In its current monitoring report, ECRI evaluates as positive the adoption of a new National Framework to Fight Radicalization and Extremism that focuses, among other things, on hate speech performed through the Internet and on protecting children and youth. The report also expressed appreciation for more intensive police training in the field of hate crime, outreach activities warning young people of the dangers of hatred online, and support measures for Romani children in the schools.
Such measures include, in particular, collaborations between non-profit organizations and schools in Slovakia and the employment of Romani mediators in the schools. According to the report, access to healthcare for persons with temporary protection and for Romani clients and patients has also improved.
Those healthcare improvements involve, among other things, programs targeting pregnant Romani women and young mothers for support, as well as Romani mediators in the healthcare field. However, ECRI also points out that public debate in Slovakia is increasingly polarized.
Hate speech, particularly against LGBTI people, migrants, and Romani people, frequently goes unaddressed, especially during election periods, and transpires both offline and online, according to ECRI. Violent hate crimes included the terrorist attack against LGBTI people in 2022.
The police forces responsible in Slovakia for detecting and investigating hate crimes are understaffed and lack sufficient digital tools to actively combat hate speech online. Significant shortcomings also persist in the education of Romani children, according to ECRI.
Romani schoolchildren’s attendance and performance still lag significantly behind other students due to widespread segregation. ECRI is therefore calling on Slovakia to take measures to end segregation in schools and support the inclusion of Romani children through targeted aid to Romani children, their families, and the schools themselves.
In the area of healthcare, ECRI stresses the need for effective mechanisms to ensure equal access to quality healthcare irrespective of patients’ ethnic origin. The report draws attention to cases of healthcare services being refused to Romani patients and verbal attacks against Romani people in healthcare settings.
ECRI also expressed concern that in the context of intersex persons, there is no law explicitly, specifically prohibiting medical intervention on sex characteristics, including hormonal, mechanical, and/or surgical procedures and other treatments, without the documented, express, free, informed, prior consent of such persons in Slovakia. The report makes 15 recommendations.
ECRI identified significant strengthening of the specialized police structures in Slovakia dealing with homophobic and racist hate speech, particularly on the Internet, as a priority. The report says that it is essential to ensure that such units have sufficient professional training, staff, and technical tools to do their jobs.
Another priority should be instituting an accessible, rapid, and transparent process for the legal recognition of gender identity. ECRI says such recognition must not depend on unreasonable requirements such as involuntary sterilization, medical interventions, or psychiatric diagnoses.