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Who are the erased: Erased residents of Slovenia are a group of 18.305 (almost 1 % of the Slovenian population), originating from one of the other republics of the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), whose personal data were on 26 February 1992 unlawfully transferred from a register of people with permanent residence to a register of people with no legal status in Slovenia. The reason for erasure was the fact that they did not apply for Slovenian citizenship in the six-month deadline set by the 1991 Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act. This measure later became known as "erasure" and its victims "the erased".
How was the erasure done: This measure was implemented by local administrative units in a secret way and far from the public eye. It had no legal basis in the law - it was carried out only on a basis of a secret administrative circular of the Ministry of Interior. The victims were not informed about the measure in advance, no written decision on the measure was issued and served to them, and they had no right to appeal. Moreover, the measure was kept secret for many years and was revealed only after the Constitutional Court issued its 1999 decision No. U-I-284/94. With this decision it found the erasure unlawful and the Aliens Act unconstitutional because it did not regulate the transition of legal statuses of people from other republics of former Yugoslavia when Slovenia became independent.
Further, it also found that erasure was an act of discrimination: it was carried out only towards people from other republics of Yugoslavia, while it wasn't carried out towards people from other states in Europe or other continents. Discrimination was carried out on the ground of ethnicity of the erased: they were of Croatian, Bosnian, Muslim, Serbian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Roma and Albanian descent. The 1999 decision was confirmed by the 2003 Constitutional Court decision No. U-I-246/02 that is, however, still not implemented, which raises serious concerns regarding the respect for the rule of law in Slovenia.
Affect on the people: The erasure seriously affected the situation of its victims: by losing their statuses the erased lost their jobs and could not access employment, could not enrol in secondary schools and universities, access free health care, unemployment and other social benefits, they were evicted and lost housing rights (including the right to buy-off commune apartments after the transition from socialist to capitalist economy). They were subject to deportation from the state, detention in aliens centre, and in some cases even to police torture and mistreatment. As a consequence, many of the erased are homeless; they have difficulties obtaining their retirement or disability pensions; and they are forced to seek medical aid at the Pro Bono centre for people with no health insurance in Ljubljana.
In years after the erasure about 12.000 people managed to regulate their permanent status; some of them managed to obtain citizenship. Most of them, however, still have a void in the history of their legal status which causes them difficulties when accessing the employment or pension rights. However, there are still about 4000 people who still don't have any status. Some of them are still in Slovenia living underground, while others are in other countries because they either could not return to Slovenia or because they were forced to leave due to unbearable living conditions.
Current situation: There is only one law (1999 Act Regulating Statuses of Citizens of Other Successor States of the Former SFRY living in Slovenia - ZUSDDD) in place for the erased to regulate their status. For many of them it is of no use because of a strict requirement that in order to re-obtain permanent residence they had to have actually and uninterruptedly resided in Slovenia since the erasure on. This law has already been declared unconstitutional by the 2003 Constitutional Court decision, which was still not implemented. The few attempts to implement this decision were blocked with the 2004 referendum organized by the right wing then-opposition parties, now parties in the government (it needs to be stressed though that left wing parties also bear their share of responsibility for the erasure as such and for not remedying it when it was revealed).
In 2006 the current right wing government prepared a Draft Constitutional Law under the pretext that it would implement the constitutional court decision. However, in fact with this law the government is seeking to overrule the Constitutional Court decision: The law is in direct contradiction with the 2003 Constitutional Court decision because it foresees granting statuses back to people only from the moment of lodging the application for permanent residence, while the decision requires that the statuses are granted back from the moment of the erasure on - 26. February 1992. Moreover, the draft law proposes even stricter conditions that ZUSDDD, foresees revision of statuses already granted to people and therefore enables new injustices. Finally, the draft constitutional law completely eliminates the right to compensation, which is also contrary to article 26 of the Constitution.
The Constitutional Law will very likely not be adopted because the government failed to secure a two-third parliamentary majority needed for its adoption. The majority of the opposition parties refuse to support it because the law has not been coordinated with them and because they oppose its contents that are contrary to the 2003 Constitutional Court decision.
- Erased people of Slovenia: Peace Institute Report on Discriminatory Practices in Slovenia concerning Legal Statuses of Citizens of other Republics of Yugoslavia, June 2007
This report was prepared for Public Hearing on Statelessness, hosted by the Committee on Civil Liberties of the European Parliament where the representatives of the Peace Institute presented the case of erasure as a measure potentially leading to statelessness. The erasure is presented in detail on 8 pages while the last six pages present three stories of erased people who are still in an extremely vulnerable situation.
- Annual report on Human Rights for the year 2006 made by the Human Rights Ombudsman in July 2007, which is twelfth annual report prepared by Human Rights Ombudsman in Slovenia.
The twelve years of existence of the Institution is a reliable sign that it has successfully established itself in society. Even more so if the nature of its work is by definition "vexatious": the Constitution and the legislation frame its work as the supervision of authority. There is no authority which could resist the temptation to either expand its power to areas in which it has no competence or avoid work which it must perform. Occasionally, this is done consciously, while frequently, it is merely a consequence of the negligent or indifferent work of an individual official. Whatever the reason, the consequences are felt by citizens who from the perspective of authority are frequently only insignificant players within the immense objectives and tasks set by politicians. And the Human Rights Ombudsman is that player within the organisation of power for whom those "insignificant" players are of central concern. In his eyes, the roles in society are inverted: the central position is assigned to the individual, his/her rights and his/her welfare.
- Amnesty International Report 2007
Amnesty International has been reporting on erasure and calling upon the Slovenian government to redress the violations and recognize the discriminatory nature for years. In 2005 AI briefed the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on this issue.
[excerpt from the report] [full pdf document] [full web document]
- Jasminka Dedić, Vlasta Jalušič and Jelka Zorn, THE ERASED: Organized Innocence and the Politics of Exclusion, Peace institute, Ljubljana 2003
This is a book about the erasure of tens of thousands of people from the register of permanent residents of Slovenia that took place soon after Slovenia became an independent country. The foreword by Vlasta Jalušič delineates the political background which paved the road for violations of human rights and subsequent strategies of justifications. The main part of the book consists of two studies: Jasminka Dedić explains various legal aspects of the issue, while Jelka Zorn presents the ethnographic study including the erased people's testimonies. The two supplements bring a chronology of the main events related to erasure and a brief report on the violations of erased individuals' rights by Matevž Krivic, an advocate for the erased residents (the report was written for the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights on the occasion of his visit to Slovenia in May 2003).
- ECRI - European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (Council of Europe): Third Report on Slovenia adopted on 30 June 2006, made public on 13 February 2007
2006 ECRI report presents findings on the erased, stressing its discriminatory nature and human rights violations suffered by the victims of erasure. The report recommends to Slovenia to restore the rights of persons erased from the registers of permanent residents on 26 February 1992 and to immediately implement the 2003 Constitutional Court decision. It also urges the Slovenian authorities to openly lead the public debate and to refrain from generalisations and misrepresentations which foster racism and xenophobia.
[excerpt from the report] [full web document]
- United Nations Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR): Concluding observations of 25 January 2006
[excerpt from the report] [full pdf document]
- U.S. State Department: Country Report on human rights practices 2006 - Slovenia
U.S. State Department continues to note the erasure in its reports, starting in 2000.
[excerpt from the report] [full web document]
- Third Party Interventions for the European Court of Human Rights in the erased case Makuc and others vs. Slovenia
On 4 July 2006 eleven erased people lodged an application to the European Court of Human Rights. The case, entitled Makuc and others v. Slovenia has not yet been decided upon. On 15 October 2006 four non-governmental organizations have submitted third party interventions to support the claims of the applicants. The interventions offered additional information on discriminatory nature of erasure contrary to Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and on the fact that the erasure was an act of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship which caused a violation of Article 8 of the Convention.
Full texts of interventions:
- Peace Institute and Legal Information Centre for NGOs
- Equal Rights Trust
- Open Society Justice Initiative
Ms. Mag. Neža Kogovšek, human rights lawyer
Organization: Peace Institute, Metelkova 6, SI-1000 Ljubljana
E-mail: neza.kogovsek(at)mirovni-institut.si
Phone: ++ 386 (0)1 234 77 33 (direct phone office), ++ 386 (0)1 234 77 20 (general phone office)
Ms. Dr. Jelka Zorn, lecturer
Organization: Faculty of Social Work, Topniška 31, SI-1000 Ljubljana,
E-mail: jelka.zorn(at)siol.net
Phone: ++ 386 (0)41 408 754
Mr. Mag. Matevž Krivic, former Constitutional Court judge, lawyer working on cases of erased and asylum seekers
E-mail: m.krivic(at)siol.net
Phone: ++ 386 (0)31 626 914
Mr. Aleksandar Todorović, president
Organization: Civil Iniciative of the Erased People of Slovenia
E-mail: todor.novak(at)email.si
Phone: ++ 386 (0)31 532 621
Ms. Nataša Posel, director
Organization: Amnesty International Slovenia, Beethovnova 7, SI-1000 Ljubljana
E-mail: natasa.posel(at)amnesty.si
Phone: ++ 386 (0)1 426 93 77
Ms. Dr. Zdenka Čebašek Travnik, Human Rights Ombudsman (public relations: Nataša Kuzmič)
Organization: Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, Dunajska 56, SI-1000 Ljubljana
E-mail: natasa.kuzmic(at)varuh-rs.si
Phone: ++ 386 (0)1 475 00 35