COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION COMPLETES CONSIDERATION OF FIFTH REPORT OF SLOVENIA

CERD
62nd session
14 March 2003
Morning



Adopts Conclusions and Recommendations on
Situation in Papua New Guinea



The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded this morning its review of a fifth periodic report of Slovenia, with an Expert saying the report was very positive and unique in its presentation.
Committee Expert Kurt Herndl, who served as country rapporteur for the report of Slovenia, said the delegation had provided satisfactory responses to the questions raised by the Committee's Experts. He noted as well that Slovenia had made a declaration under article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrcimination, recognizing the Committee's competence to receive and consider individual communications.
Responding to questions, members of the Slovenian delegation said, among other things, that an amendment to the country’s law on refugees had resolved problems regarding such persons. They added that out of 2,046 refugees, 1,957 had been granted permanent residence permits, enabling them to enjoy all rights to education, health and employment.
The delegation told the Committee that over 171,000 persons who had been citizens of other republics of the former Yugoslavia and who had permanent residence in Slovenia had been granted Slovene citizenship; only 4,205 persons remained in the registry who had neither regulated their alien status, taken citizenship, nor given notice of departure.
Participating in the morning’s debate were Committee Experts Yuri A. Reshetov, Jose A. Lindgren Alves, Nourredine Amir, Alexandre Sicilianos, Regis de Gouttes, Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Mario Jorge Yutzis, Patrick Thornberry and Ion Diaconu.
The Committee will issue its conclusions and recommendations on the report of Slovenia before it closes its three-week session on 21 March.
Slovenia is among the 167 States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and must submit periodic reports on efforts to give effect to the provisions of the treaty.
Also this morning, the Committee adopted concluding observations on the situation in Papua New Guinea, calling – in the absence of a report from the State party – for Papua New Guinea to fulfil its obligations under the Convention and among other things to provide information on the situation of Bougainville.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it is scheduled to take up the fifth and sixteenth periodic reports of Poland (CERD/C/384/Add.6).

Response of Slovenia to Committee Questions
The Slovenian delegation provided the Committee with responses to questions raised during yesterday's meeting. Members of the delegation said, among other things, that officially 7,000 to 10,000 Roma lived in Slovenia. They were provided with all they needed to enable them to integrate into society. They had common institutions to promote their interests. Gradual implementation of a programme concerning the rights of Roma had already produced results. The participation of Roma in municipal and local elections had enabled them to resolve some of the local problems they encountered. In addition, the Government had provided vocational training to Roma children so that they could benefit from employment opportunities.
The image of the Roma in the mass media had been improving, thanks to the participation of high-level Government authorities in events and through the cultural dialogue being carried out between the Roma community and other segments of society, the delegation said. The media continued to cover cultural events relating to the Roma. Young Roma also had trained as journalists, which had enabled them to have their own radio stations and to disseminate information on Roma culture to the whole population. As result, public attitudes towards the Roma were now evolving positively.
Affirmative action programmes had been undertaken by the Government to foster the rights of minorities who might not fully benefit from the national action plan for development, the delegation said. In general, the rights of minorities were respected and promoted through specific measures tailored to their respective needs and situations.
Human rights protection in Slovenia was based on Constitutional rights and legislative measures, the delegation said. There were judicial measures and review procedures available to field individual claims of rights violations. Individuals who exhausted all judicial procedures for their claims could directly appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman had been established in Slovenia based on the Scandinavian concept, giving it legal basis, the delegation said. The Ombudsman might propose but not intervene in juridical procedures.
Suspected terrorists were tried under current criminal acts and the Government did not have special legal provisions on the issue, the delegation said. A number of bilateral agreements on terrorism had been signed by the Government with neighbouring States.
The delegation said the legal system of Slovenia, instituted on 25 June 1991 under the Citizenship Act and the Aliens Act, consistently respected the fundamental principles of international customary law. In application of the principle of free will and free choice of the individual, citizens of other republics of the former Yugoslavia who did not want to become Slovenes were not compelled by law to do so. Over 171,000 persons with citizenship in other republics who had permanent residence in Slovenia had been granted Slovene citizenship. In addition, some 16,108 other persons had been granted citizenship. Slovenia had therefore recognized the principle of legal continuity and prevented the occurrence of de jure statelessness.
The delegation said only 4,205 persons remained in the registry who, according to information provided by the Ministry of the Interior of Slovenia, had neither regulated their alien status nor their citizenship, nor had given notice of departure.
The situation of temporary refugees had been regulated through a legal amendment of Parliament to the previous law on refugees, the delegation said. Out of 2,046 refugees, 1,957 had been granted permanent residence permits, enabling them to enjoy all rights to education, health and employment. Cases of asylum-seekers were processed in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees. There were also other foreigners from different countries living and working in the country who had obtained residence or work permits.
Mother-tongue education was provided from an early age for the children of minorities, the delegation said. Teaching could also be conducted in minority languages on a bilateral basis with the countries of origin of minorities.

Committee Experts raised a number of follow-up questions.
Responding, the Slovenian delegation said Serbians, Croats and Bosnians had not been considered minorities in the period before Slovenia became independent, as all had shared common citizenship. At present, among the majority Slovenes, they were considered "new ethnic minorities".
Roma children were educated in accordance with the country's educational system, the delegation said. They were not put in a segregated school system. Other minorities also had the right to preserve their identities and languages. The country's law on education was equally applied to all without distinction. The essential thing was not the status given to them as minorities or nationalities but the development of their own characteristics within society.
KURT HERNDL, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur for the report of Slovenia, said the report and the dialogue with the delegation had been positive. The report was unique in its presentation and was exemplary. The Committee had receive a satisfactory response to its concerns about the Roma and about matters of citizenship. Slovenia also had made a declaration under article 14 of the Convention, recognizing the Committee's competence to receive and consider individual communications. Slovenia had taken care of the interests of different people so that they could live together in Slovenian society.

Concluding Observations on Papua New Guinea
The Committee said that despite its repeated requests, Papua New Guinea had not fulfilled its obligations under article 9, paragraph 1, of the Convention; it had submitted neither its periodic report nor the additional information requested concerning situation in Bougainville. No dialogue between the State party and the Committee had taken place since 1984.
The Committee reiterated its previous decisions on Papua New Guinea, in which it requested the State party to fulfil its obligations and to provide information on the situation in Bougainville. It urged the State party to provide information, in particular, on the demographic composition of the population, on the advancement of the economic, social and cultural rights of various ethnic groups, and on incidents of racial discrimination.
The Committee drew the attention of the State party to the provisions of the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, according which the International Convention was the principal international instrument for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and States were urged to cooperate with the Committee to promote the effective implementation of the Convention.
Further, the Committee wished to make a strong appeal to the authorities of Papua New Guinea to resume a dialogue with the Committee and to that end to submit a report in accordance with article 9 of the Convention. The Committee wished to draw the State party's attention to the possibility of availing itself of technical assistance offered under the advisory services and technical assistance programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Committee decided that, in the absence of any indication on the part of the State party that it would comply with its obligation under article 9, paragraph 1, of the Convention, it would consider the implementation of the Convention in that country at its sixty-fourth session, in March 2004.



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