Advocate of the Principle of Equality

Logo of the organisation

Full name in English

Full name in national languages

Zagovornik načela enakosti

Postal address

Železna cesta 16 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Website

http://www.zagovornik.si/

Email

gp@zagovornik-rs.si

Social media

Telephone number

+386 1 4735 531

Languages in which your institution can be contacted

Slovenian, English, French, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian

Head(s) of Equality body

Miha Lobnik

field_email

Overview

Mandate

Institution

Overview

The Advocate of the Principle of Equality is an independent and autonomous state institution, which provides assistance and support to persons subjected to discrimination when enforcing their rights regarding protection against discrimination in the form of counselling and legal assistance in administrative and judicial proceedings related to discrimination. The Advocate is also mandated to conduct a supervisory inspection and has the power to submit a request for a review of constitutionality or legality of a regulation or general legal act issued to execute public authorisations.

The tasks of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality are also raising awareness among the general public about discrimination and measures for its prevention, and monitoring the general situation on the national level in the field of protection against discrimination. The Advocate of the Principle of Equality conducts independent research on the position of people with certain personal grounds, publishes independent reports and makes recommendations to state authorities, local communities, holders of public authorisations, employers, business entities and other bodies regarding the established situation of people in certain personal circumstances, i.e. relating to preventing or eliminating discrimination and adopting special and other measures to eliminate discrimination.

Brief history

The Advocate of the Principle of Equality was established as an independent and autonomous national equality body in 2016 with the Protection against Discrimination Act (PADA).

Prior to the establishment of the Advocate, the protection against discrimination in Slovenia was ensured on the basis of the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act (IPETA), but the regulation did not meet the requirements of the European equality directives.

The legal basis for the establishment of the Advocate is the Protection against Discrimination Act (PADA), which has been in force since 24 May 2016 and sets out in detail the powers and tasks of the body. The Head of the Institution, the Advocate of the Principle of Equality, is elected by the National Assembly based on a proposal by the President of the Republic of Slovenia; the term of office of the Head is five years. Miha Lobnik is the Head of the independent state body.

Mandate

Sectors covered

Private, Public

Legal standing before the courts

Representing victims of discrimination before the courts, Bringing proceedings in the name of the equality body [with or without an identifiable victim] but on behalf of one or more individual person(s) who consents to this., Intervention in support of a party, Defending own legally binding decision before the courts, Requests for constitutional review of discriminatory regulations before the Constitutional Court

Functions

Making legally binding decisions on claims of discrimination
Making recommendations on claims of discrimination [or other decisions on the merit that are not legally binding]
Undertaking ex-officio investigations
Organising training, advising and capacity-building activities for particular stakeholders on meeting their obligations
Organising awareness raising and communication activities
Advising government on the development, adoption and amendment of law and policy
Monitoring national law and policy from an equality perspective
Carrying out specialist research on equality and non-discrimination
Reporting to national and international bodies on discrimination issues
Networking with relevant entities in the country and internationally

Fields and grounds

Fields	Grounds
Education	Age, Disability, Family Status, Gender Identity, Gender, Health Status, Other Grounds, Race and Ethnic Origin, Sexual Orientation, Religion or Belief, Social or Socio-economic Status
Employment	Age, Disability, Family Status, Gender Identity, Gender, Health Status, Other Grounds, Race and Ethnic Origin, Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation, Social or Socio-economic Status
Social Protection & Healthcare	Age, Disability, Family Status, Gender, Gender Identity, Health Status, Other Grounds, Race and Ethnic Origin, Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation, Social or Socio-economic Status
Goods and Services	Age, Disability, Family Status, Gender, Gender Identity, Health Status, Other Grounds, Race and Ethnic Origin, Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation, Social or Socio-economic Status
Other	Age, Disability, Family Status, Gender, Gender Identity, Health Status, Other Grounds, Race and Ethnic Origin, Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation, Social or Socio-economic Status

Other grounds

The Protection Against Discrimination Act (PADA) includes an open-ended definition of protected grounds by using the wording "or any other personal ground". The Advocate thus covers all protected grounds listed in the table above in all fields of life. However, above-listed grounds of age (specifically related to children), family status and health status are treated as 'other grounds' as they are not explicitly listed in PADA. On the other hand, PADA explicitly lists other protected grounds not included in the table above, namely, language, gender expression and education.

Other mandates of the institution

Standalone dedicated national equality body

Statistics

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Number of cases handled			149	158	253
Number of inquiries	68	79	93	200	319
Number of litigation cases	0	0	0	1	1

Institution

Management and Appointments

Management

Single headed equality body (led by director or ombudsman/commissioner)

The head of the independent state body is Miha Lobnik. The Advocate employs 20 members of staff.

Regional or Local offices

This institution does not have regional officies.

Accountability

National Parliament

Number of staff

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Number of staff members working on equality							23

Operating budget

	2017	2018	2019	2020
Operating budget in euros [ACTUAL]	250000	335000	1100000	1141890
Operating budget in euros [ALLOCATED]	200000	300000	1100000	1141890
Operating budget in euros for the parts of the organisation dealing with equality issues (all types of functions) [ACTUAL]
Operating budget in euros for the parts of the organisation dealing with equality issues (all types of functions) [ALLOCATED]