[1] Following the break-up of Yugoslavia and the independence of Croatia, co-founded the Croatian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organization, and served as its first president from 1993 to 1998 and again from 2009 until his death.

While in high school, Čičak was arrested and interrogated for the first time by the Directorate for State Security, the secret police of communist Yugoslavia, for alleged connections to underground Catholic activities.

[1] Čičak had submitted a school assignment, in which he stated that Croatia, rather than Yugoslavia, was his homeland, which attracted the attention of communist Yugoslav authorities.

[1] After the fall of Aleksandar Ranković, one of the most powerful figures in communist era Yugoslavia, Čičak filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Croatia, claiming that authorities had violated his civil rights by banning him from continuing his education.

[1] During the fall 1968 semester, Čičak began organizing student groups within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, which again attracted the attention of the communist government.

[1] Čičak was released from prison on 31 December 1974 and sent for a one-year mandatory conscription in the Yugoslav People's Army, based in the Serbian city of Požarevac.

[1] He returned to the University of Zagreb upon completion of his military conscription and finally graduated with degrees in philosophy and literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.