Human Rights Developments

Protecting Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

Slovak and international NGOs monitored threats to freedom of the media. In April the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, in a letter to President Schuster, protested defamation charges brought against Vladimir Mohorita, a journalist from the Slovak far-right nationalist weekly Zmena.

The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) continued active monitoring and advocacy on behalf of Slovak Roma at home and abroad. The ERRC provided legal expertise in a case of skinhead violence; the second court decision ordered the first instance court to widen its interpretation of race in accord with international standards, declaring the incident a racially motivated crime.

Slovakia earned praise among rights advocates for ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which calls for abolition of the death penalty.