Proposed Changes to Slovenia’s Residence Registration Law Require Individuals to State Ethnicity, Religion, Native Language

By , 10 Feb 2021, 14:29 PM Politics
Proposed Changes to Slovenia’s Residence Registration Law Require Individuals to State Ethnicity, Religion, Native Language JL Flanner

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STA, 10 February 2021 - The Office of the Information Commissioner has taken issue with the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee including in changes to the residence registration act a provision requiring individuals to provide information about their ethnicity and religious affiliation when reporting their residence.

The changes were debated by the committee last week and the amendment proposed by the opposition National Party (Slovenska Nacionalna Stranka- SNS) was confirmed.

It stipulates that when registering a permanent residence in Slovenia, a permanent address abroad or a change of a permanent address abroad, an individual must state their ethnicity, religious affiliation and native language.

So far, such information has not been collected when one's residence was being registered in Slovenia.

Information Commissioner Mojca Prelesnik has taken issue with this, saying that this was a severe encroachment upon privacy of individuals and constituted a risk of discrimination of "foreigners, minorities and vulnerable groups".

Prelesnik said in Wednesday's press release that the provision went in the "direction of police state", and added that she had also informed the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman and the Advocate of the Principle of Equality about it.

Calling on the National Assembly not to endorse the provision, Prelesnik said that such changes could have serious and unpredictable consequences on the rights of individuals.

The information commissioner noted that the Slovenian constitution defined the right to the freedom of consciousness and stipulated that no one was obligated to state their religious or other beliefs.

The constitution also prohibits the use of personal information in contravention of the purpose of its collection, which must be defined by law and must always be in line with the constitutional principle of proportionality, she added.

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