Thereare no particular innovations regarding violation of human rights inSlovenia as similar violations occur year after year, Slovenia'sOmbudsman Matjaz Hanzek told the press on Thursday, presenting hisoffice's 2002 report. According to the ombudsman, state institutionshave been changing very slowly, some noticeably for the better, whileothers still remain very rigid.

Eighthin a row, the 2002 report is much more extended than the previous ones.More cases have been described and the report also includes indicationsfor some possible solutions.

Accordingto the report, state officials are governed by carelessness thereforethey are not sensitive enough for the people's problems. "Far moreenergy is used to avoid doing anything and to prove that nothing can bedone, rather than to use this energy to solve a problem," said Hanzek.

Accordingto Hanzek's office, marginal groups do not turn to the office for help.Therefore, Hanzek suggests that an institution be established thatwould deal with all kinds of discrimination on a systemic andsystematic levels.

AsHanzek pointed out, this duty could be performed by the offices whichhave been established in order to tackle such issues. However, theirwork is too fragmentised and stretched between different political andparty interests, while they also lack personnel and legal definitions.

Regardingchildren's rights, Hanzek pointed to the social care centres, which are"very hard to move" and are rather slow. Moreover, when they finallymanage to convince the centres to issue an order, the process getsstuck in local administration.

In2000, the office of the ombudsman handled 3,490 cases, 3,087 (88.5%) ofthem were also closed, which is 1.5 percent less than the year before.403 cases were left unsolved with 141 of them being solved currently.Comparing the number of closed cases (3,087) to the number of casesopened in 2002, the former outnumbered the latter by 7.5 percent.

Earliertoday, Hanzek handed over the report to Speaker of Parliament BorutPahor. They agreed that next year the office of the ombudsman will tryto finish the report earlier so as to enable the parliament to discussit before the parliamentary break and not as late as in autumn as hasbeen the case over the years. On Monday, Hanzek is to hand the reportover to President Janez Drnovsek.