The Slovak Republic has made progress and developed good practices in addressing racial hatred and intolerance in several fields in recent years. Still, some issues give rise to concern and require further action in combating hate speech and hate crime, promoting equality and access to rights and integrating Roma and LGBTI communities, according to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).
In its latest monitoring report on Slovakia, ECRI highlights positive developments such as the adoption of a new national framework to counter radicalisation and extremism, with special focus on combating online hate speech and children and youth. It also welcomes awareness-raising efforts to alert young people about the dangers of online hate speech, increased police training against hate crime and support measures for Roma children in schools, notably employment of Roma mediators and building partnerships between schools and civil society organisations.
There have been significant improvements in access to healthcare for beneficiaries of temporary protection and Roma, including through the work of Roma mediators and programmes to assist pregnant Roma women and young mothers.
Challenges include hate speech and the position of Roma people in education
Nevertheless, ECRI notes some ongoing challenges. Public discourse has become increasingly polarised, with hate speech - especially targeting LGBTI people, migrants and Roma - often unchallenged, in particular during election periods, both online and offline.
Violent hate crimes have been recorded, including a terrorist attack against individuals from the LGBTI community in 2022. ECRI finds that police units responsible for detecting and investigating hate crimes remain understaffed, lacking effective digital tools to tackle online hatred proactively.
School attendance and attainment among Roma children still fall significantly behind those of other pupils, and segregation in education persists.
In healthcare, ECRI stresses the need for strong mechanisms to ensure equal access to quality care regardless of ethnicity, noting that there are reports of Roma people facing verbal abuse or refusal of services. The report also voices concern over the absence of a legal prohibition on non-consensual medical intervention on a person's sex characteristics.
In its report, ECRI also points to the ongoing legal uncertainty for gender recognition.
Recommendations on racism and intolerance for Slovakia
ECRI has issued 15 recommendations to the Slovak authorities. As a matter of priority, it calls on the authorities to significantly increase the capacities of all specialised structures within the police that are tasked with detecting and investigating cases of racist and LGBTI-phobic hate speech, especially online.
To achieve this, they should ensure sufficient human resources, digital and other technical tools and trainings for police officers working in those structures.
Priority should also be given to ensuring that the process of legal gender recognition is quick, transparent and accessible and that it is not contingent on abusive requirements, such as involuntary sterilisation, medical procedures and/or mental health diagnoses.
Other recommendations concern, among other issues, the need to ensure that hate speech receives prompt counter-speech from public figures, to include promoting evidence-based and sensitive discussion of LGBTI equality in school curricula and to prohibit any medical intervention on a person's sex characteristics without their free and informed consent. It also calls for measures to end school segregation and to facilitate the inclusion of Roma children in the area of education through targeted support for Roma children, their families and schools.
