Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia

In its effort to foster effective rights-related education and promotion, the Human Rights Ombudsman focuses on the individual, based on a conviction that behaviour shifts only come about if individuals themselves realise that this is in their interest. To this end, the Ombudsman seeks to develop a strong understanding of the groups it is working to address; key tactics include dealing with specific cases, secondary research, and cooperation with various experts and professionals in the field. To expand on the latter, the Ombudsman collaborates with schools, state bodies, professional circles and nonprofit organisations - organisations working "on the ground" who have good knowledge of the concrete needs of certain groups. For example, by working closely with schools, the Ombudsman has actively included children, adolescents, teachers and parents in education about children's rights.

Specifically, the Ombudsman's strategy draws on Alan Andreasen's "Marketing Social Change" as part of a 4-step process which focuses on product, price, place and promotion. The process involves reaching out to people at a stage of "pre-contemplation," such as parents who are unaware that violations of children's rights are typically caused by adults and that they might be part of a risk group. Aside from providing basic information, another feature of this stage is changing the views or values of the individual. In the contemplation stage, participants already recognise the problem; they are aware of the consequences and have already started thinking about action. To spur change in attitude and orientation toward the problem, the Ombudsman shows the intended audience the advantages of a specific behaviour and reduces the drawbacks (the price they will have to "pay" for the changed behaviour). For instance, an ad might present a relationship between parents such as it should be, and for the attainment of which it would be worth changing one's behaviour and way of life (e.g., by leaving a violent person and encouraging the known victim to take this step). The Ombudsman has found that the proposed behaviour needs to be associated with basic life goals (e.g., security, self-respect, good family relations) and that messages should not be too negative or aggressive.

This type of thinking informs the development of the Ombudsman's "social advertising" endeavours. For example, on Human Rights Day 2003 the Ombudsman's office launched an advertising campaign titled "Children's rights are the law!" which addressed adults through 3 television advertisements. The strategy involved reaching people in those places where they are most likely to reflect on the decisions that are a part of the proposed behaviour - e.g., in the living room at home, where the whole family is gathered. To reach people with diminished access to information, the Ombudsman used the printed medium - the back page of its free newsletter "The Ombudsman - How to Protect Your Rights". This newsletter is published 3 times per year in an effort to educate people about their rights, showing them ways to seek help and redress wrongs - in this way hopefully contributing to reducing violations. Each issue in 2003 featured one of the problems presented in the TV advertisements. To accomplish visual and linguistic similarity, the ads all featured a typical family and the slogan "A child has the right..." ("Otrok ima pravico...").

Other activities include:

• Public competitions - For example, in 2004, the Ombudsman's office launched a competition for a short cartoon; all entries were featured on the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia website and the best 3 cartoons were published in the September issue of "The Ombudsman - How to Protect Your Rights".
• Advocacy campaigns - For example, 1994's "Forms of Intolerance in Slovenia", organised by the Ombudsman's office, was planned as a response to the increasing intolerance against minorities; activities included an exhibition about intolerance at the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum. In addition, the Ombudsman initiated the drafting of a special law that would deal with domestic violence, calling several meetings with various ministers as well as an expert consultation to address the problem in an interdisciplinary way.
• Meetings, conferences, and round tables - The Ombudsman participates in various in-person exchanges, such as a consultation regarding violence against children, which aimed to contribute to the UN Secretary General's Study on Violence against Children (click here for a summary of this initiative). In addition, the Ombudsman participated in a consultation focused on the sexual exploitation of children as a follow-up to the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama, Japan in December 2001.
• Research and publication - Many Ombudsman publications can be accessed online by clicking here. To cite one example, in 2004 the Ombudsman issued a special report, "Domestic Violence - Paths to a Solution" which condenses papers from an expert consultation of the same title held at the end of 2003. It stresses the fact that reducing domestic violence would require broad social change; acknowledges the role played by the media; calls for a reduction in social isolation of families and patriarchal orientation of families; urges interdisciplinary/interinstitutional links; calls for legislative measures; and so on.

The roots of the institution of ombudsman stretch back to 1809 in Sweden, when an "ombudsman for justice" was established. The institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman was introduced into the Slovenian constitutional order through the new Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, which was adopted in December 1991. On February 21 2001, a two-thirds majority of all deputies in the National Assembly elected, upon the proposal of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Matjaž Hanžek as the second Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman, for a period of 6 years.