The 1997 report on the state of human rights in Slovenia compiled by Ombudsman Ivan Bizjak was discussed in parliament on Wednesday. The discussion of the 200-page report was due almost a year ago.

Lawmakers agreed with the report in that the rule of law in Slovenia is still not completely satisfactory. Furthermore, inadequate legislation and time-consuming legislative, judicial and administrative procedures are particularly worrying.

Ombudsman Ivan Bizjak has also found out that the legal regulation was not stable, shortcomings are not being done away with, there were no effective means that would guarantee the respect of human rights, backlog in courts is still enormous, the number of unsettled cases is increasing.

Still inadequate, Slovenia's legislation is both unadjusted to the Slovene reality and not entirely harmonised with international documents.

The use of regulations that used to be applicable to the former Yugoslavia, from which Slovenia emerged in 1991, is wrong and disturbing. It is high time that eight years after gaining independence Slovenia's legislation had become sovereign.

Problems have been identified in the adjustment of national legislation to EU standards, according to the Bizjak report.

Labour legislation should be adopted as soon as possible. The assertion of certain social rights should be regulated in a more detailed manner. Legal aid should be gratis, according to the report.

The parliament was of the opinion that the institution of ombudsman had justified its existence. It was set up over four years ago. But lawmakers were worried over the warnings that the rule of law was not as effective as it should have been.

It has been suggested that the possibility of setting up the institution of the ombudsman for children should be considered because the ombudsman established the convention on children's rights, binding for Slovenia, was not observed consistently.

With a slow pace of settling certain systemic problems, the National Assembly recommended that the government should prepare measures which would help eliminate the violations of human rights and basic liberties.