US Report on Human Rights in Line with Expectations

Washington, 08 March

The US State Department delivers an overall positive opinion of Slovenia in its annual human rights report, but mentions recurrent cases of media self-censorship, violence against women, trafficking in women and discrimination against minorities and homosexuals.

According to the 2005 report, Slovenian journalists continue to exercise self-censorship, while big media outlets still fail to provide for equal presentation of all political and business parties.
The report also mentions cases of political pressure, which could worsen with a recently passed law on the public broadcaster RTV Slovenia. The acquittal of five persons accused of participating in the 2001 attempted murder of journalist Miro Petek is mentioned.
According to the report, the judicial system in the country is overburdened and lacks administrative support. The State Department also makes a mention of the abolishment of the independent commission for the prevention of corruption.
The report also states that violence against women continues to be a problem, but adds that awareness of spousal abuse and other violence against women as increased. The new human trafficking legislation has yielded results as far as apprehending traffickers is concerned, the report states.
As to the rights of minorities, the report says that the Roma community had not been given special rights provided for other minorities. Homosexuals are considered to be another group suffering discrimination. Conditions supposedly also worsened for asylum seekers, who due to expedited procedures were not receiving appropriate treatment.
The report also points to the unresolved status of the erased - over 18,000 former Yugoslav citizens erased from Slovenia's population registry after independence.

US Report on Human Rights in Line with Expectations

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