Commission Report 2002 (Slovakia)

Civil and political rights

Additional steps have been taken to further improve the protection of civil and political rights, although some issues remain a source of concern.

Degrading treatment by the police continues to be reported. Persons belonging to the Roma community are at particular risk of being the victim of such treatment. In a number of cases, members of the police have reportedly used pressure to discourage the victims from filing charges of police brutality. The Ministry of the Interior is continuing its efforts to remedy this situation. A new internal instruction aims at strengthening control activities with a view to preventing and disclosing cases of alleged unlawful conduct of members of the police corps. Moreover, a new Police Code of Conduct has been approved by the Ministry of Interior in February 2002. Further efforts are needed to address this problem, including through training, and by reinforcing mechanisms for redressing police misconduct.

In June 2002, a Department for combating trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation has been set up within the Office for the fight against organised crime, thus upgrading the special branch referred to in last year's report. The amended Criminal Code has introduced the offence of trafficking of human beings. Slovakia continues to be a country of origin, transit, and destination for the trafficking of women and children.

There are indications that the duration of pre-trial detention remains excessively long in certain cases. Concerns have been expressed about cases of excessive use of force by the police against people in custody.

Prison conditions generally meet international standards but in a number of cases there are reports about overcrowded prisons.

As regards legal aid, it is reported that counsels for the defence in criminal proceedings often do not properly defend the rights of the accused persons, as payment by the State for legal aid provided by the counsels is very low and frequently not transferred to them promptly.

In the field of asylum, a new Asylum Act was adopted by Parliament in June 2002, providing, inter alia, for the long-awaited establishment of an independent body to act as the second instance in the asylum procedure.

In March 2002, the Government adopted a second Action Plan to prevent all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and other forms of intolerance. It foresees, inter alia, training of professional groups (such as the police, judges, prosecutors, soldiers and civil servants), activities in the educational sector, the strengthening of governmental bodies dealing with the fight against racism, enhancing co-operation between state institutions and NGOs in preventing discrimination and adopting anti-discrimination related legislation. The Slovak criminal code penalises a number of acts committed on racist grounds. Meanwhile, there continue to be reports of racially motivated violence, in particular directed against persons belonging to the Roma community, and the alleged failure of the law enforcement authorities to take action in a number of these. In some cases, the police have been reported to coerce Roma to refrain from bringing charges.

As regards freedom of expression, a parliamentary motion to repeal the existing provisions of the Criminal Code that make defamation of the State President, the Government and the Constitutional Court an offence, was narrowly defeated in November 2001. In January 2002, however, the Constitutional Court suspended these provisions on the grounds that they could endanger freedom of speech. It ordered further examination of a Parliamentarian's complaint that the paragraphs are unconstitutional. As a result, these provisions are temporarily ineffective.

The freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, and no particular problems have been reported in this regard. Some religious organisations, however, complain about not receiving public financial support as they are not registered. In order to be registered, the signatures of at least 20 000 permanent residents adhering to this religion are necessary.

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