27. The Committee welcomes the reform of legislation, the adoption of action plans and the monitoring and information collection work carried out on the issue of discrimination. Nevertheless, the Committee expresses its concern that Act No. 136/2003 Coll. and Act No. 365/2004 Coll. on equal treatment in certain areas and on protection against discrimination, and on amendments to certain acts (“the Anti-Discrimination Law”) do not provide protection from discrimination in the areas of social security, healthcare, education and provision of goods and services on the grounds of ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. The Committee also notes that the action plans are the only comprehensive and systematic tools of the State party’s Government in the area of preventing discrimination and intolerance. The Committee remains concerned that in practice certain groups continue to experience discrimination. The Committee is also concerned that, parents do not want their children to have any contact with Roma children from residential homes and that in some cases, citizens have rejected by referendum the existence of a children’s home in the municipality and have caused the home to be relocated.
28. The Committee urges the State party to ensure full protection under the Anti- Discrimination Law against discrimination on the grounds of, ethnicity, disability, religionor belief, or sexual orientation. The Committee also urges the State party to strengthen its awareness-raising and other preventive activities against discrimination and, if necessary, to take affirmative actions for the benefit of certain vulnerable groups of children, especially the Roma. The State party should ensure that its action plans to prevent discrimination and intolerance are comprehensive, addressing all forms of discrimination against individuals or groups. The Committee further urges the State party to take all necessary measures to ensure that cases of discrimination against children in all sectors of society are addressed effectively.
29. The Committee requests that specific information be included in the next periodic report on the measures and programmes relevant to the Convention undertaken by the State party to follow up on the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, taking into account the Committee’s General comment No. 1 (2001) on the aims of education.
Link to full text of the report: Concluding Observations-CRC-Slovakia-2007-eng