Slovenia | The plurality of the Council of the Ombudsman has contributed to the value of the Ombudsman institution

After the first meeting of the Council of the Human Rights Ombudsman (Council), Ombudsman Vlasta Nussdorfer and the Chairperson of the Council Dr. Kornelija Marzel, Deputy Ombudsman, presented the Council's tasks, orientations and composition and contribution to the functioning of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia (Ombudsman).

The Ombudsman first presented the long-standing efforts of all ombudsmen to establish a National Human Rights Institution. The Ombudsman has warned for many years, also with recommendations in annual reports and consultations, that there is no institution in Slovenia operating on the basis of the Paris Principles adopted by such institutions and approved by the bodies of the United Nations Organisation, including the General Assembly. The General Assembly adopted these principles with United Nations General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 20 December 1993, emphasised the Ombudsman. She added that the Ombudsman would appropriately mark the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Principles at the end of the year.

Recommendations for transforming the Ombudsman institution into an NHRI were also made by several countries within the framework of the second round of the consideration of Slovenia under the Universal Periodic Review of Countries (UPR). This issue has been on the agenda several times of the Inter-ministerial Working Group for Human Rights within the framework of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the meetings of the Group, the Ombudsman expressed readiness to assume full membership as NHRI with A status according to the Paris Principles on the condition that suitable staff and material are made available to enable such duties to be fulfilled. In these discussions, the Ombudsman proposed that the most rational solution for Slovenia would be to reorganise the Ombudsman institution into a national institution as per the Paris Principles according to the Finnish example.

The National Assembly has repeatedly approved the Ombudsman's recommendations on the need to ensure the conditions for the functioning of a NHRI, but no progress was made in their implementation until December 2017, when the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the Act Amending the Human Rights Ombudsman Act.

With these legislative amendments, the Ombudsman received wider authorisations and tasks, and in particular, the legal basis for the functioning of the Human Rights Centre and the Council of the Ombudsman. On this legal basis, the ten-year project of child advocacy finally became an independent organisational unit of the Ombudsman. The law stipulates that individual organisational units are led by deputies; therefore, the Ombudsman authorised her deputy, Dr. Kornelija Marzel, to lead the Council.

The Ombudsman expressed her satisfaction that the transition to the NHRI occurred in the year when Slovenia is holding the Presidency of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, the leading international body in the field of human rights.

The Ombudsman has already been performing many of the tasks performed also by the NHRI, but for acquiring A status under the Paris Principles, this did not satisfy the condition of plurality of composition and did not have the appropriate financial and material resources to perform these tasks. The establishment of the Council as the consulting body of the Ombudsman ensures the guarantees for pluralistic representation of social forces (civil society) involved in protecting and promoting human rights. Also, the Ombudsman has received adequate funds for the work of the Council and the Centre, which will start to operate on 1 January 2019 in accordance with the amended Ombudsman Act. Year after year, the institution of the Ombudsman has encountered interference with its financial independence, the Ombudsman said, warning again of the problems which she also outlined in the annual report for 2017 (page 68).

The Ombudsman hopes that now that all conditions have been met and that there will be no further obstacles to change its B status into A according to the Paris Principles. According to the Ombudsman, she is expecting to apply for a status change in autumn. As a status B country, we are currently classified among those countries that are not exemplary regarding the level of respect for human rights, she said. She also emphasised that as many as 77 national institutions have A status, while 33 (including the Ombudsman) have B status. Ten institutions that do not meet the minimum requirements under the Paris Principles have status C.

Status A will significantly contribute to Slovenia's reputation with respect to international connections and mechanisms in the field of human rights, added the Chairperson of the Council, Dr. Kornelija Marzel. In its basic principles, the Ombudsman remains an individually managed body for dealing with initiatives, and the latest legal amendment allows certain segments of society to influence Ombudsman's work, she emphasises. The Chairperson of the Council estimates that the Council, as one of four internal organisational units of the Ombudsman, will be a kind of formalised form of cooperation with representatives of society, with which the Ombudsman already cooperates well, while the views and opinions of the members on current human rights issues will increase the value of the work of the institution.

To read the full press article, please visit the website of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia

 

Source: Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, Slovenia

Share this site on Twitter Shara this site on Facebook Send the link to this site via E-Mail