Ljubljana, 07 April (STA) - Slovenia's human rights ombudsman has criticised Labour Minister Janez Drobnic for not finding the time to meet him yet, even though the government has been in office for more than three months.
According to Matjaz Hanzek, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs has still not responded to his requests for a meeting.
The ministry's attitude bothers him since it is one of the main departments dealing with human and social rights in Slovenia, Hanzek told the press on Thursday.
In response, the ministry issued a press release saying that the ministry intends to contact the ombudsman in order to agree on a time and place for the meeting. The ministry also said they respect the ombudsman's findings.
This is the second time that Hanzek has gone public about the labour minister's failure to meet him since the new government took office; he first brought up the issue in late February. However, nothing has changed since then, he said today.
Moreover, Hanzek said he was hoping to meet PM Janez Jansa in the near future to discuss the main human rights issues in Slovenia. These include the erased citizens, the construction of a mosque, Roma policy and increasing cases of hate speech in politics.
Touching on topical issues, the ombudsman said his office had found the system of separation of Roma children at a Slovenian primary school to be contrary to regulations.
The model applied at the Brsljin primary school in Novo mesto fails to meet the necessary criteria and was not adopted correctly, he explained.
However, his office could not make a final conclusion on whether the scheme was discriminatory, since the Ministry of Education and the school in question failed to provide documents explaining the move.
"However, the school and the ministry failed to give us unequivocal assurances that the only criteria used for separating pupils was proficiency," the Ombudsman's office said in its conclusion on the matter.
Hanzek also said he was against such separation of children, as this "makes them believe they are inferior to others".
Our opinion on this matter is not an attempt to oppose the ministry, but to oppose anybody who supports any type of discrimination, Hanzek added.
The scheme was put into practice after parents of the majority of children at the school claimed the Romany children were disturbing lessons, making it impossible for their children to learn.
The scheme in turn prompted the Roma community to boycott the school in protest against what they perceived as segregation. The issue looks to have been settled after Wednesday's visit of Education Minister Milan Zver to Novo mesto.
Speaking about mounting cases of hate speech by Slovenian politicians, Hanzek said his counterparts from Europe were amazed by what was going on in Slovenia.
"They cannot understand how someone who says they would never have coffee with somebody who is gay or black can become a deputy speaker of the National Assembly," Hanzek said in reference to Saso Pece, an MP of the hardline National Party (SNS).
