Human Rights Ombudsman Matjaz Hanzek has outlined the "Tackle Discrimination" project, a series of workshops to be held this week in order to raise awareness among civil servants about discrimination.
According to Hanzek, the project is important because people know too little about discrimination. Often we think that we are being politically correct although we are not, Hanzek said.

Today's presentation, said Hanzek, is aimed at presenting the project to the broad public and pointed to cases of hate speech in Slovenia's parliament. He stressed that foreign visitors to this week's event were surprised by Deputy Parliament Speaker Saso Pece's welcoming speech in which he spoke about "made-up discrimination".

Hanzek said that Pece's claim that minorities stand to gain additional rights through discussion of discrimination as ridiculous.

The event is to get underway on Tuesday with a seminar on the European approach to tackling discrimination, where participants will present practices from around Europe.

On Thursday and Friday, around 60 police officers will take part in an anti-discrimination workshop in Tacen.

The Office of the Ombudsman is working with the Austrian Institute of Human Rights on the project.

Apart from this week, the workshops, which will feature EU experts, are also to take place in September, October and November, which will discuss various types of discrimination.

Meanwhile, the Slovenian Association for Integration of Homosexuality (DIH) addressed a protest to Parliament Speaker France Cukjati and Hanzek against the choice of Pece as a speaker at the event.

DIH said it found the choice of Pece, deputy speaker of parliament and a member of the National Party (SNS), inappropriate and insulting to the parliament as well as all individuals and organisations fighting against violence and discrimination.

Pece has a history of hate speech, xenophobic and homophobic views, and inappropriate, humiliating, insulting and intolerant statements about minorities and marginal groups, the DIH said.