 A poor response of the government and parliament to the warnings of the ombudsman's office urging them to address the known systemic problems relating to human rights in Slovenia is actually a form of systematic violation of those rights, as problems in exercising human rights result from inadequate functioning of the state, Slovene Ombudsman Ivan Bizjak said on Thursday as he presented the 1998 report. It is the fourth annual report since the institute of ombudsman was established in 1994.
As in the past, the ombudsman again pointed out the slowness of the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government, which renders the exercising of certain human rights and their protection difficult or even impossible. Bizjak presented the report to National Assembly Speaker Janez Podobnik on Thursday, wishing the parliament would debate it as soon as possible. The report (slovenian version) is also available on the Internet: www.varuh-rs.si.
Apart from warning of most problematic and recurring issues (social problems, independence-related problems etc.), the latest report focuses on legal security, public administration functioning, accessibility of information that is in the interest of the public and establishing of effective complaint procedures. An unreasonable length of time needed for a ruling to be made in numerous court and administrative procedures is still a major problem.
The ombudsman's office received 3448 complaints in 1998 or by 16 percent more than a year before. As in the past, the majority of cases again related to legal and police procedures (26.3 percent) and administrative matters (20.8 percent). Last year the highest increase was recorded in the complaints pertaining to personal freedom restriction, which went up by over 66 percent, while the complaints in the area of employment increased by over 60 percent. There were by 21 percent less complaints pertaining to the environment than in 1997.
Together with cases left from previous years, the ombudsman's office dealt with 3980 cases and concluded 3505 by the end of 1998, recording an increase of 4.9 percent from 1997.
