REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN Annual 2000 The Sixth Annual Report report Abbreviated version Ljubljana, June 2001 Republic of Slovenia Human Rights Ombudsman Annual Report 2000 (The Sixth Annual Report - Abbreviated version) Edited by: Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, June 2001 Translation: Amidas Design: Atelier IM Number of copies: 700 Photos: Archives of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman Published by: Tiskarna Ljubljana Annual and special reports of the Human Rights Ombudsman are also published on web http://www.varuh-rs.si ISSN 1318-9255 CONTENTS Page Introduction . .7 1. Assessment of the respecting of human rights and legal security in the country . .8 2. Issues dealt with . .11 2.1. Fundamental constitutional rights . .11 2.1.1. Elections and electoral legislation . .11 2.1.2. Media ethics . .14 2.1.3. The police acted more effectively after our proposals of more careful treatment of acts of violence which are clearly racially motivated . .14 2.1.4. Access to information of a public nature . .15 2.1.5. Access to information on the environment . .16 2.2. Restrictions of personal freedom . .16 2.2.1. Persons in custody and persons serving prison sentences . .16 2.2.2. Persons with mental disorders . .22 2.3. Judicature . .27 2.3.1. Judicial proceedings . .27 2.3.2. The Public Prosecutor’s Office . .34 2.3.3. Violations proceedings . .37 2.3.4. Attorneys-at-law . .38 2.3.5. Notaries . .39 2.4. Police procedures . .40 2.5. Administrative affairs . .47 2.5.1. General . .47 2.5.2. Citizenship . .47 2.5.3. Aliens . .48 2.5.4. Denationalisation . .51 2.5.5. Taxes and contributions . .53 2.5.6. Other administrative affairs . .56 2.6. Employment and unemployment . .58 2.7. Pension and disability insurance . .59 2.8. Health care . .61 2.9. Social security . .64 2.10. The environment and physical planning . .67 2.11. Housing . .73 3. Information on the work of the Ombudsman . .75 3.1. Methods and forms of work . .76 3.2. International cooperation . .79 3.3. Employees, finance, education . .81 3.4. Statistics . .83 List of abbreviations . .89 4. Description of selected cases . .90 Human rights and human vision have a common vision and a common goal - to ensure freedom, prosperity and dignity for all people: • Protection against discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, na- tionality or faith; • Protection against want; people must enjoy a decent standard of li- ving; • The possibility for the individual to develop and exploit his potentials; • Protection from fear; from threats to personal safety, torture, arbi- trary imprisonment and other violent acts; • Protection against injustice and violations of laws; • Freedom of thought and speech, cooperation in decision-making and association; • The possibility of decent work without exploitation. (Source: HDR 2000) Introduction The report of the Human Rights Ombudsman for 2000 is the sixth report of this institution and the first report to be signed by the second ombudsman. It concludes the final year of work of the first Human Rights Ombudsman. The structure of the report is essentially the same as last year. The decision to retain this structure for this year’s report is an acknowledgement of the work of the previous ombudsman, who was responsible for establishing the institution of Human Rights Om- budsman in Slovenia. Any new approaches in addressing violations of human rights will be a task for the future. Unfortunately the problems and violations of human rights noted in this year’s report are in the main the same as those to which we drew attention last year: the length of time taken to resolve administrative and judicial matters, slowness in passing laws important for the protection of hu- man rights or amending laws inconsistent with the Constitution, the failure to respect legal dead- lines and slowness in adopting non-statutory regulations, the failure to implement laws already in force, etc. This indicates irresponsible behaviour by the holders of authority, who are too little awa- re that slowness or negligence in their work ends up affecting people directly, increases social hardship, reduces the possibilities for tackling poverty and reduces confidence in the State. The State and its institutions are too little aware of this fact. The first chapter of this year’s report contains an assessment of the respecting of human rights and legal security in Slovenia and presents in a condensed form the most important problems we have observed. These are described in more detail in the second (central) chapter (‘Issues Dealt With’). The third chapter contains data on the work of the ombudsman, while the fourth chapter offers brief descriptions of individual cases of interest both to experts and the general public. We expect the Report to be taken seriously by the public and hope that it will contribute to elimi- nating those actions of state bodies, institutions and individuals which constitute violations of hu- man rights. Without respect for these rights we cannot talk about a progressive, developed demo- cratic society in which people enjoy a high quality of life. 7 Chapter 1 1. Assessment of the respecting of human rights and legal security In this report we do not provide or repeat an overall assessment of the respecting of human rights and fundamental freedoms and legal security in Slovenia. An assessment of this kind was provi- ded by the first Human Rights Ombudsman in the 1999 Annual Report, and to a large extent still applies. We therefore intend merely to supplement it briefly with certain changes and emphases on the basis of our work and events in 2000. Once again we are able to state that in terms of the intensity and frequency of cases of violations of human rights, systematic violations of human rights on the part of state bodies do not occur in Slovenia. This assessment, however, is belied by the backlogs of unresolved administrative and judicial matters at state bodies, unless measures to remove these backlogs produce results in the foreseeable future. Legislation None of the laws important for the protection of human rights whose immediate adoption we urged in the last report were passed in 2000 (the Compensation for the Victims of War and Post-War Vio- lence Fund Act was passed by the National Assembly at the beginning of 2001). On the other hand some laws to which the Human Rights Ombudsman has already been drawing attention for a num- ber of years were passed. The most important of these is the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions Act Once again we must emphasise that the process of amending laws with regard to which the Con- stitutional Court has identified non-conformity with the Constitution is too slow. The principle of a state based on the rule of law and the consistent respecting of the principle of the division of aut- hority demand that that unconstitutionalities identified by a Constitutional Court ruling be removed within the set timeframe. The responsibility for failing to respect the decision of the Constitutional Court is also borne in this regard by the Government, which is obliged to propose legal regulation for the removal of unlawfulness established by a Constitutional Court ruling in good time. In some cases the deadline set by the Constitutional Court for the removal of an identified unconstitutio- nality or unlawful provision is exceeded by several years (for example the deadline set for the har- monisation of Article 10 of the Income Tax with the Constitution). Another cause for concern is the fact that laws already in force are not being implemented. The Execution of Judgements in Civil Matters and Enforcement of Claims Act entered into force on 15 8 Assessment of the respecting of human rights and legal security Chapter 1 October 1998 but enforcement officers did not commence execution and enforcement on its ba- sis until 14 April 2000. The non-statutory regulations for the implementation of the Act were is- sued after a delay of several months, and there were also delays in other preparations, including the appointment of enforcement officers. Failure to respect legal deadlines and slowness in adopting non-statutory regulations is becoming an increasingly common practice - as though the State had reconciled itself to exceeding the dead- lines within which non-statutory regulations are supposed to be prepared and issued. And slow- ness in adopting non-statutory acts is not the only area where criticism is due: too little care is of- ten devoted to the preparation of their texts. Within the sphere of legislation the expected procedures for adopting statutes which would mean a realisation of the strategic plan for the reform of public administration have failed to materiali- se. According to the Government Programme for 2001 significant changes can be counted on this year. The adoption of the constitutional statute on the amendment of Article 80 of the Constitution and significant inadequacies in procedures relating to the exercising of the right to vote, to which we have been drawing attention for a number of years, require the adoption as soon as possible of an act amending the National Assembly Elections Act. Openness In a modern democratic state based on the rule of law the work of state bodies should be public, and transparency open and transparent, and the possibility of access to data and information of a public nature in the work should be guaranteed by statute. This last right is guaranteed by Article 39 of the Constitution but of State bodies it is worrying to see that this right, classed as a fundamental human right, cannot be exercised without a special law - and the law governing the exercising of this constitutional right has not yet been passed.