Roma children still face discrimination at schools. (source: Sme)
The year 2018 has seen a growing xenophobic rhetoric and repressive measures, the human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) said, giving Hungary, Poland, and Russia as examples.
Slovakia also did not escape criticism after AI published its annual report on the state of human rights, titled Rights Today.
The organisation has criticised Slovakia for extraditing Aslan Yandiev, an asylum seeker, to Russia, despite the possibility of torture. Moreover, Slovakia is not monitoring Yandiev’s whereabouts in Russia sufficiently.
Lack of transparency
Apart from that, Slovakia has failed to transparently publish data on its export of conventional weapons once again. As a result, adequate public control cannot be carried out, the AI report suggests.
The country has also been advised to do more to make sure the arms trade does not contribute to the violation of human rights.
Women vs world leaders
Another significant feature of 2018 was the fight of women for equality. The expression of power by world leaders pursuing misogynist, xenophobic and homophobic policies have again threatened personal rights and freedoms, AI has warned.
“The female defenders of human rights have shown us this year the indomitable vision of fighting these negative phenomena,” said Rado Sloboda of Amnesty International Slovakia, as quoted in a press release.
AI has pointed to the fact that the Slovak government failed to submit the Istanbul Convention to the parliament for ratification. The document, authored by the Council of Europe, proposes to create a European legal framework for the protection of women against all forms of violence.
But women were the ones fighting for human rights on the frontline across the globe in 2018, the report reads.
Roma issues
European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, and the Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the continued discrimination and segregation of Roma children in education, AI wrote in the report.
The new law prohibits discrimination and segregation in education, but many Roma children are still placed in special schools and classes for children with intellectual disabilities, the report reads.
Moreover, the European Commission continues the proceedings against Slovakia for breaching the Racial Equality Directive.
The European Roma Rights Centre also brought an action in March for the unreasonable use of force by the police against Roma in the town of Moldava nad Bodvou (Košice Region) in 2013, to the European Court of Human Rights, AI wrote in the report.
Six Roma who complained about the brutality of the police were charged with perjury. They now face five years in prison.
