Despite the explanations from the leadership of the ZRSŠ, our opinion was that the complaints were justified. Children who are waiting for a decision on placement have the right to a quick procedure, or at least in accordance with the time limits for issuing decisions set by the ZUOPP. 2.15 CHILDREN’S RIGHTS As in previous years, the problems persist in the treatment of children with emotional and behavioural disorders and children with severe psychiatric problems because there are still no suitable accommodation facilities to provide suitable assistance by child psychologists. The Ombudsman had warned about this already in the previous annual reports. The Ombudsman was asked again to intervene by parents of blind and visually impaired children, who pointed to the inaccessibility of adjusted study material, the issue of a permanent assistant for providing physical assistance and the insufficient number of hours of additional expert assistance for blind pre-school children and secondary school students. Upon our inquiry, the MIZŠ explained that it is well acquainted with the issues, and that better inter-departmental cooperation is required to solve these issues, especially in the field of copyright and preparation of textbooks, as well as with regard to the necessary amendments to the ZUOPP. At the beginning of 2015, the Slovenian Dystrophy Association acquainted us with the abolition of professional assistance for children with special needs by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. We warned the competent working body of the National Assembly at a session on 20 January 2015 about the advisability of proposed austerity measures in the field of education, and we published the following text on the website: “The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia (Ombudsman) has received for examination complaints which include warnings and protests against the decision of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport regarding the ‘temporary” suspension of financing of homework and study help for children with special needs who are educated in inclusive schools. Homework and study help for these children is recognised with a decision on the placement in an educational programme with an equivalent education standard. Children are being educated in primary and secondary schools together with their peers, and this right is provided by the law. The Ombudsman is appalled and very concerned with the decision, because no guarantees were given that these and other austerity measures in education would only be short term. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the state is obliged to act in the best interests of children, and it is obliged to provide children with education, health care and welfare in accordance with the highest standards.” 2.15.9 Right to participation In the recent reports on its work, the Ombudsman also wrote about the exercise of children’ right to be heard and to participate in decisions concerning them. As an interesting proposal, we mention the proposal that the Ombudsman “launch the procedure for the enactment of a law (and changes to the Constitution), which would stipulate the postponing of Christening, Confirmation and First Communion as well as circumcision to the age at which a young person matures and can decide for themselves about such matters”. relevant proposal if they can collect the signatures of at least 5,000 voters who support the proposal (Article 88 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia). Thus far, practice has shown that the fastest way to a new legislative regulation is through the government, because in this case majority support in the National Assembly as the legislator is usually secured. Thus the Ombudsman usually addresses its proposals and recommendations to the government or relevant ministries, while substantively justifying its proposals. It is not necessary that the executive branch of power accept our arguments, as in preparing an individual legislative proposal, it also must assess all the effects that the proposal could have in various fields. Amending the Constitution as the fundamental legal act of the country is an extremely sensitive and demanding procedure, as this usually changes the fundamental relationships and basic legal principles on which the organisation of the state is based. The Ombudsman has assessed that the Slovenian Constitution is general enough and open for the development of democratic society and that it does not require additional provisions on the exercise of freedom of profession of religion or a more detailed division of religious and state tasks. That is to say, the complainant’s proposals encroach on freedom of conscience (Article 41 of the Constitution), while at the same time they do not encroach on human rights and fundamental freedoms in the same way, as they do not have the same or comparable consequences. Some religious customs mentioned by the complainant may affect a person’s dignity alone, while the circumcision of boys also violates their physical integrity. The Ombudsman has already discussed the circumcision of boys as a violation of children’s rights and reported on this in the 2011 annual report. We told the complainant that we did not accept his proposals. 2.15.10 Children in the media At the end of 2015, we received a report of alleged abuse of children for political purposes. The complainant assessed a video clip published on the Internet as political propaganda and scaremongering among voters concerning a referendum that was about to be held. We wrote separately about the issue of participation of children in political propaganda in the 2011 annual report (page 308), while in the 2013 annual report in relation to the issue of children in the media we also published our conclusions and proposals (pages 317 and 318), which demand in point 12 “that all forms of abuse of children for political propaganda, promotion of politicians or political parties should be prevented”. We usually address our warnings to the media and editors and journalists, who might not necessarily recognise violations of children’s right to privacy in their articles. Very rarely do we face cases in which parents do not respect the rights of their children and allow their personal information to be published (especially photographs) without assessing the possible harmful consequences of such publication in the future, when the children become adults. We assessed that, in the case concerned, the children appeared in the video clip with the consent of their parents, and that, in our opinion, possible reporting of the parents to the competent social work centre would not be sensible. A social work centre may take measures against parents or guardians only if their actions undermine the child’s development, which would be very hard to show in this case. In our assessment, the children in this case were abused for political propaganda, but this fact would warrant a possible intervention by the competent authorities only in the context of other (additional) circumstances on the basis of which greater endangerment of the children could be anticipated. In our opinion, we informed the complainant that the aforementioned video clip could be problematic from the aspect of compliance with the provisions regulating election and referendum campaign, which is why we proposed that the report be sent to the Ministry of the Interior as the competent ministry. The ministry can discover who made the video clip, on which the legal definition of the disputable act also depends. We explained to the complainant that the Ombudsman had no power to table legislation, which is why it cannot directly propose laws or changes to the Constitution as the highest legal act in the country. Only the government, members of parliament and the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia have the power to propose legislation. Individuals who wish existing laws to be changed or propose a new law, can submit a 162 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 163 2.15 CHILDREN’S RIGHTS which extended the time taken for procedures. A computer programme was made and the second-instance commission at the MIZŠ also has computer access to the documents of first-instance commissions. Expert workers now need to perform a number of operations (on the computer) themselves, which has caused a lot of ill will among some of them. The main purpose was to digitalise and upgrade procedures without encroaching upon the ZUOPP or its implementing regulations. Only the instructions on the work of commissions were changed. The responsible persons also informed the participants with information on the backlog for 2014, the number of cases examined in 2015 until the beginning of November and the number of cases that are planned to be examined by the end of the year.