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Universal Periodic Review
Universal Periodic Review Session 48: Slovenia

Palais des Nations
© FNF Human Rights Hub

Slovenia underwent its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a peer review of the human rights situation in the respective countries.

Following the presentation of the national report by the Slovenian delegation and an initial round of Member States statements, four main categories of recommendations could be identified:

(1) human trafficking

(2) living conditions of the Roma people

(3) gender equality

(4) hate speech

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Slovenia is a transit and country of destination for victims of trafficking in persons. Persons trafficked across Slovenia, among whom are a significant number of children and women, are often destined for European countries were they are exploited for sexual and labor purposes.

Despite repeated calls from Member States for Slovenia to ratify the ‘International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families’ as a preventive measure, including from previous UPR cycles, the delegation explained that there were no efforts being made by the Slovenian government to ratify this Covenant during their opening statement.  The recommendations concerning trafficking in human beings focused mainly around victims support, training of officials and preventive action and early identification of victims. When given the opportunity to reply, the Slovenian delegation listed many campaigns, trainings and activities that contribute to these goals; however, they did not address or explain the refusal to ratify the Covenant.

The exact number of the Roma population in Slovenia is unknown due to factors such as underreporting. However, estimates range from 7000 to 12000 individuals. As stated and recommended during Slovenia’s third UPR session, many, if not all, Roma settlements lack basic infrastructure like access to drinking water, but also access to healthcare and education. Slovenia has made some efforts to improve the living conditions of the Roma people, but was urged by the majority to dedicate more resources to improving access to infrastructure, water, education and healthcare for Roma people.

In terms of gender equality, the majority of the Member states commended the reduction of the pay gap and continued efforts through the National Action Plan. Furthermore, a number of Member States mentioned gender based violence (GBV) as well as domestic violence, and recommended that the government should ramp up its efforts in the persecution of perpetrators of such acts, citing the low numbers of prosecutions. As with trafficking of human beings, trainings of officials and victim support were the most prominent recommendations to improve in this area.

Lastly, hate speech was addressed repeatedly. This referred to both online and offline harassment, including sexual harassment of women. The Slovenian delegation mentioned the recent Media Act that prohibits ‘incitement to inequality and intolerance, including dissemination of programme content that incites national, racial, religious, sexual or any other inequality, violence and war, or provokes national, racial, religious, sexual or any other hatred and intolerance’.

In general, the UPR session on Slovenia went smoothly as the country has a track record of addressing and integrating UPR recommendations to their systems and policies, albeit at different speeds.

The Human Rights Hub also reported on the fourth UPR session on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was arguably more controversial than the UPR on Slovenia.

Universal Periodic Review Session 48: Iran

Room XX

Iran underwent its fourth Universal Periodic Review, a peer review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.

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