OSCE/ODIHR Opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Act on Establishment of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights 48. The legislation should make the autonomy of the Centre’s budget clear. Use of secondary legislation is not preferred, and in this case, given the absence of sufficient provision in the law to ensure the Centre’s financial autonomy, would be a cause for concern. The provisions in the law should be improved and any secondary regulation dealing with the utilisation of that budget must also be in line with the Paris Principles. The Draft Amendments should include provisions clearly setting the principle the financial autonomy for the Centre, in particular that it has direct access to its budget, full control over its use, and is not subject to any government ministry in the use of its funds. 4.3 Donor Funding 49. § 2 (3) of the Draft Amendments references the Centre ‘managing donations’ from domestic or foreign legal entities. The SCA expects that NHRIs are funded by the State, particularly for core functions and operations.72 Where the NHRI does seek external support for particular activities, this should not affect the allocation from the State budget and the NHRI should not have to obtain government approval for external funding, in keeping with its independence. 73 NHRIs should also not require governmental approval to accept foreign donor funding. 74 However, for the NHRI, donor funding should also not be tied to donor priorities. 75 The legislation should clearly state that the Centre may seek and use external donations, and is autonomous in doing so and in the management of such donations. At the same time, the full transparency of any donations needs to be ensured also to protect again external influences that may threaten the Centre’s proper implementation of its statutory tasks. 5. The Leadership 5.1. Appointment and Selection of the Board 50. There are significant changes proposed to the membership of the board of the Centre, and the procedure for appointment and selection. The existing law allows for a 9member board, 4 of whom are appointed by members of the government. The Draft Amendments change this to provide for a board of 7 members. The Explanatory Report notes that this is at the request of the Centre for reasons including efficiency. 51. On the positive side, the removal of nominations by government, particularly the Speaker of the Council, and Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, is welcome. Efforts to include clearer requirements for board membership, particularly human rights expertise are also to be welcomed. However, there are a number of points where the provisions in the Draft Amendments do not, or does not fully, meet the Paris Principles 72 Donor funding should not constitute core funding except in rare circumstances, such as post-conflict situations, where the international community needs to support the NHRI until the state is able to do so; see General Observation 1.10, See also, SCA Report, Haiti, November 2013, pp. 9-10. 73 General Observation 1.10, see also SCA Report, Jordan, November 2016 p. 31; SCA Report, Northern Ireland, May 2016, pp. 46-47. 74 SCA Report, Jordan, November 2015 pp. 24-25; SCA Report, Iraq, March 2015 pp. 8-9. 75 SCA Report, Denmark, November 2017 p. 42. See also, SCA Report, Malawi, November 2016 p. 32. 17