The Human Rights Ombudsman welcomes the Fourth Annual Report of the European Commission on the State of the Rule of Law for 2023. Regarding Slovenia, the European Commission in its report detects progress on all four discussed areas, i.e. in the field of the judicial system, prevention of corruption, plurality, and freedom of the media, and other institutional questions influencing the national system of checks and balances.
The Ombudsman welcomes the fact that at the end of June a new law amendment to the Public Finance Act was adopted which introduces the necessary guarantees for the budgetary autonomy of the four independent state bodies (National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia, and Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia). “I am pleased that the decision of the Constitutional Court from December 2020 is finally implemented. The essence of the new arrangement is that the government must reference the budget proposal by the independent state body to the National Assembly even if it does not agree with it. This will also ensure the financial autonomy of the four state bodies, which is one of the conditions for their independence,” emphasised Ombudsman Svetina.
He added that in its report the European Commission warns about the high number of unrealised Ombudsman’s recommendations. They especially highlight the unrealised recommendation of the Ombudsman that the government should establish a special mechanism for the provision of expert help with the enforcement of decisions by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, which would operate in a similar manner as the previously established and successful mechanism for the enforcement of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights. “The report of the European Commission has to be understood as a significant indicator of the state of the rule of law. I expect the state to study all the recommendations as soon as possible and implement them into the Slovenian legal order,” stressed the Human Rights Ombudsman.
The institution of the Ombudsman referred its own report on the state of the rule of law in Slovenia again this year, i.e. through the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI). The Ombudsman’s report is part of the ENNHRI 2023 Report on the State of the Rule of Law (p. 584–603). This report emphasises the evaluation of the state of the rule of law by ENNHRI and national human rights institutions and warns about the need to ensure the respect of human rights in the use of artificial intelligence. The key recommendation of the Ombudsman to national bodies in the field of digitalisation and artificial intelligence is to devote special attention to the aspects of human rights and the rule of law in the digitalisation of different systems and subsystems of society in such a way that no vulnerable group will be discriminated against.
