2.2 DISCRIMINATION Therefore, we must especially emphasise and warn about systemic violations of human rights. In addition to the aforementioned systemic violations of the rights of same-sex persons and members of the Roma community in the field of discrimination in 2015, we must especially emphasise the systemic violation of the rights of disabled students with regard to their transportation from their place of residence to place of education. We have been drawing the attention of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities to this issue since 2013; we have informed the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport about the systemic violation of the right to free transport of students between the ages of 18 to 26, who attend special education programmes. According to the assessment prepared by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport at the Ombudsman’s proposal, 400 students who attend special education programme are affected by the unregulated transport regulations. In 2015, the Ombudsman also dealt with one similar systemic irregularity in the field of equal treatment, i.e. the unequal treatment of applicants for scholarships for shortage occupations. Somewhat less than six thousand students were potentially affected in this matter, since they applied for shortage occupation scholarships at a tender that was subsequently annulled and repeated as proposed by the Ombudsman. Based on this systemic violation, which was subsequently eliminated, the Ombudsman’s statistics report on eight affected persons who turned to our office with regard to this issue. 2.2.2 Realisation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations With regard to the Ombudsman’s recommendations that such legislative solutions must be adopted which, together with legal arrangements of the EU, will enable impartial, independent and effective discussion of violations of the prohibition of discrimination, also by establishing an independent advocate of the principle of equality, the Government stated in its response report that the efforts to achieve a more appropriate regulation of an authority to promote equal treatment – Advocate of the Principle of Equality – will continue in the coming year. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has prepared a proposal for a protection against discrimination act that follows the current Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act and also regulates the Advocate of the Principle of Equality as an independent state authority. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has indicated that they agree with the Ombudsman’s observation that a state institution for human rights with status A according to the Paris Principles is in the interest of the state and its reputation. Within the scope of managing the Interministerial Commission for Human Rights, the Ministry will further strive to achieve consensus on the formation of such an institution, which is very important for the reputation and collaboration of the state in the international environment. Regarding the Ombudsman’s observations and recommendations concerning the integration of members of the Roma community into Slovenian society, the Government in its response report agreed with the general observation that sufficient progress was not made in 2014, so the recommendations from previous years remain. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia is aware that the status of the Roma community in Slovenia is still difficult, so its priority remains the preparation of a new national action programme for the Roma for the next five-year period that addresses all key fields. With regard to the recommendation to eliminate discrimination in the regulation on the right to free transport of persons with mental disorders between the ages of 18 and 26 who are included in a special education programme, the Government indicated in its response report that the Ministry of Infrastructure had prepared a proposal to amend the Road Transport Act that envisages transport on call as a special form of public passenger transport. On this matter, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport responded that it would prepare an analysis or simulation of the funds needed for this purpose in autumn and obtain the views of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities as to whether two rights to public funds from 36 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 different acts would be acquired if the law were amended. The ministry will seek a solution within the scope of its financial abilities. The Ombudsman is not satisfied with the aforementioned activities, since, as already mentioned, this pertains to an issue of unequal treatment which must be resolved systemically, i.e. by legislation. In its 2013 report, the Ombudsman recommended that the competent ministries immediately prepare amendments to regulations to eliminate discrimination in subsidising the transport of disabled students; this unrealised recommendation was already mentioned in the 2014 report. At the time of writing this Report, the assurances of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport had not been realised and the systemic issue of unequal treatment of disabled students had not been resolved; therefore, we must once again admonish them for their unresponsiveness. Since several ministries are involved in the resolution of this issue, we have also notified the Prime Minister. 2.2.3 Mechanisms to protect against discrimination and the organisation of the state State institution for the protection of human rights For some years, the Ombudsman has emphasised that Slovenia lacks a state institution for the protection and promotion of human rights (national institution) which operates on the basis of the Paris Principles (Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions), as adopted by similar institutions in 1991 and confirmed in 1993 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. These principles determine the tasks and conditions for the recognition of state institutions, which deal with general tasks relating to human rights protection (assessing the situation, promotion, raising awareness, education) to a greater extent than with the consideration of individual complaints. The Ombudsman expressed readiness to assume full membership of a national institution for human rights with A status according to the Paris Principles on the condition that suitable staff and material are provided to enable the implementation of such duties. In these discussions, the Ombudsman proposed that the most rational solution for Slovenia would be to reorganise the Ombudsman into a national institution as per the Paris Principles according to the Finnish example. When transforming the Ombudsman to a national institution according to the Paris Principles with A status in Finland, they did not modify the competences and duties of the parliamentary ombudsman and the institution remained as is envisaged in the fundamental legislation; they merely added (by amending the law) the human rights centre and the advisory body that manages the work of the centre. Information on the establishment and work of the Finnish Human Rights Centre (HRC) is available at http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi. We believe that the experience of the HRC can serve as a good basis for possible future discussions on the formation of a similar centre for human rights and an institution for human rights with full membership on the basis of the Paris Principles in Slovenia. Such dilemmas and issues have to a great extent been resolved by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, which at its meeting on 23 December 2015, adopted a decision under point 6 of the Decision no. 00405-8/2015/7 (that affects the establishment of an Interministerial Working Group for the Enforcement of Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights) to the effect that the Ministry of Justice would prepare amendments to the Human Rights Ombudsman Act to meet the criteria for acquiring A status by the Human Rights Ombudsman according to the “Paris Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (1993)” and to meet the implementing “Articles of Association of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights”. When amending the law, the Ministry of Justice would invite the Human Rights Ombudsman to cooperate. However, the Ombudsman’s office did not wait for this invitation, but invited the Minister to a meeting. The meeting about the realisation of the decision was held on 22 January 2016. At the meeting, we quickly reached an agreement with regard to the method according to which the Ombudsman would acquire the A status ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 37 2.2 DISCRIMINATION We must also emphasise that the number of justified complaints and the percentage of justified complaints among the resolved complaints are not real indicators of the situation of human rights protection in the Republic of Slovenia. Firstly, because not every person whose human rights are violated by state authorities necessarily turns to the Ombudsman. Secondly, because a single justified complaint where the Ombudsman observes systemic irregularity may represent the violation of rights of several hundreds, or even thousands, of people. Therefore, the Ombudsman initiates its complaints based on data acquired from publicly accessible data in individual areas. In the field of discrimination, many issues concerning the Roma have been raised and considered upon our own initiative.