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Slovenia

A. UN Convention status

A1. Ratification or conclusion of the UN Convention

The Republic of Slovenia has signed the UN Convention and the Optional protocol on 31 March 2007. The Slovene Parliament passed the Act Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 2 April 2008. The Act was published in the Official Gazette on 15 April 2008 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia,No. 10/2008) and came into force on 16 April 2008.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

A2. Ratification or accession to the Optional Protocol

The Republic of Slovenia signed the UN Convention and the Optional Protocol on 31 March 2007. The Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia passed the Act Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 2 April 2008.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

A3. Declarations, Reservations and Objections

There are no Declarations, Reservations or Objections made to the UN Convention.

Update date: Sun, 2012-12-09

A4. Comprehensive review

There was no comprehensive review of existing legislation made solely for implementation of the Convention. Analysis of State Care for Persons with Disabilities was made by the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia in 2009, under the initiative of disability organisations. Articles 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 30 of the Convention were looked at.

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Update date: Sun, 2012-12-09

A5. Focal point

The Focal point for the implementation of the UN Convention and Optional Protocol is the Ministry for Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.

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Update date: Tue, 2015-06-09

A6. Coordination mechanism

The Council for the Disabled of the Republic of Slovenia is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the UN Convention, and it is the coordination mechanism in the country (Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No.94/2010, 50/2014, 32/2017; Art. 28). It was established in February 2014. The Council consists of seven representatives of disability organisations, the National Council of Disability Organisations, seven representatives of different professional institutions in the area of disability and seven representatives of the government.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

A7. Independent mechanism

The Council for the Disabled of the Republic of Slovenia established in 2014 is defined as the independent mechanism. The Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act of 2010, in Article 28, envisages establishment of an independent body. It should, among other things, monitor the implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. According to the Act the Council of Disabled People of the Republic of Slovenia is planned to have 21 members, among them: seven representatives of disability organisations, seven representatives of professional institutions in the field of disability (Health Insurance Institute, Pension and Disability Insurance Institute, Social care Institute, Employment Service of Slovenia, Vocational Rehabilitation Providers Association, Training Providers Union) and seven representatives of government, named by different Ministries (covering disability, education, culture, finance, science and health).

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Update date: Tue, 2015-06-09

A8. Official reporting

The Directorate for the disabled, war veterans and the victims of the war violence at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Slovenia is responsible for the official reporting to the UN Commission. The first report of the implementation of the UNCRPD for Slovenia was submitted to the UN Commission in July 2014. The government of the Republic of Slovenia has made two Action Plans to monitor the process of implementation of the CRPD. The first period of the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities was from 2007-2013, and the second from 2014 – 2021. The Directorate for the disabled, war veterans and the victims of the war violence is responsible for the annual reporting on the implementation of the Action Programme. The Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia under the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities is responsible for the overall evaluation of the Action Programme for 2007-2013 and 2014-2021. Annual reports were prepared by the Directorate in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
In April 2018, the Slovenian government received the feedback of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In April 2019 the Committee's Concluding observations on the initial report of Slovenia were not translated into Slovenian language yet (only a draft was prepared, which has not yet circulated in public).

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

A9. Shadow reporting

National Council of Disability Organisations of Slovenia [Nacionalni svet invalidskih organizacij Slovenije - NSIOS] with the contribution of different disability organisations is obliged to make a shadow report. NSIOS made the shadow report in 2017. From 19 to 23 February 2018 the NSIOS reported to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva about the implementation of the UN Convention in Slovenia. In addition to the shadow report, an alternative report was sent to the UN Committee. The alternative report was prepared by user-led organisations and the supporters whose work is explicitly based on the rights-based approach and the social model of disability, promoting independent living and advocating for Article 19. The UN Commission accepted the alternative report and took it into consideration. A representative of the alternative report went to Geneva to meet the members of the UN Committee (this visit was funded by private money of the authors of the alternative report).

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

B. General legal framework

B1. Anti-discrimination legislation

The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia contains an anti-discrimination provision in Article 14 (Equality before the Law) which states that in Slovenia everyone shall be guaranteed equal human rights and fundamental freedoms irrespective of national origin, race, sex, language, religion, political, or other conviction, material standing, birth, education, social status, disability, or any other personal circumstances. The term disability ('invalidnost') as a circumstance was added in 2004. A general anti-discrimination framework is provided by Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act from 2010 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 94/2010, 50/2014, 32/2017). It provides a general prohibition of discrimination against disabled persons in access to goods and services (most specifically in relation to state institutions). It provides some rights in terms of equalisation of opportunities such as a right to some technical aids; adaptation of vehicles, and a call centre for the deaf. The Act was implemented with the Rules on Technical Aids and Adaptation of Vehicles (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia 71/2014, 37/2017, 57/18). The Rules define the conditions for the eligibility to receive technical aid, the length of the right to possess the technical aid its maintenance, and the quality standards of the technical aid. It also define the adaptation of personal vehicle, the conditions for the accommodation of the vehicle, the length if the accommodation, the standards of the quality and the ways to maintain the vehicle and the value of its.
In line with the above mentioned Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act, the Rules on Assistance Dogs (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 5/2018) came into force in 2018. Persons who are severely physically disabled, over 18 years of age and have legal capacity, have appropriate psychological characteristics and housing arrangements (Article 2) are entitled to have an assistant dog. He/she also has to have an appropriate social network, if the dog needs to be cared by the third person for a short period of time. A multi-professional team of experts and a legal expert assess the request of the person. The multi-professional experts-team consist of a doctor who assesses the physical abilities of the disabled person, a rehabilitation expert and a psychologist. One expert also assesses the compatibility between the person and the dog.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

B2. Recognition of legal capacity

Legal capacity issues are defined in in the Non-Contentious Civil Procedure Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 16/2019) and in the Family Code (Official Gazette 15/2017, 21/2018). When the person is deemed unable to protect his/her personal integrity, he/she is placed under guardianship. The Non-Contentious Civil Procedure Act defines the procedures of how the person can be placed under guardianship. When the adult persons get the legal capacity removed, the person gets a legal guardian. Centres for social work, the public prosecutor, the spouse or the person who lives with the person who shall be placed under guardianship for a long period of time or the relative or the person can start the process of putting the person under guardianship. The court starts the process of guardianship and appoints a legal guardian for a person with intellectual disabilities or long-term mental health problems or other persons; the person is defined as having a limited capability of reasoning and/or the person is unable to care for her/his rights and benefits (Family Code, Art 262). The person who shall be placed under guardianship has to come to the court hearing with the exception being when the court hearing can worsen the person’s health in which case the court hearing is not possible. The person who is expected to be placed under guardianship has to be examined by medical expert(s). The exceptions are persons who are in institutionalised in a psychiatric hospital by the written order of the court and the hospital documentation shows that there is the need that the person is placed under guardianship or if the court already has the necessary documentation by an expert witness of medical background. There are two types of guardianship: long-term guardianship and temporary guardianship (Family Code, Art 265). The court defines the scope of the guardianship responsibilities and rights. The court also defines the scope, the responsibilities, and the rights of the temporary guardian. The temporary guardianship ends when the court decides that the person needs a long-term guardianship or when there is no need for a guardianship anymore. The guardianship ends with the legal order of the court (Family Code, 266). The third type of guardianship is the guardianship for a particular case (skrbništvo za poseben primer) defined by the centre of social work (Family Code, Art 267).

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

B3. Accessibility of voting and elections

National Assembly Election Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia 109/2006, 54/2007, 23/2017) defines the accessibility of voting and elections and some accessibility regulations are mentioned in the Local Election Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia 94/2007, 45/2008, 83/2012, 68/2017). Both Acts define the accessibility of voting for those who are ill and are not able to come to the voting pools. They can vote at home in front of the voting commission, but they are obliged to inform the voting commission in advance, 3 days at least (National Assembly Election Act, Art. 83; Local Election Act, Art 81).

The National Assembly Election Act defines that the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia whose legal capacity was fully removed or their parents have a prolonged parental rights have no right to vote or be elected (Article 7). The Act defines that disabled persons or persons who are ill and reside in institutions have the right to vote; their voting ballot has to be approved by a legally appointed public official (Art 47).

Each voter has the right to vote with a support of a person who helps him/her to fill the ballot or to hand out the ballot and all of the polling stations have to be barrier free including for persons with visual impairments (Art 79a). Those who live in long-stay institutions or in a hospital or are disabled have the right to vote by snail mail if they inform the voting commission at least ten days in advance. Disabled persons have to provide the written order of the disability status if they want to vote via snail mail during each elections (Art 81).

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

B4. Official recognition of sign language

Slovenian Sign language that is officially recognised and the Act Regulating the Use of Slovene Sign Language (96/2002) define the rights of deaf persons including the translations from and to Sign language. According to Article 10 of this Act, deaf persons have a right to use Sign Language in proceedings before state bodies, local self-government public authorities or public service providers (i.e. hospitals etc.), as well as in other life situations in which deafness is an obstacle in meeting one's needs. A deaf person is also entitled to being informed through the means adapted to his/her understanding. The right of disabled persons to use Sign Language before State bodies, public authorities and public services is unlimited, and a Sign Language interpreter must be guaranteed and financed by these institutions. Deaf persons have the right to use a Sign Language interpreter in situations of their choice: for each deaf person, 30 hours per year are available, and for each pupil or student who is deaf 100 hours per year. The person with hearing impairments obtains the certificate for eligibility to this right at the local centre for social work. The funds are provided by the state (the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities), through a system of vouchers. Vouchers for interpretation can be obtained at the Centres for Social Work, which also register deaf persons and issue special identification cards for the purpose of obtaining vouchers.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

B5. National disability strategy and action plan

Slovenia has two Action Plans for Persons with Disabilities: the Action Plan for 2007-2013 and the Action Plan for 2014-2021. An evaluation of progress under the first plan was already published.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

C. Accessibility

C1. Transport accessibility

Article 16 of the Equalisation of Opportunities for People with Disabilities Act 2010 regulates the accessibility of public transport service. It states that people with disabilities should have equal access in road, rail and sea transport. According to the Act, it is an obligation of the State, the municipalities and public transport providers to make every public transport line accessible. Accessibility provisions should be made for people with reduced mobility and sensory impairments and include architectural and information accessibility. Only when adjustment to a regular line would mean a disproportionate burden to the provider, special transport for a person with disabilities has to be organised, but at no additional cost to the person with disability. The Act envisages a 10 to 15 year transition period; this means that transport accessibility for people with disabilities is planned to become an actual right in 2025. In the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities (2007 - 2013), Objective 3 addressed some provisions on transport accessibility. However, these were no concrete provisions and no timeframe for implementation-was forseen. The measures included adaptation of all means of transport for people with physically and sensory impairments, accessibility of city and intercity transport, accessibility of stations and commitment to EU Directives No. 2001/85, Directive No. 96/48, Regulation COM 2004/143, EU document COM 617/1999, Regulation (ES) No. 1107/2006 of the European Parliament and Council from 5 July 2006. Some transport services are provided by disabled people’s organisations for their members (e.g. Association for muscular dystrophy, Associations of paraplegics, Associations for cerebral palsy, etc.). However, these services are not available to non-members or in rural areas. The Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities 2014-2021(Objective 3) does not include any concrete provisions is this area.

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Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

C2. Built environment accessibility

Accessibility of the built environment is a subject of the Construction Act which has been in use from 1 January 2003 (Art. 17 has provisions for accessibility of the built environment for people with disabilities), and the Spatial Planning Act in use from 1 January 2003. More detailed standards for the accessibility of buildings are the Slovene standard SIST ISO /TR 9527 – building construction (accepted), and Rules for demands to ensure accessible entrance and use of buildings in public use and bigger residential units (changed after the decision of Constitutional Court). According to Art.17 of the Construction Act, all new buildings in public use and those that will be renovated, are obliged to provide a barrier free (built and communication) access for functionally disabled persons; access to higher floors must be assured by elevators or similar devices and multi- residential units have to have at least 10%of all apartments, and all common rooms accessible. The Ministry for the Environment and Spatial Planning also adopted a document called ‘Rules for demands to ensure accessible entrance and use of buildings in public use and bigger residential units’ which in Article 4 narrowed the obligations for accessibility standards: for example, only bigger hotels with 50 or more rooms should be accessible. But after a law suit by a disabled person in 2009, the Constitutional Court decided that this Article was not in line with the Constitution and the existing anti-discrimination provisions, and it had to be changed. An accessible environment has been one of the goals in the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities 2007-2013 and it is also included in the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act from December 2010. According to this Act, public buildings should all be accessible by 2025 and fines are envisaged for organisations that do not comply.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

C3. ICT and Web accessibility

The Ministry for Public Administration has in 2008 adapted the whole State Portal of the Republic of Slovenia, an e-administration portal with procedures and forms important to citizens when dealing with public administration, by following instructions W3C WCAG 2.0 EU. The Portal now corresponds to the standard W3C WAI level A and includes a speaker feature that reads aloud some of the content of the site. Article 17 of the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 (EOPDA) envisages the right of people with sensory and other disabilities to some communication aids that are not included in other Acts (i.e. if they are not entitled to them because they did not have their disability insurance, etc.). The types of aids and their standards are not set out in EOPDA and should have been defined in supplementary administrative regulation by the responsible Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, but have not yet been accepted. Specific rights under this provision are therefore not implemented.
National Guidelines for improving accessibility of the built environment, information and communication systems for disabled, adopted by the Government in 2005, recognises accessibility as a tool for integration of disabled people. On the basis of these Guidelines, the following services are now accessible:

  1. Television and radio services - People with disabilities are entitled to be exempt of payment of general fee for the use of radio and television; the right is defined in Article 32 of Radiotelevizija Slovenia Act (Zakon o Radioteleviziji Slovenija). People with disabilities with a 100% or less bodily impairment are entitled, as well as with deaf people or people who are receiving the assistance and attendance allowance. In 2010, there were 17,043 persons who were exempt of this payment (according to the data of RTV – Radio and Television).
  2. Telephone services - Articles 2 and 3 of the Act defines the rights in regard to the telephone connections. Persons with disabilities are entitled to priority service for telephone connections as well as telephone connection repairs and a 50% discount of the connection fee. Entitled persons are people with 80% bodily impairment due to vision loss; people with 60% bodily impairment due to hearing loss; people with 80% bodily impairment. Article 4 defines that conditions for the use of telephone services and price lists must be available in voice form or/and Braille, for persons with vision impairments.
  3. Internet services - A contract between the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and ARNES (public internet provider) enables users with disability and disabled people organisations to use internet services for free. Each user can receive an email account and access to the internet. In 2011, there were 53 organisations using this right, as well as 1,789 individual persons. The Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act (2010) speaks of the right to assistive devices that individuals need in their life to overcome communication barriers to ensure a safe and independent life and are used to access information, to communicate and adapt their living environment. All regulations connected to this Act are not adopted yet, so it is presently unknown to what extent these rights are enacted (in terms of financial support for adaptations).

In March 2019 there was a public discussion about the European Accessibility Act by the Slovenian MP EU and NSIOS.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D. Independent living

D1. Choice of living arrangements

Article 13 of the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 states that disabled people should have a right to choose their place of residence, have access to community services and have an actual right to non-profit apartments granted by local municipalities. However, the same article says that it is not discriminatory if the disabled person, in accordance with the contract with his/her legal representatives, is placed in institutional care as long as this is not forced on them (although, if the person does not have any practical options, this is forced accommodation). The Action Programme for People with Disabilities 2007-2013 and 2014-2021 states that people with disabilities should have the right to decide, on an equal basis with others and without discrimination, where they wish to live and should have the right to fully participate in community living. However, in the absence of available support mechanisms for community/independent living disabled persons requiring assistance have few choices but to live with a primary family or public care institutions.
Since 2004 disabled persons in need of continuous support can be helped by a family member or person who continuously lives on the same address of the disabled person; the Social Assistance Act (1992 and further) gives the right of an unemployed family member or the person who gives up employment to become the status of family assistant for an adult person; the family member gets all social, health and pension benefits.
The Personal Assistance Act (drafted and publicly discussed since 2009) was accepted by the Slovenian Parliament in 2017 and came into force in 2019. It regulates personal assistance for persons age 18 to 64 and for person who need minimum 30 hours of personal assistance per week. Currently, there are four issues which can threaten the successful implementation of the law: 1) there is no financial scheme in place; 2) the criteria for the providers of personal assistance are not following the ideas of independent living and there are hardly any criteria at all; 3) a lot of relatives applied for personal assistance, for example, three relatives for one person with disabilities; and 4) training for providers of personal assistance, coordinators of personal assistance at the centres of social work and for users of personal assistance is based on a medical understanding of disability.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D2. De-institutionalisation

De-institutionalisation in terms of the closure of institutions has not so far progressed and existing institutions are still constructing additional buildings to expand their services. An in-depth research was made about it in 2015, funded by the Ministry of Public Administration and the ESF. The Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities 2007-2013 in its Objective 2 (The right to community living) maintains that for many persons with disabilities institutions are still needed. There are small institutional reorganisations through which large institutions have established smaller units (for 12-24 persons) and group homes (for 4-6 persons) run by the same institutions. The staff has not been re-trained. The Government has been working on the long-term-care act for several years, and in 2017 the draft of the Long-term Care Act was still under discussion. The Disabled people's organisations have expressed concerns that the Long-term Care Act will prevent the Law on Personal Assistance to be implemented in 2019. The Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities 2014 -2021 does not mention de-institutionalisation, the right to live independently, nor the right to choose the place of residence according to the Article 19 of the CRPD.
The Personal Assistance Act (drafted and publicly discussed since 2009) was accepted by the Parliament of Slovenia in 2017 and came into force in 2019. It regulates personal assistance for persons aged 18 to 64 and who need a minimum of 30 hours of personal assistance per week. Currently, there are four issues which can threaten the successful implementation of the law: 1) there is no financial scheme in place; 2) the criteria for the providers of personal assistance do not follow the ideas of independent living and there are hardly any criteria at all; 3) a lot of relatives applied for personal assistance, for example, three relatives for one person with disabilities; and 4) training for providers of personal assistance, coordinators of personal assistance at the centres of social work and users of personal assistance is based on a medical understanding of disability. The Law does not include children nor elderly, which means that it is not universal.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D3. Quality of social services

There is no set standard for measuring the quality of social services specifically. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia conduct social inspection in cases of service users complaints. The social inspection covers the work of public social protection institutes, concession holders and other legal entities and persons that provide social security services on the basis of a work permit. The majority of research that focus on evaluation of social services or programmes are made by the Institute of Social Protection which is the research institute of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Independent research almost does not exist. User-led research is almost non-existent. Both types of research, when they are conducted, use small scale, narrative and case studies approaches due to lack of funding.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D4. Provision of assistive devices at home

The assistive devices at home are mostly available for deaf and deaf-blind persons and for persons in need for car adaptation for driving and transport for physically disabled people. These rights are set out in the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 (Art. 17, 21, 22) and are specified in the Rules on technical aids and adaptation of vehicles (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 71, 2014).
In line of the above mentioned Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act, the Rules on Assistance Dogs (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 5/2018) came into force in 2018. The right to get an assistant dog has the person who is heavily and severely physically disabled, is over 18 years of age, has a legal capacity, has severe difficulties in moving and carrying the objects; has appropriate psychological characteristics and housing arrangements (Article 2). He/she also has to have an appropriate social network, if the dog needs to be cared by the third person for a short period of time. A multi-professional team of experts including a legal expert assess the request of the person. The multi-professional experts-team consists of a doctor who assesses the physical abilities of the disabled person, a rehabilitation expert and a psychologist. One expert also assesses the compatibility between the person and the dog.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D5. Availability of personal assistance schemes

The Personal Assistance Act (drafted and publicly discussed since 2009) was accepted by the Slovenian Parliament in 2017 and came into force in 2019. It regulates personal assistance for persons aged 18 to 64 and who need a minimum of 30 hours of personal assistance per week. Currently there are four issues which can threaten the successful implementation of the law: 1) there is no financial scheme in place; 2) the criteria for the providers of personal assistance do not follow the ideas of independent living and there are hardly any criteria at all; 3) a lot of relatives applied for personal assistance, for example, three relatives for one person with disabilities; and 4) training for providers of personal assistance, coordinators of personal assistance at the centres of social work and users of personal assistance is based on a medical understanding of disability. The Law does not include children nor elderly, which means that it is not universal.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D6. Income maintenance

Benefits are regulated by different Acts, according to the disability status of the person in question. There are several definitions of disability in the country, which was a concern for the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. People who have had employment or who receive a pension are entitled to a number of cash benefits, according to the Pension and Disability Insurance Act, which are the following: Care Allowance for those who need partial help in daily activities and Disability Compensation Allowance for those who got injured at work and for those injured outside the workplace. When a person with disabilities is partially employed, then the amount of the disability pension depends on the causes of disability, the length of paying into the insurance scheme and the age of the person. Considering these, a person with disabilities is eligible for 20% up to 80% of full disability pension. The Disability Compensation Allowance is paid for those who got injured at work (with at least a disability of 30%), and for those injured outside the work place with at least 50% of disability. Cash benefits are paid according to the Social Care for Mentally and Physically Disabled Persons Act 1983 (for those who are defined as incapable of independent living and work).
The Social Assistance Benefits Act was amended in 2010 (and implemented in 2012). The major change has been that any property and savings of the person with disability are now considered in determining eligibility. The exception is for people who have a disability status under the Social Care of the Mentally and Physically Disabled Persons Act 1983, and who are at the same time, either under guardianship or whose parents have prolonged parental rights. There are also special Acts that determine benefits for war veterans and civil casualties of war. Legislation concerning cash benefits changed in the beginning of 2012 (Law on Enforcement of Public Funds 2010). The basic amount of the minimal income is EUR 392.75/month (as per April 2019).

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D7. Additional costs

The increased cost of living for people with disabilities is recognised and is partially compensated as stipulated in the Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act (2014). One of the parents who care for a child with moderate and heavily physical disability or moderate or heavy intellectual disability has the right for a reduced work time until the child reaches the age of 18 (Article 50). Article 79 defines that the parents can get additional money when the child needs special care and protection in the amount of EUR 100 per month (as of April 2019). If the child has severe intellectual disabilities (IQ under 20 which corresponds to the child age of two years old), or is severely physically disabled or long-term chronically ill with a heavy disease, the parents may get EUR 200 per month (April 2019). The Act also defines the partial payment for the lost income of the parent who leaves the paid employment in order to care for the child with disability as described above (Article 83). The parent who was full-time employed has the right for the partial payment for the lost income in the amount of EUR 734.14 per month (April 2019). This is a benefit to which family is entitled to if the child with disability is not in residential institutional care; it can be granted until the child reaches 18 years of age.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

D8. Retirement income

People with disabilities, who are above retirement age, have the same income protection as before retirement age, which means that they become disability pensioners. According to the Pension and Invalidity Insurance Act, the beneficiaries are persons who were at the time of injury or illness that caused disability insured by The Institute for Pension and Invalidity Insurance (employed, self-employed, farmers, etc.). The Pension and Invalidity Insurance Act presents a definition of disability in Article 60 as follows: ‘invalidity’ shall be ascertained if due to changes in health condition which cannot be improved by treatment or by medical rehabilitation and have been ascertained pursuant to the present Act, the capacity of an insured person to secure or keep a job or to advance in career has been reduced. ‘Invalidity’ is classified according to three categories. Category I is attributed if an insured person has lost the capacity to engage in organised gainful employment or, if he suffers from occupational invalidity and has lost the remaining capacity for work. Category II is attributed if an insured person’s capacity for work in the occupation he was trained for is impaired by 50% or more. Category III is attributed if an insured person, after occupational rehabilitation or without such occupational rehabilitation, has lost the capacity to work full-time, but is capable of working at a certain job on a part-time basis, or if an insured person’s capacity for work in the occupation he was trained for is impaired by less than 50% or he can continue working in his occupation on a full-time basis, but he has lost the capacity to work at the job he has been assigned to. ‘Occupation he was trained for’ shall be considered to be ‘work at a job to which an insured person has been assigned to and all the jobs which correspond to his physical and mental capacities and for which he has acquired relevant qualifications, supplementary training and work experience required for particular works in accordance with laws or collective agreements’. The causes of occurrence of disability are employment injury, occupational disease, illness or off-the-job injury.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

E. Education

E1. Special schools

Placement of Children with Special Needs Act (2000) regulates placing children and young people with disabilities in different educational programmes including kindergartens and schools. Children and young people labelled as intellectually disabled in particular have no access to educational services offered to the general population. The additional regulations to the Placement of Children with Special Needs Act states that children with mild intellectual disabilities can only obtain lower educational standards, which in practice means that they are placed in special schools. People with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disabilities can only obtain special education in special units of institutions for children and young people with disabilities. In practice, this means that they are most often sent to segregated facilities for special school education, which are run by institutions for children and young people with intellectual disabilities known as ‘units for care and education’ (oddelki vzgoje in izobraževanja).
Children with intellectual disabilities may not be placed in mainstream schools because the ability to achieve the set required educational standard for elementary school is the precondition for placement of the child in a mainstream school. Special elementary schools intended for children with sight impairments, hearing or speech impairment, or physical impairments are also organised as institutions, where children can stay during the week. The Primary School Law ensures that children with intellectual disability stay in the primary school until they reach the age of 26 and afterwards they can get enrolled in the sheltered workshops.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

E2. Mainstream schools

Some groups of children (although not those with intellectual disabilities) who are labelled as having special needs have been in the last decade more often than before included in mainstream schools because of the inclusion and integration paradigm. The Placement of Children with Special Needs Act (2011) defines children with special needs as ‘children with intellectual disabilities, blind and partially sighted children, deaf and hearing impaired children, children who have speech disorders, children with physical disabilities, long term illnesses, children with deficiencies in specific areas of learning, children with autistic disorders and children with emotional and behavioural problems, who need adapted implementation of educational programmes with additional expert help, adapted educational programmes or special programmes of education’. In accordance with the Placement of Children with Special Needs Act, the Placement Commissions are responsible for assessing all children with special needs and for making placement decisions on the type of school each child should attend. Upon a recommendation made by the Placement Commission, the National Education Institute (Zavod za šolstvo, in Slovenian) issues a written order of placement. The Placement Commission is extremely important as its written order of placement determines the educational programme the child is allowed to attend and the type of education institution (a specific kindergarten, school or institution). There are five different educational programmes, some of which are carried out in ordinary schools (special classes), some in special schools and some in boarding schools and long stay institutions:

  • adapted programme for pre-school children;
  • educational programmes with adapted implementation and additional professional help;
  • adapted programmes of care and education with mainstream educational standard;
  • adapted programmes of care and education with lower educational standard;
  • special programme of care and education for the children with moderate, heavy and severe intellectual disability and in other special programmes;
  • programmes of care (Article 5).

Whenever relevant, it also specifies the extent, method and form of additional expert support; technical aids, equipment and spatial requirements that need to be provided; a right to part-time or full-time assistance for physical help for a child with physical disability; a reduction of the number of children in class; the time frame for the next evaluation; and possibly other rights. Parents or legal guardians have, according to The Primary Schools Act, the right to enrol their child to a public school in a school district where they live, and the school is obliged to accept the child. For children with special needs there is a limitation; the parents have the right to enrol a child with special needs in a school of their school district, except if this school does not meet the conditions of a child’s needs. In this case, the Placement Commission recommends a school in which the child can be enrolled.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

E3. Sign language and Braille in school

Article 4 of the Regulations on additional professional and physical help for the children and youth with special needs states that blind and visually impaired children and deaf and hearing impaired children may get up to five hours of additional expert help in first placement order for elementary school, and up to three hours in later placements (higher classes and high school) or in kindergarten. Article 5 of the same Regulations allows for additional expert help for blind and partially sighted children and allows one extra hour for kindergartens, the last third (classes from 7 - 9) of elementary school and secondary education, and three more hours for children in elementary school (classes from 1 – 6). This right is usually implemented in a form of group work in the premises of the School for blind children. There is no such provision for children who are deaf or who have severe hearing impairments.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

E4. Vocational training

The Action Programme for Persons with Disabilities 2007-2013 and 2014-2021 recognise the fact that children and adults with disabilities are less integrated and have a lower level of education. In particular, it states that ‘[…] their share in secondary and higher education structures is low. Inclusion in secondary and higher education is a challenge for equal opportunities for persons with disabilities within the whole educational system […].’ Measures that should take place in order to change that are general and include, among others, the need for a more accessible built environment, a accessible study literature, a right to an interpreter, access to an induction loop or a hearing loop, which is a special type of sound system for use by people with hearing aids, etc. After completing primary education, children and young people with disabilities may receive secondary education or vocational education or training. At secondary education level, children with special needs are included in adapted programmes of secondary general or vocational education with additional expert help. Besides the right to additional expert help (of maximum three hours per week), the organisation of the learning process at secondary level might include personal assistance at school, a lower number of pupils in the class, use of adapted learning aids and adapted study materials.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

E5. Higher education

The Placement of Children with Special Needs Act, states in Art. 3 that ’students at university programmes should have additional equipment provided to them in accordance with the university statute.’ In practice, this means that universities themselves, in their regulations, indicate the extent to which they will meet the needs of disabled students and which rights they will grant. The student whose access to higher education is limited has no legal ground for claiming discrimination in education. Each university, as well as many other institutions for lifelong learning, have their own regulations about students with special needs [študentje s posebnimi potrebami], but they are similar in their structure. They all define the students with special needs and the conditions under which a person gets this status. The conditions are based on medical documentations, medical assessments and diagnosis. The regulations also refer to the tutorial support for these students and individually-based accommodations, which depend on the financial and environmental abilities of the education institution. While the regulations define general accommodations and particular person-based accommodations, they do not consider them a requirement because the actual provision depends on the financial and spatial means of each educational institution. For instance, according to the Regulations related to students with special needs at the University of Ljubljana, students with disabilities have the right to take exams outside the regular exam period, and can progress to a higher class even if they have not fulfilled all conditions. The Regulations of the University of Maribor state that students with disabilities have the right to adaptations in classes, practical work and exams; but how this right is implemented depends on each particular Faculty of the University. The provision of technical aids is regulated under the Health Insurance Rules that determines the procedures and conditions of their allocation. Students with disabilities do not have any specific or additional rights because of their student status. Some adaptations and equipment are available to the students who are members of the Association of the Students with Disabilities (an NGO), which provides services such as the use of computers, copying, scanning, printing of materials, large-printing and making audio files of study materials. Universities gather their own data on students with disabilities and/or special needs, but overall data are missing.
Different sources report different data on the following issues that:

  • only those who are formally categorised as disabled are counted in the statistics;
  • some statistics report about ‘students with special needs’ which is a broader category than the category of 'disabled' [invalidi];
  • some students who were categorised in the past as 'children with special needs', or 'secondary school pupils with special needs' decide to renounce the disability status and despite of the actual impairment fall out of any statistics and get no support from the state.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

F. Employment

F1. Non-discrimination in employment

The Protection Against Discrimination Act 2016 is the foundation for equal treatment of every person who puts into force his or her rights and obligations and wants to fulfil fundamental freedom in all aspects of social life, especially in the area of employment, working relations, inclusion in trade unions and civil organisations, education, social protection, access to goods and services regardless of the personal circumstances of the person such as nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, health conditions, disability, language, religious and other belief, age, sexual orientation, educational level, wealth, social status and other personal circumstances. Article 14 of the Slovene Constitution states: "In Slovenia everyone shall be guaranteed equal human rights and fundamental freedoms irrespective of national origin, race, sex, language, religion, political, or other conviction, material standing, birth, education, social status, invalidity, or any other personal circumstance." The term ‘Invalidity’ as a circumstance was added in 2004. The introduction of the quota system in 2006 was an important change in the area of employment of people with disabilities.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

F2. Public employment services

The main legal framework and policies for disabled people in employment are the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act 2007, Pension and Disability Insurance Act 2012, Employment Relationship Act 2013, and the Rules on technical aids and adapting vehicles 2014. Nevertheless, the legal framework includes only persons with physical and sensory disabilities, not people with intellectual disabilities. Persons with psychosocial disabilities, when they are defined as disabled can also be included under the legal framework of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act 2007. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that they would enter paid employment, because they are mostly defined as ‘unemployable’ and are dropped out from the employment statistics and get no support from the Employment Office.

Employment Service of Slovenia is a national service with regional offices. For job-seekers with disabilities, the Employment Service offers rehabilitation counselling, which is a special form of career counselling, involving providing information on the rights of people with disabilities, identifying and analysing the needs of a person in employment, as well as preparing an assessment of the employment possibilities for the person with disabilities. After a person is assessed by the Rehabilitation Committee, they can become included in vocational rehabilitation. Together with a rehabilitation counsellor, they make a rehabilitation plan, which defines the goals of the vocational rehabilitation, form and duration of service and a method of monitoring. Rehabilitation plan is continuously edited with the reports of providers of vocational rehabilitation, team meetings and further consultations. The rehabilitation counselling is concluded with an assessment of employment possibilities of the individual. There are 58 offices of the Employment Service of Slovenia (Office for Work) across the country with one central office in Ljubljana.

For disabled persons to enter into the labour market or to re-enter into labour market after disability, two forms of rehabilitation schemes are usually the entry point to get employed (at least on a short-term basis) or to be re-employed: employment rehabilitation and work rehabilitation. These two schemes are part of the active labour market policy. Employment rehabilitation is defined in the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act 2007 while the work rehabilitation which is meant for persons who have been in the work place, have permanent employment and are eligible for disability insurance rights and have become disabled, in the Pension and Disability Insurance Act (2012).

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

F3. Workplace adaptations

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act gives a formal right for support in the open labour market, called ‘supported employment’ (Art. 48). Workplace adaptation is a right of a disabled person who completed vocational rehabilitation procedure marked as suitable for supported employment. Workplace adaptation is regulated under pension and disability insurance (if the disability has been acquired while the person was in employment).
Persons with intellectual disabilities who do not live in long-stay institutions are at home and work in sheltered workshops. The Elementary School Act 1996 defines that young people with intellectual disability can stay in the primary school until the age of 26 (Art. 75). Afterwards, they get enrolled in the sheltered workshops. They can have the status of ’schoolchildren’ and go to school even if they have actually completed the school programme in order ‘to wait’ to get enrolled in sheltered workshops. Shelter workshops offer occupation, and not paid employment. People have no work contracts but are treated by sheltered workshops institutions as the residents of these institutions (about 3,700 persons nationwide). The legislation prevents some disabled people (those labelled as intellectually disabled) to move from the status of welfare beneficiaries to the status of active job seekers and back. Because of such legal inflexibility, disabled people feel insecure to leave the welfare benefits and enter the labour market, as they might not get them back anymore. The Action Plan of Disabled People 2014-2021 addressed this issue in 2014 as one of the areas which was planned to be changed. So far, no changes happened. The Social Inclusion of Disabled Persons Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia 30/2018) is not yet implemented, and the most important areas of the legislation will only be implemented in 2022.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

F4. Financial incentives

According to the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act (2004), employers who employ more persons with disabilities than they are obliged to according to the quota regulation, are entitled to two different sorts of employment incentives: a reward for exceeding the quota and exclusion from payment of pension and disability insurance. Those employers, who employ the person with 100% disability or a fully hearing impaired person, can also get tax reductions.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

G. Statistics and data collection

G1. Official research

There are no official research institutes or departments responsible only for research on disability equality and the collection of data and statistics. There are research institutions, which occasionally do research on disability upon a request of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education, which funds research projects. These research institutions are the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (financed by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs); the Educational Research Institute (Financed by the Ministry of Education); the Faculty of Social Work (research on disability funded by the National Research Institute of the RS) and the Faculty of Education (funded by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Institute of the RS). All of these research institutions are funded additionally by the EU research funds when they are successful with tenders (for the European Social Fund, for instance). There is no common collection of statistical data. The data are collected by different bodies and other relevant information is available. These bodies are the Directorate of Disabled People, which is part of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs; the Foundation for the Promotion of Employment of Disabled People; the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, the Pension and Invalidity Insurance Institute; the Employment Service of the Republic of Slovenia; and the Institute of Health Protection of the Republic of Slovenia. The University Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, an entirely medically-oriented institution, has been involved in several international research projects such as Multimodal Immersive Motion Rehabilitation with Interactive Cognitive Systems (MIMICS) EU 7FP ICT; Multidisciplinary Research Network on Health and Disability in Europe (MURINET) EU 035794-1; Slovenia-Austria 2007-2013: TrainProCoop. Training of staff for the integration of people with disabilities; Leonardo da Vinci: EOF – European Outplacement Framework; Leonardo da Vinci : Equabench; Leonardo da Vinci – development of innovation; ACTrain; and Outcome Measurement in Medical Rehabilitation (European Platform for Rehabilitation (EPR). In 2015, two studies partially funded by European Social Funds gave a very detailed analysis on the number of people living in long term institutions, the network of these institutions and described the processes of de-institutionalisation in Slovenia (Flaker et al. 2015; Zaviršek et al. 2015).

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

G2. Census data

The census research is carried out once in a decade. There are no questions on disability included in the census. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia is responsible for yearly statistics collection; they are all available on the Internet.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

G3. Labour Force Survey

There is a Labour Force Survey in Slovenia. In 2011, one of the additional modules that has been added to the existing pool of information, was the Employment of people with disabilities, as suggested by the European Commission. For this purpose, Slovenia received additional financial support from European funds.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

G4. Disability equality indicators

Slovenia does not have systematic statistics on disabled people. There is no register of disabled persons and no disability equality indicators are based on public data sources. No data are segregated according to gender, ethnicity, age, in order to ensure intersectional research on disability.

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H. Awareness and external action

H1. Awareness raising programs

The first Governmental report to the UN Commission on the implementation of the CRPD from 2014 emphasises awareness as an important part of governmental policy in the area of disability. Awareness-raising activities are most often provided by the University Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia; non-governmental disability organisations, the National Council of Disabled People’s Organisations of Slovenia, by different ministries and universities. The Action Plan for Disabled Persons 2007-2013, as well as the Action Plan for Disabled Persons 2014 -2021 emphasise the awareness-raising activities. A vast majority of awareness-raising activities focus on the medical issues related to disability including rehabilitation activities. The University Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia in their journal ‘Rehabilitation’ focuses mostly on treatments, assistive devices and their practical uses as well as the use of the medical classification functioning scale in Slovenia. Many activities were funded by the European Social Funds.

Some examples of awareness-raising activities from 2009 – 2011 done by the University Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia were information and training to increase the employability of people with disabilities; information about international regulation of employment of people with disabilities; information about the management of projects in the area of employment; a Publication ‘What do employees need to know about employment of people with disabilities: from tax reductions towards the European regulations’; the International Mobility Project Leonardo da Vinci ‘The increase of the competencies of tutors, policy makers and other stakeholders for better employability of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups’. They also ran 12 workshops on the above-mentioned topics with the local Employment services involving about 600 staff members participating in the workshops. The Institution for primary education for children with intellectual disabilities (Zavod za usposabljanje Janez Levec, in Slovenian) has since 2007 organised a festival called ‘Play with me,’ which is an awareness-raising programme for the visibility of children with special needs and cooperation between children with disabilities and non-disabled children. The Ministry of Health in 2009 published an awareness raising publication ‘Directions for a holistic treatment of persons with the disturbances of autistic spectrum’. The Ministry of Health also in 2009 and 2010 funded several workshops with a focus on awareness-raising for young people in the areas such as Pedagogical workshops for young people 5-TIMES STOP IS COOL; a World day of commemorating the victims of car accidents; Independent living for people with a chronic inflammation of the intestine; Living with incontinence a full life in society.
The city of Ljubljana got the second Prize of the Access City Award for 2018 by the European Commission.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H2. Training for teachers

At the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana, the Department for Special Education is focused especially on children with special needs. Other departments of the same Faculty of Education like the Department of Social Education, Department of Pre-School Education and Department of Primary School Education cover some topics on disability and are part of the awareness raising in the area of disabled people. The teaching is generally oriented towards the “special needs perspective” rather than towards awareness raising, rights and justice.
In 2011 one Disabled people’s organisation was involved in teaching at the Department for Special Education (module: Developmental Psychology) and Department of Social Pedagogy (module: Developmental psychology), but only four hours of teaching all together. The topics covered were ‘independent living’ and the ‘support for social inclusion of children with special needs in schools’. The Disabled people’s organisation carried out the teaching voluntarily without payment. This was an irregular involvement as a result of personal relationships between the lecturers and disability activists, but it is not a systemic part of higher education.

The Association of organisations for the vocational training for people with special needs (Skupnost organizacij za usposabljanje oseb s posebnimi potrebami, SOUS) in cooperation with the Organisation of special and rehabilitation educators of Slovenia (Društvo specialnih in rehabilitacijskih pedagogov Slovenije) in 2009 organised a training with different professionals who work in special schools, institutions and mainstream education with children with special needs on violence against disabled. The same Association of organisations for the vocational training for people with special needs received funding from the European Social Fund 2008 - 2011 for professional education in care and education for people with special needs. Additional money was given by the Ministry of Education, which funded a three-year project entitled ‘Education of professional workers for a successful inclusion of children and young people with special needs in education'. Professionals in education, who work in kindergartens, schools and in special education, were supposed to get 56 hours of training. In 2009 there were 2,440 professionals involved in the training.

In 2010 The Organisation of the students with disabilities together with four Faculties of the University of Maribor run an international educational Project ‘Development of the Inclusive Higher Education’ (Razvijanje inkluzivnega visokega šolstva); the project raised awareness in the area of teaching disabled students and aimed to improve the awareness of the barrier free environment, inclusion of disabled students and their achievements at the tertiary education level. The educational project targeted university teaching staff as well as disabled students at the University of Maribor funded by Norway grants, EEA grants, and the Republic of Slovenia.
Disability studies are only developed and taught at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H3. Training for lawyers

At the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, which is the biggest among the three law faculties in Slovenia, disability awareness/equality issues is not part of the formal training. Disabled people’s organisations are not involved as trainers. There is no knowledge that in any other faculties of law such training exists.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H4. Training for doctors

There is no special training on disability awareness/equality issues in the initial medical training for doctors. Disabled people’s organisations are not involved as trainers.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H5. Training for engineers

At the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ljubljana (the only educational institution of this type), disability awareness/equality issues are not part of the formal training. Disabled people’s organisations are not involved as trainers.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

H6. International development aid

Since 2009, over 130 children from Gaza were offered rehabilitation by the University Rehabilitation Institute of the Republic of Slovenia each year. At the beginning there were between 20-30 disabled children who came for a couple of weeks to the rehabilitation centre. In 2017 there were four children. The project was initiated by former President Dr. Danilo Türk. The project is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is currently called ‘The Rehabilitation of the victims of the conflict from Gaza and the support for the development of capacities in Gaza’. The children are mostly severely physically disabled, some of them receive prosthesis and different devices due to mobility impairments. The Directorate of Disabled gave a positive assessment for few bilateral projects between Slovenia and Croatia in the area of disability which seems to be mainly financed by IPA (the instrument for pre-accession assistance of the EU), and partially by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs in order to support the neighbouring country with knowledge and collaboration (personal inquiry; communication with Saša Mlakar, Under Secretary at The Directorate of Invalids; 28 June 2011). The positive assessment of the projects was based on the national strategy IPA Slovenia – Croatia 2007-2013.
Humanitarian Charity Society UP helps children in war conflicts or after the war conflicts period from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Palestine, Morocco, South-East Asia.

Links

Update date: Mon, 2019-05-13

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