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Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance

& Other Ill Treatment

In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to 2025                                              gvnet.com/torture/Slovenia.htm

Republic of Slovenia

People in Slovenia are generally free from threats of physical force. Prison conditions meet international standards, though overcrowding has been reported.  [Freedom House Country Report, 2018]

Description: Description: Slovenia

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Slovenia.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the courtroom.  Perhaps your paper might focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing water.  On the other hand, you might choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who perpetrate such cruelty.  There is a lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Slovenia

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 30 March 2021

www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/slovenia/

[accessed 5 August 2021]

TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT

The constitution and law prohibit such practices, and there were no reports that government officials employed them.

Freedom House Country Report

2018 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/slovenia/freedom-world/2018

[accessed 13 May 2020]

IS THERE AN INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY? - The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but in practice the courts are susceptible to politicization, and there is widespread public skepticism about the judiciary’s ability to rule impartially in high-profile cases. In 2017, one court handed down a questionable ruling that key evidence in one of the cases against Janković be thrown out, citing delays by prosecutors.

DOES DUE PROCESS PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - The rule of law is respected in civil and criminal matters. Programs aimed at reducing court backlogs have seen some success in recent years.

IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? - People in Slovenia are generally free from threats of physical force. Prison conditions meet international standards, though overcrowding has been reported.

Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Slovenia

Executive Summary, 20 Sept 2017

rm.coe.int/pdf%20/168074adf8

[accessed 4 June 2020]

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES -- As  regards  ill-treatment  by  the  police,  the  delegation  only  received  a  few  isolated  allegations  of excessive use of force upon apprehension. Apart from that, the Committee was pleased to note that many detainees spoke positively of the professional conduct of police officers. With a few exceptions, most persons interviewed by the delegation also indicated that they had been granted  the  fundamental  safeguards  against  ill-treatment,  namely  the  rights  of  detained  persons  to notify  a  close  relative  or  another  person  of  their  detention  and  to  have  access  to  a  lawyer  and  a doctor.

Republic of Slovenia before the UN Committee against Torture

Amnesty International AI

www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR68/003/2003/en/ed34be42-d6ee-11dd-b0cc-1f0860013475/eur680032003en.html

[accessed 9 Feb 2014]

www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/108000/eur680032003en.pdf

[accessed 2 August 2017]

SUMMARY OF THE SUBJECTS OF CONCERN TO THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE - The full text of the unedited version of the Committee’s Conclusions and Recommendations is attached to this report. The Committee against Torture welcomed the self-critical tone of the Slovenian Government Report, which incorporated many of the findings of the Slovenian Ombudsman for human rights, who had similarly expressed concern about allegations of ill-treatment and the failure of the authorities to hold those responsible to account. The Committee similarly welcomed several proposed changes in legislation and regulations, envisaging to bring existing law and practice in line with the principles of the Convention against Torture.

However, the Committee noted that the Slovenian Criminal Code still did not contain torture as a specific criminal offence, as the present reference to torture did not adequately convey the definition of torture under the Convention against Torture. In addition torture is currently subjected the crime to a statute of limitation.

The Committee also expressed concern that there was no independent system to investigate complaints and reports of ill-treatment and that police officers allegedly continued to resort to excessive use of force, many of which concern ethnic minorities. In this regard the Committee also regretted that the State Party had not provided any statistics on the scope of this problem.

With regards to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment the Committee was concerned about the lack of adequate legal guarantees allowing persons in custody right to have access to a doctor of their choice immediately. In this context the lack of a code of conduct for police investigations, to complement the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Police Act, was also identified as a problem.

Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture

U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment  -- Doc. CAT/C/SVN/CO/3 (2011)

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/slovenia2011.html

[accessed 6 March 2013]

Fundamental legal safeguards

8. While noting that under article 148 of the Criminal Procedure Act there is a possibility for audio and video-recording of interrogations, the Committee is concerned that the audio and video-recording generally does not take place as there is no requirement therefor in law1 (art. 2).

The Committee recommends that the State party establishes the legal requirement for the audio and video recording of all interrogations of detainees throughout the country as a further means to prevent torture and ill-treatment.

9. While noting that the State party introduced a computerized system for registration of all information related to detention by the police, the Committee is concerned that not all information is entered in the system, as certain information – such as the time of arrival at the police station and the time of placement in a cell – is missing2 (art. 2).

The Committee recommends that the computerized system for registration of detainees be expanded in order to include all relevant information on the custody of the detained person in order to establish a precise monitoring system of the whole detention period.

Search … AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

For more articles:: Search Amnesty International’s website

www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=slovenia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance

[accessed 5 August 2021]

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*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61675.htm

[accessed 12 February 2013]

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61675.htm

[accessed 7 July 2019]

TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law prohibits such practices; however, police occasionally used excessive force such as kicks, punches, and shoves during arrest.

All material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.  PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. 

Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Slovenia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Slovenia.htm, [accessed <date>]