Recently some of the erased that have submitted their applications for the permanent residence permit under the ZUSDDD-B on time (before 24 July 2013), and are therefore in the process of arranging their status, have informed us about unacceptable practices of the officials. A significant number of the erased are waiting for the first response of the administrative unit for more than half a year (since they have submitted the applications). Those that have already turned to the administrative units for the explanation have mostly received the answer that due to a large number of submitted applications the administrative units are not able to process them faster. Administrative units should decide on applications within two months; however the procedures often last around one year or even longer.

Some of the erased have also informed us that the administrative units and Slovenian embassies in other countries do not provide accurate information regarding the regulation of the status, the procedure of obtaining a permanent residence permit or about recently adopted law on compensations. Also, some have informed us about completely unacceptable questions they have been asked during the hearings at the administrative authorities. We are listing some of these questions:
 Would you apply for permanent residence permit under ZUSDDD if Slovenia did not give compensations?
 Who suggested you should submit the application?
 Did someone suggest you submit the application and tell you that you can get a lot of money? Who was that and where?
 Are you applying for residence permit only because of the compensation?
 Why did you not arrange or try to arrange your status before, since the law has been in force for more than 20 years? (Note: it is not clear which law the official referred to since ZUSDDD was adopted in 1999 but until 2010 did not enable the erased that have been forced to live abroad for a longer period to arrange their status – this was possible only after the 2010 novel – ZUSDDD-B )
 Who filled in the form and who submitted the application?
 Who helped you to prepare the application for permanent residence permit under ZUSDDD and who wrote your cv and other attachments in Slovenian language?

We call upon the officials running the procedures for issuing permanent residence permits under ZUSDDD-B, to follow deadlines set by the legislation and to give full and accurate information to people. We urge them to lead the hearings of the clients correctly and to focus on questions that are actually relevant for conditions set by the law (ZUSDDD-B) for issuing permanent residence permit.

It happens all too often that the authority (as is apparent from the above list of questions) raises questions that are not relevant for the conditions and are misleading and offensive towards the erased, while questions that are actually important for deciding on applications remain unresolved. Therefore the erased often do not have a real possibility to point out all the facts relevant to their case, and thus effectively exercise their rights in administrative proceedings.

Justice has to be done for all the erased

Twenty two years have passed since the erasure of more than 25 000 persons from the Slovene Register of Permanent Residents, a decision which caused serious violations of human rights and grave suffering of the individuals concerned and their families. As a result, the erased became, in effect, irregular migrants – without documents, healthcare and social security, denied the right to work, in constant fear of prosecution and subject to exploitation. These days the Slovene Parliament is discussing a compensation law which aims to remedy these human rights violations. It is a historic chance for Slovenia to come to terms with its past and put an end to the suffering of thousands of people.

In 2012, Slovenia was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights and was ordered not only to compensate six plaintiffs but also set up a specific compensation scheme for the erased by July this year. The execution of this judgment is now expected within the next three months.     

This deadline confers additional importance to the current parliamentary discussion, which should not only focus on compensation, but should broaden the scope of the law to provide full remedy for the human rights violations which occurred. I see in particular three main priorities that need to be met.  

First, reparations should be ensured for all the erased and all who wish to do so should be allowed to reintegrate into Slovene society. To date, only less than half of the erased were able to settle their residence status, despite the fact that the Slovene Constitutional Court had found that the erasure was unlawful because it did not take into account the individual circumstances of the erased. As all the erased suffered injustice, dividing them on residence or other grounds, as envisaged by the draft law on compensations, would be tantamount to harming them once again.

Second, special attention should be paid to the human rights of the most vulnerable, in particular children of the erased. They should also be entitled to remedies and specific rights. Furthermore, a possible re-registration should not lead to the splitting of the erased persons’ families who live abroad. The residence permit should be extended to all family members so as to allow their unhindered return to and reintegration in Slovenia.

Third, Slovenia should provide a remedy for those who became stateless upon the demise of Yugoslavia and whose situation further deteriorated due to the erasure. This has disproportionately affected persons belonging to particularly vulnerable social groups, such as children, Roma and the elderly. Worse, this plight has so far received little attention in Slovenia.

To date, the Slovene authorities have been taking important steps towards the execution of the European Court`s judgment and remedying for the erasure. However, the erased have not been properly included in the debate concerning their own fate. An open, constructive dialogue with civil society, the erased and their representatives, that would include their participation in the on-going legislative process, would ensure a better, durable outcome.

Now a final, joint attempt by the Slovene government, Parliament and civil society is to be made to reconsider all open questions and to find fair and lasting solutions for all victims of the erasure. The adoption of a new law encompassing such improvements is not only a crucial step to fully remedy past wrongs, but also a necessary act to acknowledge the State’s responsibility for the erasure and to prevent a recurrence of similar human rights violations.

Nils Muižnieks

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

On 24 September 2012 National Assembly approved the first reading of the Draft Law on compensations for damage to persons who have been erased from the register of permanent residence (the Draft Law). The European Court of Human Rights demanded the adoption of the Act in the judgment Kurić and others v. Slovenia in 2012. The Draft Law provides for recognition of the right to compensation for only around 10,000 persons (of total 25,671) that already arranged permanent residence permit in Slovenia or Slovenian citizenship. For this group the Draft Law predicts 40 EUR of lump sum compensation for each month of the erasure, which will be enforced in an administrative procedure. The excess up to 2.5 times the lump sum will be possible to require before the courts in Slovenia. The Draft Law also provides for additional integration measures in the field of social and health care and housing.

Representatives of the erased and non-governmental organizations have expressed a number of comments on the Draft Law, which were not taken into account. As inappropriate they pointed out narrowing the group of beneficiaries to those persons who have already arranged their status. The damage caused by erasure affected all of them, but in different amounts. Awarding the compensations only to persons with arranged status means that one group of erased people will have access to all available measures to redress (regulation of the status, compensation and additional measures provided for in the Draft Law), while the second group will have access to none of those measures. The argument that the other group has not indicated an interest to regulate their status in Slovenia is untenable, since the existence or non-existence of damage caused by the erasure and regulation of status in Slovenia are not related. Many people filed applications, but were unsuccessful, and many would file them if they met the legal conditions under which it was necessary to prove actual (illegal) living in Slovenia.

Another crucial comment on the Draft Law is related to the amount of lump-sum compensation, which is not comparable to the compensation that the European Court of Human Rights awarded to the six erased people who have been erased for 19 years. In their case the European Court acknowledged 20,000 EUR of compensation only for non-pecuniary damage, while the Court has not yet decided on the compensation for pecuniary damage. According to the Draft Law people who were also erased for 19 years would receive the compensation in the amount of 9,120 EUR. The difference between the two amounts is already obvious, and will additionally be increased when the Court decides on the amount of compensation for pecuniary damage for six complainants in the Kurić case.

Other comments on the Draft Law are related to the fact that the law does not allow access to compensation for children and heirs of the deceased erased persons. Representatives of the erased, moreover, pointed out that it is necessary to extend the deadline for obtaining a permanent residence permit, which expired on 24 July 2013, and that it is necessary to allow family reunification to the erased on more favorable terms than those provided for in the Aliens Act.

The Draft Law will be discussed in the National Assembly twice more, first at the Committee for Internal Policy (most likely in October) and then again in plenary session (possibly in November). It is envisaged that the law will be adopted by the end of the year. Ideally, Slovenia will miss the deadline set by the European Court for six months, since the law should have been adopted by 26 June 2013. Due to the delay and the failure to respect the judgment of the Court 654 erased persons already filled their complaints to the European Court of Human Rights.

In the debates some Members of Parliament repeatedly cited untrue facts about the erasure. Some statements are quoted and commented below, while the record of the entire session of the National Assembly is ​​available (in Slovenian language) here.

Gregor Virant: “Those who have not opted for citizenship had an additional two months to line up and get a permanent residence permit according to the Aliens Act.”

Comment: Those, of which the authorities expected they will arrange a residence permit, have not been informed about this; therefore there was no “line”. The two-month period (between the expiration of deadline for citizenship on 12/26/1991 and the erasure on 02/26/1992) meant only the period during which the status of the erased people was completely unclear. “The line” for people who were later erased should not even exist, because the legislature should have regulated their status automatically, as was also confirmed by the Constitutional Court in its decisions in 1999 and 2003.

Branko Grims: “In European Union the erasure is used for what happened in the Baltic countries, where people lost their rights, everything overnight, as if they were non-existent. This did not happen to anyone in Slovenia”

Comment: This, of course, is a complete untruth, because this is exactly what happened to the erased people: with the withdrawal of the status of permanent residents they became legally non-existent, what was remaining was only their bare life. The words erasure and erased were established exactly for this community, and if typed in any browser in English, the browser offers only information on human rights violations that occurred in Slovenia. The terms statelessness and stateless (apatrid) were established for problems with the status of the Baltic States, as in these countries the particular problem was denial of access to citizenship. However, during the given period stateless persons in Estonia were in the same position as the erased in Slovenia and also had problems with the status of permanent residents, not just citizens.

Vinko Gorenak: “Administrative Unit Ljubljana has sent 25 thousand invitations. Before the erasure I mean. Come, it costs 300 SIT or something like that, and arrange your status.”

Comment: This is a false fact. Invitations have been sent only after the erasure, when people already lost their status and could not do anything to prevent this. When they came to the counter at the Administrative Unit, the officials withdrew and punctured their documents. They could only apply for a new temporary residence permit, but in most cases they did not get it, because they did not have a passport of “their” country, which officials demanded from them.

Gregor Virant: “It should be clear that the independence legislation in 1991 enabled all those who had permanent residence in Slovenia on the day of the plebiscite to obtain citizenship in a very simple way, without meeting any conditions.”

Comment: That is not true. There were two additional conditions: the first one was actual living in Slovenia, so only registered permanent residence was not sufficient, and second was concern for public order, state security and national defense. People who did not meet these two conditions were rejected. And there were many who wished to apply for citizenship, but the officials unlawfully refused to take their applications, because they said did not contain all attachments.

Jožef Horvat: “Complementary decisions were issued in contravention of the provisions of the Aliens Act and the Act on General Administrative Procedure without specific declaratory proceedings. So that’s how many erased people came to the entry of permanent residence retroactively, although they were actually not entitled to it. “

Comment: Statement is not based on facts. Issuing of supplementary decisions was based on the decision of the Constitutional Court and, therefore, was not unlawful. For legality, there must be a legal basis, which may also be a decision of the Constitutional Court.

Vinko Gorenak: “The Council of Europe recommended Slovenian model to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and said, “Look, this is how it was solved in Slovenia, it is good, it is solid, you should also arrange it in a similar way.””

Comment: The statement is inaccurate and misleading. First, the recommendations were about the regulation of citizenship (not permanent resident status), as Slovenia solved this question in a more inclusive way than Latvia and Estonia, that caused mass statelessness with their civil laws. And secondly, Lithuania was not among the states receiving the recommendations, since its law on citizenship was even more inclusive than Slovenian.

Gregor Virant: “Once again, all those who ever wanted to arrange their status were able to do so. They could arrange it by the laws, which have been adopted for this purpose exactly.”

Comment: Not true. The law certainly did not open the door widely, especially not the Amending Act from 2010, as the majority of applicants for permanent residence on the basis of this Amending Act was rejected.

Vinko Gorenak: “We and the People’s Party (SLS) and New Slovenia (NSi) wanted to solve the problem, we proposed appropriate solutions, and these people would have had the compensations for about 10 years now, because we have proposed such a law, constitutional law was proposed, but Slovenian political left wing never wanted to adopt it.”

Comment: Not true. The draft constitutional law totally and completely excluded the right to any compensation. Based on that law the erased would not be able to claim compensations, and the European Court would have decided exactly as it did now.

Jožef Jerovšek: “And to say that there was the intent behind on how to get to these people is outrageous and indecent.”

Comment: Unfortunately, it is true that the erasure was intentional act. This is evident from the Parliamentary debates in 1991, when the legislative and legal department reminded Members of Parliament that the status of persons who were later erased needs to be regulated, and to this end some Members proposed amendments to the Aliens Act and warned of the consequences. The parliamentary majority, however, still voted against.

Ljubica Jelušič: “But none of those erased will get this right by itself, for this right, for the compensation, much more will have to be done. Not only that they took care of the supplementary decision or submitted the application for a supplementary decision, so they can get the right to entry to our register of permanent residents retroactively, they will also be individually addressed well when it comes to the issue of compensation, how much it will be, will they receive it for themselves, their family members, children and so on.”

Comment: Statement is not correct. Supplementary decision under the Draft Law is not and should not be a condition for compensation. The Draft Law predicts that every erased person will receive compensation only for themselves, and not for their family members. Children of the erased are excluded from the compensation, which is unacceptable.

Between 27th June 2013 and 3rd July 2013, a new set of collective applications including hundreds of erased persons was filed before the European Court of Human Rights, according to the Italian attorney Andrea Saccucci. Collective applications were filed in light of the persistent failure of the Slovenian authorities to adopt a national compensation scheme and to regulate comprehensively the situation of the erased.

Since the Government failed to comply with the pilot-judgment by missing the time-limit set therein, the only remedy for the victims of the erasure still lies with the European Court of Human Rights. Hundreds of erased persons filed their complaints on 27th June and on 3rd of July 2013, claiming the same violations that the Court has already found in Kurić and asking the Court to rule on their compensation claims irrespective of whether in the future Slovenia will set up an appropriate domestic remedy for that purpose.

Today the Republic of Slovenia paid compensation of 20.000 EUR for non-pecuniary damages to each of the six erased people who were applicants in the case Kurić and others v. Slovenia, decided by the European Court of Human Rights on 26 June 2012.

Compensations for the six applicants are first ever paid by the Slovenian state to the erased people due to the unlawful deprivation of legal status and the suffering that followed. This is a landmark development not only for all victims of the erasure but also for all the people in Slovenia, especially those who lost their trust into the rule of law. The compensations for erased people prove that it is possible to achieve justice, even if this requires a long-term fight in which all available legal remedies have to be used, including a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

Despite all odds the authorities showed respect for the European Court of Human Rights judgments. However, payment of the compensation is only the first and easier step towards the execution of the judgment. The second step, which requires setting up a compensation scheme, will be much more difficult since the law has to be prepared and passed in the National Assembly. At the same time this is an opportunity for the Government and the National Assembly to show a high level of legal culture and political maturity that the citizens expect from the state.

The European Court of Human Rights has not yet  fully completed its procedures as it has yet to decide on pecuniary damages. It called upon the government to consider concluding an agreement with the applicants on this issue in the meantime. The Italian attorney of the six applicants Andrea Saccucci underlined that such an agreement is definitely in the best interest of the state as it would enable the state to maintain control on the amounts of pecuniary damages following possible further claims lodged by other erased people. If the state leaves the issue for the European Court to decide, it avails itself to a substantial risk of high compensations as the criteria on the basis of which the Court would determine pecuniary damagesfor the six applicants could become relevant also for all other erased people.

On 26 June 2012 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment in the matter Kurić and others v. Slovenia, finding Slovenia responsible for violations of the rights of the erased people.

The judgment is now also available in Slovenian language.

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 26 June 2012 opened up a possibility for claiming compensation for damages caused to the erased people by deprivation of their legal status. Namely, until now claiming compensation before Slovenian courts was not successful.

The European Court awarded compensation to six applicants as well as ordered Slovenia to set up a compensation scheme for erased persons, within one year since the delivery of the judgment. It found that claiming compensation before Slovenian courts was not possible until now as the legislation did not allow that. Therefore a new law has to be adopted.

• Scenario 1: If Slovenia respects the judgment and sets up a compensation scheme, the erased people will be able to claim compensation from Slovenian competent bodies. Who will be entitled to compensation and under which conditions is not known yet. We advise the erased people to pay attention to the issue in the media and visit our website on a regular basis.
• Scenario 2: If Slovenia does not implement the European Court judgment or if it does not implement it properly, it will be possible to lodge compensation claims directly to the European Court. This will be possible after 26 June 2013, with the expiration of the the time limit set by the court.

We also advise the erased people not to lodge any compensation claims to Slovenia courts before the expiration of the deadline, as these courts denied all compensation claims until now. This way they they will avoid any unforeseen expenses for losing the court dispute which can amount to thousands of euros.

If you are interested for compensation, please contact us.

Meeting Room in the Parliament | Source: www.dz-rs.si

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the erasure from the register of permanent residents Amnesty International Slovenia, Peace Institute and Association of Erased Residents of Slovenia addressed a letter to the Commission for Petitions, Human Rights and Equal Opportunities at the National Assembly asking it to hold a public session.

At the session which was held on 24 February 2012 the representatives of the erased people, academics and civil society representatives briefed members of the parliament about the situation concerning available remedies for rights violations, pointed at the lack of available measures and underlined the need for further action directed at elimination of the consequences of the violation. The session was attended by the minister of interior Vinko Gorenak, who however did not express his agreement with the statements of the academics and the civil society. He stated: “[A]t the government we have not spoken about this, and I do not plan anything else but the implementation of the law that is in place.” The discussions can be read in the transcript of the session (in Slovenian).

In spite of this statement the Commission for Petitions adopted a conclusion in which it called upon the Government to respond in 30 days at the latest to the briefing paper that the stated civil society organizations submitted to members of the parliament and the government. The commission also recommended that the government review the possibilities for adoption of other appropriate measures for full implementation of the Constitutional Court decisions with an aim to regulate the legal statuses of the erased and remedy the injustices.

Twenty years ago on 26 February 1992 the Slovenian authorities erased 25.671 people from the register of permanent residence and deprived them of their legal status. This act was committed without any basis in the law. The fact that the erasure was an unlawful act was also determined by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia.

Antifascist protest, Ljubljana, 26 April 2006 | Photo: Dare Čekeliš

Following a central order of the Ministry of the Interior under the leadership of the then Minister Igor Bavčar and secretary state Slavko Debelak, the erasure was committed by administrative officials working at the local administrative offices across Slovenia. The orders (dispatches) were sent to the local offices in the form of internal instructions, known also as internal circulars.

With this act the officials pushed thousands of people who until then lived in Slovenia as citizens with equal rights, into a position of illegal migrants, who were not allowed to be legally employed, had no access to health services and health insurance, and could not enrol into middle schools or university studies. They were exposed to police checks, detentions in the centres for aliens and deportations. The erased people had to regulate their legal status and their documents anew, as if they just entered Slovenia, in which case, as they testify, they encountered numerous obstacles due to which they were left without any kind of legal status for years or even decades.

With the erasure the Slovenian authorities committed a human rights violation, which is according to the number of victims and the scope of the consequences the gravest of its kind in the history of independent Slovenia.

Twenty years after this unacceptable act of the administrative officials the problem of erasure is still not resolved. The legislative amendments of 2010, adopted by the National Assembly with an aim to attempt to enable the erased people to regulate their legal status in Slovenia, are insufficient (see why). The applications for permanent residence permit lodged by the erased people are too often denied. In addition, there are no re-integration measures foreseen to accompany the adopted legislative amendments, which would provide assistance to the erased people in their re-integration in society.

Since, due to the insufficient legislative measures, it is not possible to establish that the violations, caused with the erasure, are remedied, a group of non-governmental organizations (Amnesty International Slovenia, Association of Erased Residents of Slovenia, and the Peace Institute) addressed a letter to the President of the State, President of the Government, newly elected president of the government, President of the Constitutional Court and members of the parliament. With the letter the NGOs called the authorities to adopt appropriate measures to remedy the violations of the erasure. The letter was accompanied with the memorandum describing the current state of affairs in the field of erasure and the overview of measures adopted and their implementation in practice.

On 6 July 2011 the erased people, who are applicants in the case Kurić and others v. Slovenia, attended the public hearing before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

Photo: Borut Krajnc

The attendance at the public hearing of seven out of ten applicants was organized by the Peace Institute. The applicants were accompanied by a group of other erased people and human rights defenders who assisted in the process of the preparation of the complaint and who assist the attorneys in the procedure before the European Court. Some journalists also joined the visit to the court.

At the public hearing the applicants were represented by the Italian attorney’s office Lana Lagostena-Bassi, namely attorneys Anton Giulio Lana and Andrea Saccucci, who represent the applicants ever since the complaint was lodged to the Court. The Grand Chamber judgment is expected in February or March 2012.

At the Grand Chamber hearing the Republic of Slovenia was proving that the implementation of the of the Constitutional Court ruling No. U-I-246/02, which concerns the legal position of the erased people, was sufficient as appropriate legislation was adopted, and that all those applicants who applied for a permanent residence permit were issued one. The aim of the government was to achieve that the case be struck out of the list of cases. The applicants, however, tried to prove that the adopted measures were insufficient.

• More information about the Kurić case
• Photogallery of the visit to the ECHP