On 12 June 2023, the Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina participated at the consultation about the position of the elderly and pensioners in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. He emphasised that caring for the elderly is our common responsibility and that the institution of the Ombudsman is very active in this field. “I often like to emphasise that human rights are founded on dignity, yet unfortunately my colleagues and I frequently find that as a community, a society, and a state we often forget about the elderly who are one of the vulnerable groups. In recent days we have been closely monitoring the discussion and the proposals related to the Long Term Care Act. We are worried about the manner in which such a complex part of legislation is being adopted, the primary concern is the unreasonably short deadline for public discussion and inter-ministerial coordination,” Ombudsman Svetina said.

He added that the right answer to a long-lived society is deinstitutionalisation and not only the increase of capacities in institutions or construction of new retirement homes. Deinstitutionalisation is a deviation from the institutionalisation mindset in the direction of independent living with support in the community. “The state is obliged to do this and we at the Ombudsman will watch over this and continue to bring attention to this obligation. It is unacceptable that the elderly are placed in institutions even though they want to end their life with dignity in their own home environment. Those who need care should to a greater extent be offered forms of community care, such as day centres and living units, which already successfully operate in certain places,” explained the Human Rights Ombudsman.

At the consultation, Ombudsman Svetina presented the findings of the National Preventive Mechanism, the members of which visited 17 retirement homes last year. “In the past, we have warned several times about the inappropriate staff norms in retirement homes and even though these norms were updated last year and the number of employees will gradually increase, we have found during our visits that retirement homes face a different issue, which is the fact that the labour market does not have staff with the skills the retirement homes need for the best possible care for their residents,” Svetina expressed his concern.

Concerning the economic position of the elderly and their increasing poverty, the Ombudsman highlighted that these are two problems that desperately need addressing, since too many pensions do not enable a decent standard of living. “We support and call for the preparation of measures for the improvement of the position of pensioners. We are especially alert to the issue of intersectional discrimination, when discrimination based on several different personal circumstances occurs. Especially vulnerable, for example, are older women with low pensions who live alone and are all too frequently exposed to the poverty threshold and social exclusion. We warn that in such cases decision-makers are, based on disaggregated data, obliged to adopt measures of positive discrimination,” emphasised Svetina.

Ahead of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day marked on 15 June, Human Rights Ombudsman Svetina brought attention to the fact that the institution of the Ombudsman has been detecting more intolerance towards the elderly. “We need greater awareness of the elderly both regarding their rights and the prevention of violence, discrimination, the importance of financial autonomy, and the like. The elderly often are not aware that they are subject to ageism and discrimination. Hence, it is necessary to do more to raise awareness about recognising stereotypes, including among older people themselves. We also support the efforts of the United Nations for the drafting of the Convention on the Protection of the Elderly; unfortunately, in my opinion, the talks are running too slowly. We salute the work of Slovenia which is among the most active supporters of the convention in the negotiations, though we stress that this support should also be reflected in the adoption of concrete measures at home. After all, we at the Ombudsman have made several recommendations regarding the elderly, many of which unfortunately still await their realisation,” Ombudsman Svetina said.

He added that the institution of the Ombudsman will continue to actively work for the good of all generations, especially the older ones. “I believe that it is the elderly who deserve special attention. Not only because they are not protected by any international convention or our legislation, but also because it is our common civilisational duty,” Peter Svetina concluded his address.