INTRODUCTION

The Human Rights Ombudsman protects the individual in his contacts with state bodies, local government bodies and statutory authorities and supervises the work of these bodies and institutions. He provides protection for the individual by investigating his or her complaints and proposing the rectification of the irregularity if he finds that the complaint is justified. His work involves protection in the area of the fair and correct behaviour by the authorities in relation to the individual. The ombudsman does not have the power to pass binding decisions but is rather an additional source of non-judicial protection of the rights of individuals.

One of the tools which enables the Human Rights Ombudsman to do his job is the public. The work of the ombudsman is public, though of course the confidentiality of individual proceedings is guaranteed, and is thus subject to public appraisal. The public can also appraise the work of all the bodies supervised by the ombudsman. One of the forms of the ombudsman's public work is the annual report. Through it, he informs the public about the respecting of human rights in society and about his efforts to rectify violations connected with human rights. The ombudsman is bound by law to present a report to the National Assembly every year. This publication is the seventh regular annual report of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia. It is also the first annual report of the new ombudsman.

This year's report does not differ from previous reports in terms of structure since the six reports to date have established a kind of standard which would be hard to improve on. Thus in the first chapter we provide a general review of the situation in Slovenia of those human rights which in our opinion require special emphasis. The second chapter provides a more detailed analysis of the problems the ombudsman has encountered. The final chapters contain general information on methods of work and public relations and a review of expenditure and statistics. We conclude the review with a presentation of some of our more interesting cases. Because the National Assembly confirmed the ombudsman's proposal for closer monitoring of violations of children's rights until the autumn of last year, this area is not presented in a separate chapter in this report but appears as a section of other areas. The issue of the protection of personal data is not yet extensive enough to fill the special report which the ombudsman is statutorily obliged to publish and is therefore dealt with in a special chapter of this annual report.

The report is the most complete review of the work of the institution over the course of the year but remains merely one form of communication with the public. Since the work of the Human Rights Ombudsman does not end with addressing individual cases of violations of human rights but rather aims at improving the work of state bodies and preventing further violations in all segments of society, we hope that the observations contained in this publication will act as an incentive for all of us to improve our behaviour.