The Human Rights Ombudsman, Dr Zdenka Čebašek-Travnik, together with the Deputy Ombudsman, Mag. Kornelija Marzel, and the Ombudsman’s adviser, Martina Ocepek, invited representatives of non-governmental organisations and civil initiatives in the area of environmental protection to a working visit.  In all, 36 representative of the above organisations responded to the invitation.

The Ombudsman has placed environmental issues among the priorities and, in November 2007, in cooperation with Umanotera and the National Assembly, organised a consultation meeting on the environment and human rights. The purpose of the meeting was to become acquainted with civil society expectations, and to exchange experiences and consolidate existing cooperation. 

 


The Deputy Ombudsman, Kornelija Marzel, presented the Ombudsman's conclusions concerning environmental protection. In 2009, the Ombudsman received 12 percent more initiatives for environmental protection than in the previous year. She also presented some cases of environmental issues that were investigated by the Ombudsman.  Adviser Martina Ocepek spoke about certain aspects related to the functioning of inspection authorities.
 
 


The participants also drew attention to:
•    the inefficiency and non-transparency of bodies within the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Council for Environmental Protection and the National Assembly group – Globe Slovenia;
•    a lack of clear strategy in this field;
•    unprotected and harassed environmental activists;
•    the influence of the interests of capital on the regulation of environmental issues, including spatial planning concerns;
•    insufficient interest on the part of the media in reporting on environmental issues.
 

The participants positively assessed today’s meeting with the Ombudsman, agreeing that cooperation needs to be further improved to ensure greater efficiency and transparency of the work of all public-sector authorities. They also agreed to jointly organise the next conference on how to improve the cooperation of the civil society on environmental issues. 
At the end of the meeting, the Ombudsman invited all the participants to take part in the Clean Up Slovenia campaign.