countries - Slovenia

The information contained on this page was compiled in April 2009 by our country team. Contact:

Darja Zaviršek
darja.zavirsek@fsd.uni-lj.si

The full text can be downloaded here.

The key national bodies with responsibility for disability law and policy implementation include:

The Ministry for Labour, Family and Social Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia [Ministrstvo za delo, družino in socialne zadeve RS] assumes responsibility for policy.

Slovenia ratified the United Nations Convention and its Optional Protocol on 24 April 2008.

Key features of the national system include (including adapted items from the MISSOC database December 2008):

Disability benefits:
There are a range of disability benefits and the system is complicated, with certain benefits dependent upon holding the fixed administrative disability status. Under the 1983 Act, the person must be defined as ‘unable to live independently and work' to hold the status of disabled person (further defined as moderate, serious or profound).

Data on population indicate that:
Slovenia has a population of 2 million persons, inlcuding approximately 170,000 disabled people: work disabled, children with special needs, war disabled, people with moderate, severe or profound intellectual disability and severely physically disabled people. There are also 230,000 people with long-term illnesses. Among them 83% are defined as work disabled.

There are no national networks but disability research activities exist at the:
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work, Department for Social Justice and Inclusion (contact: Darja Zaviršek, Ph.D.).  

The national organisation representing disabled people at the European level (European Disability Forum) is:

The National Council of Disability Organisations [Nacionalni svet invalidskih organizacij], which includes 17 member organisations.