Human Rights Ombudsman Matjaz Hanzek does not think his office will be scrapped as some politicians have suggested. In an interview published today, Hanzek said that such ideas were more of a pressure on his work than an actual attempt to abolish the office.

Ombudsman's Office is based on the Constitution, which means that its scrapping would require constitutional changes, Hanzek said in the interview with daily Delo, adding that "this is not that simple".
"Besides, we are in the European Union, where ombudsman's office is one of the democratic standards," the ombudsman explained in the interview published in the Saturday supplement of Delo.

Asked to comment on the abuse of police on the part of politics, Hanzek said that the incumbent government believed it could do this in the name of a high national goal. As an example he quoted Prime Minister Janez Jansa defending the fact that the genocide charges against former Communist official Mitja Ribicic were revealed to the public.

The ombudsman believes that such reasoning is very dangerous. "If we accept the argument that it is not necessary to observe the law in case of higher goals, we are back where we ran away from decades ago...the biggest problem is that the authorities are not even aware that this is impermissible."

Hanzek was also asked to comment on the police following a reporter at the request of the parliamentary intelligence supervision commission. He said that he had requested a report about the case right after learning about it.

The fact that his office has not received the report although the deadline has been missed already shows that something "must be terribly wrong", Hanzek said.

The ombudsman admitted that he was intolerant of intolerance, but was quick to add that "this is a form of intolerance that is required". He quoted Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who addressing a conference in Seville as the OSCE chairman, said one must be intolerant of intolerance.

Hanzek could not say whether Slovenians were intolerant or not compared to other nations. While some surveys show them to be very intolerant, there are not many outbreaks of intolerance, Hanzek said, but added that regardless of the number of such incidents, there were always far too many of them.

"The reason is probably that Slovenians prefer to grumble, rage and get drunk in a pub over giving vent to their hatred against someone actively." Hanzek believes that intolerance is often the result of fear and ignorance so it is very important how those who enjoy respect in the society react to particular problems.

Asked whether he had managed to achieve the goals he set himself at the beginning of his term in office, Hanzek said that his first priority was to make the ombudsman's office more recognisable in Slovenia. "I think I have achieved this."

Hanzek is also satisfied that the office has opened a special department responsible for the protection and promotion of human rights of children and youth, and a department dealing with discrimination and intolerance.