement with Serbia should not address issues that had not been included already in the existing Agreement on Social Insurance. This includes the issue of outstanding pensions. According to the Government of Serbia, issues to be resolved include: establishment of lists of affected beneficiaries; agreement that full compensation will be provided; resolution of all requests; and provision of funding for the compensation. UNHCR would like to once again call upon the Governments of Croatia and Serbia to urgently resolve this longstanding issue, which hinders the enjoyment of acquired rights for a significant number of Croatian pensioners, including considering to implement the proposals provided by TAIEX experts.27 While UNHCR regrets that this important issue remains unresolved after such a long period of time, we wish to repeat and reiterate our position: UNHCR supports any approach/solution which leads to the satisfactory resolution of this issue, based on good 27 In February 2012, the EC (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument using the TAIEX instrument) engaged two independent pension experts, who conducted a mission in order to analyse Croatian legislation on pension and disability insurance and its application. The experts subsequently issued an evaluation report from the mission containing a non-binding recommendation on how to resolve the contested issue. The report recognized legitimacy of claims and invited parties to: 1) agree on the straightforward definition of the problem and 2) find a compromise solution, either through bilateral agreement or a unilateral legal instrument addressing specific cases. The experts have also advised that both administrations should try to come up with their own solutions, which fit their needs rather than leaving the matter for the courts to resolve. The experts also referred to the emphasis that the European Court of Justice places on the protection of social security rights which represent the counterpart of contributions paid by beneficiaries. Thus, the experts stressed that if there are pensioners who are left without any income and for certain periods of time have not received any form of pension payments, these persons should be compensated for what they have lost. 21