Abstract
In our analyses we focus on the fact that in 2012 Slovenia was judged as systematically violating the right to respect for private life by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), due to its “erasure” in 1992 of residence permits for more than 25,000 persons from other former Yugoslav countries. The consequence of the erasure amounted to a stripping from the erased of the right to have rights. In fact, it was a form of administrative ethnic cleansing. Slovenia did not officially recognize the existence of a violation until 1999, when its Constitutional Court passed a judgment on the issue. Yet the erasure and its appalling consequences continued. Slovenian state authorities made numerous attempts to remedy the situation, but these efforts were always, at least in part, subverted by the rightist political forces.
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Notes
- 1.
See Ingrao and Emmert (2009), where Slovenia goes practically without mention after the chapter on the dissolution of Yugoslavia, where it is not placed in a problematic context.
- 2.
ECtHR, 29 April 2002, Pretty v United Kingdom, appl. nr 2346/02.
- 3.
ECtHR, 19 July 1997, Laskey, Jaggard and Brown v United Kingdom, appl. nrs. 21627/93; 21628/93; 21974/93).
- 4.
ECtHR, 25 March 1993, Costello-Roberts v the United Kingdom, appl. nr 13734/87.
- 5.
ECtHR, 9 October 2003, Slivenko v. Latvia, appl. nr 48321/99.
- 6.
ECtHR, 28 April 2003, Peck v United Kingdom, appl. nr 44647/98, pt. 57.
- 7.
ECtHR, 16 December 1992, Niemietz v Germany, appl. no. 13710/88, pt. 57.
- 8.
ECtHR, 28 January 2003, Peck v. United Kingdom, appl. no. 44647/98, pt. 41.
- 9.
ECtHR, Peck, pt. 41.
- 10.
ECtHR, Pretty, pt. 1.
- 11.
ECtHR, 11 July 2002, Christine Goodwin v. United Kingdom, appl. nr 28957/95, pt. 18.
- 12.
In this paper, “Judgment” will mean the Kurić and Others v. Slovenia judgment, adopted by the ECtHR Grand Chamber (Application no. 26828/06, passed on 26 June, 2012. Accessed via HUDOC ECtHR.
- 13.
ECtHR, “Factsheet – Pilot Judgments,” May 2020, https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/fs_pilot_judgments_eng.pdf, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 14.
See Ingrao and Emmert (2009).
- 15.
Although Slovenia was not considered to have had problems with human rights implementation on attaining independence, there were major differences at the time as to how to regulate the issue of citizens from the other Yugoslav republics, both Slovenians and the others holding the same “federal citizenship.” The differences are noted in Kogovšek Šalamon (2012, 46–50).
- 16.
Referred to in Kogovšek Šalamon (2011, 99).
- 17.
Božo Repe, “Slovensko zgodovinopisje je pluralistično, a med zgodovinarji je premalo razprav,” Mladina, 2, 2011.
- 18.
RTVSlo, “Izbrisani burijo politične vrhove,” 10 December 2010, www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/izbrisani-burijo-politicne-vrhove/13123, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 19.
Amnesty International, “Europe & Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Balkans: January–June 2005,” p. 59, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/84000/eur010122005en.pdf, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 20.
Statement by Slovenian Helsinki Watch Committee dated 11 February, 2011, www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/reports/hmsl11-2-98.html, accessed 30 January, 2013.
- 21.
Open Society Justice Initiative. October 16, 2007. Open Society Justice Initiative Seeks Relief for Slovenia’s “Erased” Citizens, www.opensocietyfoundations.org/press-releases/open-society-justice-initiative-seeks-relief-slovenias-erased-citizens.
- 22.
For the laws and practices of the Yugoslav successor states, see Kogovšek Šalamon (2011, 344–360).
- 23.
Executive Committee of the Slovenian Democratic Party, “Izjava Slovenskega narodnega foruma o razvrednotenju osamosvojitve Slovenije,” 24 October 2003, https://www.sta.si/775856/slovenski-narodni-forum-pri-sds-nasprotuje-blatenju-akterjev-osamosvojitve, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Jure Trampuš, “Novi manever z izbrisanimi, Mladina,” 6 November 2007, www.mladina.si/95530/novi-manever-z-izbrisanimi, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 26.
See “Erased – Information and Documents,” https://www.mirovni-institut.si/izbrisani/en/statistics/index.html.
- 27.
Klara Škrinjar and Branko Soban, “Janša: Slovenija nima denarja za izbrisane,” Delo, 28 June 2012, www.delo.si/novice/slovenija/jansa-slovenija-nima-denarja-za-izbrisane.html, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 28.
Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Interior, “Draft law on compensation for persons erased from the registry of permanent residence,” https://e-uprava.gov.si/.download/edemokracija/datotekaVsebina/132157?disposition=inline, accessed 15 November 2020.
- 29.
Both letters are accessible in the archives of the Mirovni Inštitut.
- 30.
Kogovšek Šalamon (2012, p. 105).
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Kogovšek Šalamon, N., Flere, S. (2021). Slovenia: From the Best European Pupil to Perpetrator of One of the Most Egregious ECHR Violations. In: Ognjenovic, G., Jozelic, J. (eds) Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_13
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