The right to privacy in the decision-making procedures of state prosecution The Ombudsman received a complaint from a person who, as the injured party of a criminal offence, received a decision dismissing a criminal complaint from the district state prosecutor’s office (DSP). Three burglaries in which where three other persons were harmed were also considered in this decision. The DSP sent the decision to dismiss the criminal complaint to all four injured parties, thus revealing their private data. The explanatory note contained the names, surnames and addresses of residences of the injured parties, information on the value of stolen property and the dates of the burglaries. The complainant believed that this violated their right to privacy. 2.2 DISCRIMINATION After examining the case, the Ombudsman assessed that the issue of protecting the right to privacy and personal data protection in the decision to dismiss the criminal complaint could indicate a systemic issue; therefore, we informed the Office of the State Prosecutor General and suggested that they inform other district state prosecutor offices of the Ombudsman’s opinion with regard to the issue of protecting the right to privacy and personal data in the decision on dismissing the criminal complaint. The Office of the State Prosecutor General considered the Ombudsman’s proposal. Example: Translation of concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The Ombudsman considered a complaint which emphasised that upon the publication of the open letter of NGOs sent to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia with regard to the Final Observations of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee to the second report of the Republic of Slovenia in accordance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the latter document had not been translated into Slovenian. The complainant believed that such documents should be translated into Slovenian, since she did not know English and this topic was of concern to her and she wanted to be informed about it. The Ombudsman informed the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (MDDSZ), which is competent for the translation of the mentioned document. The MDDSZ informed the Ombudsman in February 2015 that the translation could be obtained after the adoption of the revised 2015 budget. After adopting the mentioned revised budget, which was passed by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on 20 February 2015, the Ombudsman once again sent a inquiry to the MDDSZ to establish when the translation would be prepared. At the end of March 2015, the MDDSZ sent the Ombudsman the official translation of the concluding observations and the explanation that the editing and corrections of the translation were carried out by an interministerial working group for the preparation of the second periodical report of the Republic of Slovenia on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Ombudsman found this complaint justified, since the concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are an important source of feedback to Slovenia with regard to progress on ensuring the protection of human rights, which at the same time strengthen democratic culture in society. Therefore, the aforementioned response report had to be translated into Slovenian and appropriately published. 1.0 - 12/2014 34 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 CASES CONSIDERED FIELD OF WORK RESOLVED AND FOUNDED INDEX 15/14 NO. OF RESOLVED NO. OF FOUNDED PERCENTAGE OF FOUNDED AMONG RESOLVED 2014 2015 2. Discrimination 75 76 101.3 68 19 27.9 2.1 National and ethnic minorities 33 24 72.7 21 5 23.8 2.2 Equal opportunities by gender 4 1 25 1 0 0 2.3 In employment 6 5 83.3 5 1 20 2.4 Equal opportunities relating to sexual orientation 1 6 600 4 0 0 25 22 88 20 7 35 6 18 300 17 6 35.3 2.5 Equal opportunities relating to physical or mental disability (invalidity) 2.6 Other 2.2 DISCRIMINATION 2.1 CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS The Ombudsman assessed that revealing the name, surname and address of the injured party and the value of stolen property involves personal data of the injured party or private data of the injured party. 2.2.1 General observations The number of cases in relation to discrimination in 2015 remained approximately the same as in 2014. The number of complaints with regard to “equal opportunities relating to sexual orientation” and “other” saw the biggest increase, while the number of complaints with regard to “national and ethnic minorities” and “equal opportunities by gender” saw the biggest reduction. Although the share of justified complaints with regard to discrimination in 2015 fell to 27.9 per cent, it is still quite high with regard to the percentage of justified complaints among all complaints considered by the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia in 2015. The reduction in the number of justified complaints in individual areas does not tell much about the situation of human rights protection in individual areas. To illustrate this, we can indicate the sub-section “equal opportunities relating to sexual orientation”. Statistical data show that the justification of complaints in this sub-section decreased by 100 percentage points. We ascribe this reduction to the fact that in March 2015 the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia confirmed the amendments to the Marriage and Family Relations Act which re-defined marriage. It was indicated that these amendments would eliminate unequal treatment of homosexuals in various areas of life, and therefore, in expectation of the near equalisation of rights of same-sex couples, potentially affected persons in 2015 did not contact the Ombudsman in 2015 with regard to the systemic equalisation of their rights. However, the amendments to the Act were rejected at a referendum on 20 December 2015, and a large number of complainants soon contacted the Ombudsman claiming that, due to their sexual orientation, same-sex couples in the Republic of Slovenia do not have the same rights as heterosexual couples. These complaints, which point to systemic violations and which can largely be considered justified, were still in consideration at the end of 2015 and are not included in the statistical data for 2015. These complaints will be presented in the statistics for 2016. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 35