A/HRC/40/64/Add.1
include clear mechanisms for implementation. This last point was made to the Special
Rapporteur with regard to legislation and other measures addressing the rights of the
Hungarian, Italian and Roma minorities.
47.
Implementation of or full compliance with the rights of these communities are not
always assured comprehensively or in a timely fashion, as was pointed out by the Office of
the Ombudsman in its annual report for 2016, which also noted the much lower number of
electronic forms in Hungarian and Italian as compared to Slovenian, despite legislation
requiring that electronic forms for submitting applications online must all be available also
in Hungarian and Italian. Services and information in areas such as health care or education
were not always provided for in Hungarian or Italian. The Special Rapporteur was informed
that qualifications of teachers to teach in Hungarian or Italian had been strengthened
through specific training. According to representatives of these minorities, there was room
for improvement, especially in requiring fluency in these minority languages for
employment and measuring the level of fluency of prospective teachers and other officials.
In addition, while measures had been recently taken to strengthen bilingualism in selfgoverning areas, they were not sufficiently focused on improving bilingualism in the local
administration. Since the Hungarian and Italian minorities have a right to services from the
local administration in their own languages, measures more directly addressing these
services and activities could be considered. Representatives also referred to delays
associated with the use of minority languages in accessing information or obtaining
services, which discouraged individuals from insisting on their linguistic rights. Some
pointed out clearly that one of the main issues that should be addressed was that the current
legislative regime was simply not implemented properly; for example, some government
officials were hired even though they did not comply with any requirement for bilingualism.
In a school in Lendava visited by the Special Rapporteur, even the description of bilingual
education was much weaker than often claimed, since at the secondary level the ratio of
those teaching in Slovenian and Hungarian was 80:20, not even remotely close to the 50:50
legally required.
E.
Hate speech and incitement to violence
48.
Disaggregated data on the targets of hate speech or incitement to violence are
unfortunately not readily available to help in the identification of those most at risk and
vulnerable, although anecdotal and partial data leave little doubt that minorities have been
and continue to be particularly victimized. Most of those met by the Special Rapporteur
reported that the surge in hate speech witnessed during the influx of migrants through
Slovenia in 2015 had subsided, but that it might also reflect a generalized discontent with
the current lack of effective mechanisms to tackle hate speech and incitement to violence.
While article 297 of the Penal Code addresses hate speech, its provisions have traditionally
been interpreted in a narrow, restrictive way; consequently, in practice, very few cases have
led to prosecution and conviction, as confirmed by everyone the Special Rapporteur met
during the mission and despite the fairly clear indications of widespread problems in this
regard. In 2015, Spletno oko (“Web eye”), an Internet hotline coordinated by the Faculty of
Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana for reporting hate speech and other illegal
activities, in cooperation with police, Internet service providers, and other governmental
and non-governmental organizations received 1,153 complaints, even only 51 of them were
considered likely to reach the threshold prescribed by article 297 and actually transmitted to
the police for possible prosecution.
49.
Overall, the current wording of article 297, and consequently its current
interpretation, has helped to create an environment of impunity and discouragement; those
who engage in hate speech and incitement to violence against minorities are unlikely to be
prosecuted and can therefore act with little concern of any punishment or consequences,
while victims feel there is simply no point in complaining if they believe no one will be
prosecuted or punished. Most potential victims probably belong to minorities.
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