Human rights a top concern, but much work to do still

Noting that Slovenia will take over the presidency of the UN Human Rights Committee on 1 January, UKOM said that the country would focus above all on respect of children's rights, gender equality and empowerment of women, and the rights of the elderly.

In addition, Justice Minister Goran Klemenčič has been recently short-listed for the Council of Europe's next human rights commissioner, which the government sees as a recognition not only of his work but of Slovenia as well.

The minister said human rights violations were an attack on a person's dignity. While an advocate of dialogue and diversity, he said he would would never allow these to take precedence over the basic principles of human dignity and equality before the law.

The Justice Ministry acknowledged that it still had much to do, because the respect of human rights is an ideal that is hard to achieve...