Recommendations for the year 2005
The National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, pursuant to Articles 272 and 111 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly (Uradni list RS, Nos. 35/02 and 60/04), at its session on 28 November 2006, after considering the Eleventh Regular Annual Report of the Human Rights Ombudsman for the year 2005, adopted the following
RECOMMENDATIONS
I. Constitutional rights
1. In cooperation with non-governmental organisations, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: the Government) should put in place the programmes of awareness raising or informing the public on human rights.
2. Considering the fact that children are more and more often victims of disputable publications in the media, the Government should study the option of further legal regulation and penalisation of such occurrences.
3. The Government should study the possibilities of providing efficient mechanisms to prevent or limit hate speech and similar contentious contents in the media and the Internet.
II. Discrimination
4. The Government should use adequate measures to provide the conditions of exercising equal treatment to all in enforcing their rights and duties in all spheres of their social life, regardless of personal circumstances.
5. The Government should adopt adequate measures to prevent incitement to any expression of intolerance and hatred.
III. Restrictions of personal freedom
6. As regards the restrictions of personal freedom, all the competent bodies should strictly guarantee the respect of human rights, equality before law and international standards of treating the persons who are deprived of freedom.
7. The Government should regulate the protection of mental patients and propose a Mental health Act.
IV. Justice
8. The Government and courts should adopt additional measures to ensure the right to trial without undue delay, and quality judicial treatment. Appropriate control instruments that will not affect the independence of judges should be put in place. The Government should guarantee suitable staffing and spatial conditions for the work of judicial authorities.
9. The Courts should put even more stress on the out-of-court settlement of disputes by applying mediation and other forms of alternative resolution of disputes.
10. The competent judiciary bodies should provide professional and efficient representation to minor victims of criminal acts.
V. Administrative matters
11. Considering the increased number of administrative disputes, the Supreme Court should find solutions to speed up their resolution.
12. The Government and the competent ministries should ensure the adoption of efficient additional measures to bring the denationalisation procedures to an end.
13. The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning should study the problem of assessing the compensation for the use of unexploited building land and propose adequate measures.
14. In line with the positions of the mixed commission for resolving the problems of material war damage, the Government should take a clear position on the payment of compensation.
VI. Housing affairs
15. The Government and the local communities should take action to promote competitiveness in the offer of apartments and facilitate access to this benefit especially to the socially more disadvantaged part of the population. The need to adopt additional measures for a more efficient implementation of subsidised rents should also be studied.
VII. Labour relationships
16. Upon adopting economic and other measures for creating the possibilities of employment and work, the Government should ensure sufficient legal protection of the employees’ rights and a more efficient control over their implementation, and be critical to requests for reducing them.
VIII. Pension and disability insurance
17. The Government should ensure necessary measures for stricter respect of the rights to social security, and prevent, before setting up records of payments by an individual, that employees should bear negative effects of unpaid contributions for the pension and disability insurance by the employers.
IX. Health insurance and health care
18. The Government should promptly ensure legal regulation of the patients’ rights.
19. The Ministry of Health should study the reasons for exceeded time limits in the procedures of enforcing the rights from the compulsory health insurance by the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia and take immediate action.
20. The Government should resolve at normative level the issues related to the field of alternative treatment.
21. The Government or the competent ministry should promptly submit a Mental Health Act for discussion and adoption.
22. Upon drafting amendments to the Health Care and Health Insurance Act, the Government or the competent ministry should review the criteria and the conditions for including the persons for whom the compulsory health insurance charges are paid by the municipalities.
23. The Government or the competent ministries should carefully study the solutions related to the insight into medical files, their forwarding to the bodies who are deciding on the patients’ rights, and the provisions related to the handling and archiving of these documents.
X. Social security
24. In conducting the policies and adopting decisions within its competence, the Government should endeavour to find preventive solutions in the field of social care, especially aimed at preventing the poverty and the consequent occurrences, including homelessness, violence, addiction etc.
XI. Children’s rights
25. The Government should strengthen control over the exercise of children’s rights and study the possibilities for more efficient action especially in cases of psychological harassment and physical violence, any type of discrimination, neglect or abuse.
26. In the field of education and training, the Government should devote special attention to the group of children and young people with special needs in order to ensure favourable conditions for their development and progress.
27. As soon as possible, the Government should prepare measures for preventing family violence.