Introduction

In reporting on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Slovenia endeavours to respect the obligations laid down in Article 18 of the Convention, since it understands this reporting to the monitoring body as an opportunity to assess – through an overview of the national legislation, policies and practices – the progress made in the realisation of the ideals and standards of the Convention and, furthermore, as an opportunity to identify the problems and obstacles which prevent women from fully enjoying all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

In the preparation of the Fourth Report, the following documents have been taken into account:

guidelines on the form and content of reports, adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and applicable to all reports submitted to the Committee after 31 December 2002;

general comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women with respect to individual provisions of the Convention;

draft harmonised guidelines on reporting to the international human rights treaty monitoring bodies prepared for the seventeenth meeting of chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies;

guidelines for preparing and presenting Slovenia's reports, in compliance with U nited Nations covenan ts, conventions and protocols relating to issues of human rights, and for the implementation of recommendations of the bodies which monitor the fulfilment international obligations by States parties, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on 3 March 2005;

recommendations that are part of the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which considered Slovenia's Second and Third Periodic Report at its twenty-ninth session (on 10 July 2003).

This report presents in particular the developments that have occurred in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention in the period following the submitting of the previous report (December 2002) as well as the information and data requested by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its report on the consideration of Slovenia's Second and Third Periodic Report. In the drafting of this report participated all line ministries and government agencies whereas NGOs active in the area governed by the Convention have been called upon to submit their opinion and any proposals for supplementing and amending the text.

The delegation of the Republic of Slovenia presented the opinion of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, delivered in a written report after the joint consideration of 2nd and 3rd periodic reports of Slovenia on the implementation of CEDAW at its 29th session in 2003, to the general public at a press conference. The delegation invited the representative of a non-governmental organisation who had followed the consideration of Slovenia 's report by the Committee, to participate at the pres conference. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia considered the report of the delegation and the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its session on 9 September 2003 and adopted a decision imposing on line ministries and government offices the task to examine the Committee's concluding comments and to adopt measures for the implementation of its recommendations so as to ensure that Slovenia would submit in its next periodic report as much information and data required by the Committee as possible. Communicating to the public at large about the progress made as well as about deficiencies in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, is carried out, among others, with the publishing of each Slovenia's report and of the translation of the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the website of the Office for Equal Opportunities.

General information

(a) The conditions in which Slovenia approaches the elimination of discrimination against women in all its forms

Population

Basic data

At the end of 2004, there was a total population of 1,997,590 in Slovenia , of which 977,052 were men and 1,020,538 women. Women thus represented 51.19 per cent of the total population. In comparison with the data from the Third Report, the number of inhabitants grew slightly in the period to 2004, but the share of women fell by 0.1 percentage point .

Fertility and abortion

The data for the period 2000-2004 show that Slovenia , with 9 live-born children per 1,000 inhabitants in 2004, ranks among countries with a very low fertility rate. However, the number of live-born children in 2001 (17,477 live-born children) and in 2004 (17,961 live-born children) indicates that fertility rate has been increasing. The average age of the mother at the first childbirth has increased and in 2004 it was 29.2 years, while in 2001 it was 28.5 years (data on mothers age with live-born children) . The number of legal abortions has been decreasing consistently. In 2000, there were 8,429 legal abortions, in 2001 7,799, and in 2002 7,327 . The rate of legal abortions amounted to 13.5 per 1,000 women in reproductive age in 2003; over the past ten years the rate of legal abortions has decreased significantly (in 1995 it amounted to 20.8 per 1,000 women in reproductive age).

Marriage and divorce

In 2004, the number of marriages fell significantly in comparison with 2000, while the number of divorces increased. In 2000, there were 7,201 marriages and 2,125. In 2004, there were 6,558 marriages, which are 643 fewer, while in the same year there were 286 divorces more. The average age of bride and bridegroom at marriage has been increasing consistently, reaching in 2004 an average age of 32.6 years for men and 29.6 for women .

Aging of the population and mortality

Data on the age structure of the population show that the process of aging, typical for the developed societies, continues. In the period 2003-2004, mean life expectancy at birth was 77.4 years, more precisely, it was 73.5 for boys and 81.1 for girls. A comparison with the data for the period 2000-2001 (75.9 years) shows that in the period 2003-2004 life expectancy rose by 1.5 years .

Data on the mortality rate show that over the past five years it has not changed significantly (18,588 deaths in 2000 and 18,523 deaths in 2004). The infant mortality rate is low, amounting to 3.7 deaths per 1,000 live-born children .

Education

Primary and secondary education

Primary school education is compulsory in Slovenia . In the school year 2003/2004, 177,535 pupils were enrolled in primary schools, of which 86,310 or 48.6 per cent were girls. In the same school year, 100,132 pupils attended secondary schools, of which 50,238 or 50.2 per cent were girls. It is clear from this that somewhat more girls than boys continue education at secondary level.

College and university education

The number of students at colleges and universities has been increasing consistently. Thus, almost one half of the population in the 19 to 23 age bracket was enrolled in the tertiary education in 2004.

In the academic year 2000/2001, 82,812 students were enrolled in undergraduate higher education studies, of which 57.2 per cent were women. In the same year, 10,232 students graduated, of which 59.2 per cent were women. In the academic year 2004/2005, there were 91,229 students enrolled in higher education and university studies, of which 54,163 or 59.4 per cent were women, while 11,608 students completed their studies, of which 7,334 or 63,2 per cent were women. Women more often decide on continuing studies at colleges and universities and the share of women who complete this education is higher as well.

Postgraduate education

Among masters of science and specialists who completed their studies in 2001, 50.2 per cent were women, and in 2004, 54.4 per cent . In 2001, 298 students attained their doctoral degree, of which 49.0 were women. In 2003, the share of women who attained their Ph.D. decreased to 41.4 per cent and in 2004 to 40.6 per cent .

Economic situation

Economic development

Slovenia has stable growth of gross domestic product and in 2003 it reached 70 per cent of the EU-15 GDP per capita. In 2004, gross domestic product increased by 4.6 per cent in real terms, which is the highest economic growth after 1999. In 2000, GDP per capita amounted to USD 9,599, and two years later USD 11,088, whereas data for 2004 show GDP per capita amounting to 16.112 USD. In 2004, Slovenia recorded 3.2 per cent average annual inflation rate.

Employment and unemployment

In 2004, the activity rate amounted to 59 per cent (of which 52.5 per cent were women and 65.9 per cent men) while the employment/population ratio amounted to 55.3 per cent (of which 48.9 per cent were women and 62.0 per cent men). The share of women in the labour force amounted to 65.0 per cent (in comparison to 74.5 per cent in men) in this period, while the share of women among the persons in employment amounted to 60.5 per cent (in comparison to 70.0 per cent in men). Over the past years, the Labour Force Survey unemployment rate decreased from 7.7 per cent in 2000 to 6.1 per cent in 2004. However, the difference between women and men in the unemployment rate increased over the same period so that in 2004 the unemployment rate in women was higher by 0.7 percentage point than that in men .

Structure of the labour market

The labour market in Slovenia is strongly gender segregated horizontally and vertically. Women prevail among persons employed in services, in particular in health and social work, education, financial intermediation as well as in catering and tourism. In industry, the share of women amounts to one third of the total number of the persons in employment, with the construction sector employing the fewest women. At the same time, the share of women in the highest ranking and best paid groups of occupation (senior officials, managers and legislators) amounts to only one third even though on average women attain a higher level of education and qualifications than men.

Incomes policy

Average monthly earnings of men are higher than that of women in almost all activities even though the Employment Relationship Act stipulates that equal opportunities for and equal treatment of women and men should be ensured as regards pay and other income arising from employment relationship. The data for 2002 shows that on average women earn 10 percentage points less than men with equal level of professional qualifications.

Public and political life

By providing that women and men have equal opportunities in standing for election to state authorities and local community authorities in its Constitution, Slovenia undertook to adopt acts and implementing regulations as well as special measures with a view to ensuring gender-balanced representation and equality of women and men at all levels of policy-making. To date, two acts governing elections have been amended so as to contain provisions on the lowest share of women and men in the lists of candidates, namely the Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act and the Local Elections Act , whereas a proposal for an act amending the National Assembly Elections Act is currently being drafted so as to provide the lowest share of each sex in the lists of candidates.

At the last elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia , held in 2004, 11 women were elected (12.2 per cent ), and after the final distribution of seats in the 90-member Parliament, 12 women became MPs, accounting for 13.3 per cent . In comparison with the previous term of the National Assembly, the number of women MPs in the highest legislative body has remained the same.

In the Government of the Republic of Slovenia , there is one woman minister of the total of 15 ministerial posts, accounting for 6.7 per cent ; she is the Minister for agriculture, forestry and food. The two ministers without portfolio are men as well. The secretary-general, heading the Government Secretariat-General, is a man, and among state secretaries there are four women, accounting for 22.2 per cent .

The share of women in political decision-making is very low also at the local level. At the local elections in 2002, the share of women on candidate lists amounted to 21 per cent , and there were 13.1 per cent of women elected to the urban and community council member posts. Twelve women mayors (6.2 per cent ) were elected at those elections.

A positive effect of the introduction of the requirement for at least 40- per cent representation of women and men respectively in the lists of candidates for the election of Slovenian members to the European Parliament is reflected in the 43- per cent share of women among the MEPs elected.

(b) Measures adopted for implementing the Convention and the effect of ratification of the Convention on the Slovene general, social, economic, political and legal situation

Effect of ratification of the Convention

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that are part of the conclusions adopted after considering Slovenia's Report under the said Convention, are the starting point for formulating policies, programmes and other measures for achieving substantive equality of women and men in the Slovene society and are applicable in the legislative and the executive branch of power. Provisions of the Convention and recommendations of the Committee provide an important basis for justifying measures proposed by the Office for Equal Opportunities to line ministries. Among others, NGOs apply provisions of the Convention and recommendations of the Committee as a basis for their activities as well.

The Convention was one of the basic documents for the preparation and formulation of the Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men , adopted by the National Assembly in October 2005.

In 2004, Slovenia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention, thus recognising the competence of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to receive and consider communications by or on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals, under the jurisdiction of a State Party, claiming to be victims of a violation of any of the rights set forth in the Convention by that State Party.

Amendment to the first paragraph of Article 20 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women shall be ratified by means of a Government decree in 2006.

(c) Gender equality institutional mechanisms

Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for Petitions, Human Rights and Equal Opportunities

With the reorganisation of the parliamentary working bodies after the elections in 2000, the Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for Equal Opportunities was dissolved and its competencies were transferred to the Committee for Home Affairs. After the last elections in 2004, the Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for Petitions, Human Rights and Equal Opportunities was set up; among others, gender equality falls within its competence.

Office for Equal Opportunities

Even after the reorganisation of the State administration, the Office for Equal Opportunities continues to be an autonomous Government service. The basic principle in the work of the Office is the realisation of de jure equality of men and women and ensuring de facto gender equality in all spheres of life. The competencies of the Office are laid down in the Government decision on the establishment and operation thereof, in the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act and in the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act . The Office for Equal Opportunities carries out activities for promoting gender mainstreaming into all Government policies and, moreover, designs and monitors the implementation of measures for the elimination of gender-based inequalities in all spheres of life. The Office performs its duties in cooperation with line ministries and other public bodies, with international, domestic and foreign governmental and non-governmental organisations and other institutions as well as with foreign and domestic experts.

In October 2005, ten persons were employed full-time in the Office, which accounts for a 20- per cent increase in comparison with 2002, when Slovenia had submitted its Third Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Advocate for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men

In compliance with the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act , an Advocate for equal opportunities for women and men started to work within the Office in 2003, to hear cases of alleged unequal treatment of women and men.

Co-ordinators for Equal Opportunities for women and men within Ministries

The Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act established a new mechanism for gender mainstreaming into Government policies and for the implementation and monitoring thereof. Each ministry appointed a coordinator for equal opportunities for women and men who, in carrying out her or his tasks, cooperate with the Office for Equal Opportunities.

Co-ordinators for Equal Opportunities for women and men within self-governing local communities

The Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act allows that self-governing local communities appoint a coordinator for equal opportunities for women and men who participates in the formulation and implementation of the gender equality policy at the local level and in that cooperates with the Office for Equal Opportunities. By the end of 2005, 10 municipalities appointed their coordinator for equal opportunities.

Commission for the Promotion of Women in Science

The Commission for the Promotion of Women in Science was established as an expert body working within the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. It is composed of 15 members, one of which is employed by the Ministry and carries out the tasks of a secretary of the Commission. The Commission prepares annual work programmes, mainly involving publicity or public awareness raising, gender mainstreaming into programme documents of the research and development policy and relevant legal acts, and the promotion of networking of researchers who are engaged in gender studies in various areas. At the end of any current year, the Commission draws up a report on its work for the Ministry. The necessary funds for the Commission's operation are secured by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.

(d) Funds and methods for ensuring and advancing positive changes in the status of women

Budget funds of the Office for Equal Opportunities

Budget funds of the Office for Equal Opportunities in 2005 amounted to SIT 90,800,000 (approx. 454.000 USD), not including staff salaries amounting to SIT 37,400,000 (approx. 187,000 USD). The Office regularly provides additional resources for the execution of research projects and for raising awareness of target groups or public at large by participating in tenders for co-financing projects for promoting gender equality within various European programmes.

From 2003 onwards, the Office for Equal Opportunities has been conducting public tenders called for co-financing projects of NGOs from budget resources allocated in separate budget heading and in compliance with the Decree on conditions and criteria for co-financing projects in the field of equal opportunities for women and men, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia . In 2003, 3.3 per cent of the Office's budget was allocated for co-financing, in 2004 5 per cent and in 2005 4.7 per cent of the Office's budget. In 2003, ten projects were selected (violence against women, discrimination at work, disabled women, workshops for young people addressing the issues of gender equality, equality between women and men in rural areas), and in 2004 twelve projects (reconciliation of family life and work, eating disorders, violence against women, the image of women in the media, sexual harassment at work, disabled women and violence, disabled women and social exclusion, employment of disabled women). In 2005, too, the Office co-financed twelve projects (disabled women and violence, work with violence perpetrators, violence against women, workshops for young people addressing the issues of gender equality, the role of women in discussions in the media, women in education and in the labour market, disabled women and the labour market, women and entrepreneurship).

The Office for Equal Opportunities earmarks its resources also for researches and co-finances books on gender equality relevant themes. In 2005, 4.7 per cent of the Office's budget was allocated to a call for proposals for co-financing of researches and 1.7 per cent of the budget for a call for proposals for co-financing of books.

Budget funds of line ministries and other government offices and bodies

Given the fact that gender equality policy includes both the approach involving general and special measures and the approach of integrating gender perspective into programmes and policies in the fields falling under competencies of line ministries and other government offices and bodies and the bodies of local self-governing communities, the financial resources for advancing development and position of women are a component part of their budgets. For the achievement of gender equality is particular important that in the planning and implementation of budget of line ministries, funds are allocated for an accelerated and more efficient integration of the gender equality into processes already underway. Thus, the Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2005 - 2013 provides that measures designed for creating equal opportunities for women and men will be allocated 231.3 million tolars (approx. USD 1,156,500) from the national budget. The resources of budget spending units broken down by measures and activities shall be specified in 2-year periodic plans.

Civil society organisations

Civil society organisations are important partners in the implementation of different projects, and they actively participate in ensuring gender equality by launching initiatives, reacting to legislative proposals and measures, monitoring situation, reporting on the status of women and men in Slovenia , highlighting any difficulties met by women in the enjoyment of their rights, etc. Cooperation of NGOs in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is presented into more detail in the part on the implementation of individual articles of the Convention.

NGOs and other civil society organisations were involved in the entire process of preparation of the Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2005 - 2013 as well as in the drawing up of this report on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention. Their cooperation has been of vital importance, since it is their work that makes possible identification and appropriate addressing of various problems in the everyday life of women and men.

Implementation of the provisions of individual articles of the Convention

Article 1

D iscrimination against women

1. In addition to the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act , adopted in 2002, which defined gender equality and direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex, as it had been reported already in the Third Report, the prohibition of discrimination on any grounds is also laid down in the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act , adopted in 2004, which is a fundamental and general anti discrimination law, which includes the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex. In Article 4, the Act defines direct and indirect discrimination and in Article 5 it defines harassment. The Act defines that direct discrimination on grounds of personal circumstances occurs when a person concerned has been, is or could be treated less favourably than another person in an equal or comparable situation on grounds of such a personal circumstance. Indirect discrimination shall be taken to occur where an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice would put a person, on grounds of personal circumstances, at a disadvantage in equal or comparable situation compared with other persons, unless such differentiation is objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary. Any instruction within the meaning of previous provisions shall also be deemed to be direct or indirect discrimination. The Act defines harassment as an unwanted conduct, on grounds of any personal circumstance, which creates an intimidating, hostile, humiliating or offensive environment for a person or offends his or her dignity. Such conducts shall be deemed to be discrimination.

Articles 2 and 3

M easures for ensuring equality of women and men

2. In compliance with the recommendations of the Committee, the Government intensified its efforts to prevent discrimination and ensure de facto equality for women. In the period following the submission of the Third Report, Slovenia adopted a constitutional act and three acts of importance in terms of the promotion of gender equality, namely: Constitutional Act amending Article 43 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia , Local Elections Act , Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act and Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act . With a view to ensuring efficient implementation of certain legal provisions, the Government adopted relevant executive regulations in which it specified how they are to be implemented and how to monitor the efficiency of achieving the objectives for which the legal provisions were adopted.

3. As stated in the part of this Report where, within the Chapter "General Data", the gender equality institutional mechanisms are presented, the Office for Equal Opportunities has kept, even after the reform of the State administration in 2003, its autonomous status and remained the central Government body for the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men, as recommended by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its concluding comments.

4. The Commission for the Promotion of Women in Science, covered within the Chapter "General Data" (c) Gender equality institutional mechanisms, has been charged, since 2003, with reviewing legal acts governing research activities in Slovenia and preparing proposals for eliminating any ascertained potentially discriminatory provisions used up to that time by the relevant body.

5. An important role in the progress made towards the introduction and implementation of legal and programme measures has been played, as underlined in the Chapter "General Data", by NGOs and other civil society groups. In the period covered by this Report, high quality dialog and, stemming from it, a meaningful partnership of civil society organisations, the Office for Equal Opportunities and deputies to the National Assembly in the formulation of the proposal for amending the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia with a provision imposing a positive obligation to introduce special measures for improving the participation of women in political decision-making were particularly efficient. Those efforts have been brought together into a civil society movement named "Coalition for the implementation of balanced representation of women and men in public and political decision-making". The Coalition, in which have gathered individuals from different places in Slovenia, from NGOs and Government bodies, trade unions, political parties and from public and private institutions, was formally established in February 2001. It has set itself a single goal: to overcome substantial under-representation of women in the bodies of political power by introducing the principle of balanced representation into legislation governing elections. First, it had formulated a proposal for the abovementioned amendment to the Constitution and, at a later stage, it drew up proposals for changes to election legislation. The trust that has built and strengthened among this civil society incentive, the Parliament and Government and individual experts on constitutional law and election legislation, as well as the support of the media made it possible that the low level of representation of women in policy-making has been recognised as a serious political issue that the deputies to the National Assembly, by submitting a proposal for a constitutional act, successfully brought into legislative debate and deliberation on amendments to the Constitution.

6. In June 2004, the National Assembly adopted the Constitutional Act amending Article 43 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia by which it added to the provision on the universal and equal right to vote a new paragraph conferring the power to the legislator to determine in a law measures for encouraging the equal opportunities of women and men in standing for election to state authorities and local community authorities.

7. The legislator has already started exercising this power – in July 2005, the Act amending Local Elections Act was adopted and in Article 70a it provides that a political party or voters who run in their constituency more than one candidate for election to a municipal council must draw up their candidate lists in such a way as to ensure that either sex accounts for at least 40 per cent of all candidates listed and that the candidates in the first half of the list alternate by sex. Municipal electoral commissions shall reject any list not complying with the above provisions. The acts provides that in the transitional period prior to 2014, when 40- per cent representation of women and men respectively becomes compulsory, it is required that at least 20- per cent share of women and men respectively are listed in the candidate lists for the first local election to be held in 2006, whereas for the election in 2010 the requirement is for 30- per cent share of women and men respectively. During this transitional period, a partial derogation is permitted as regards the principle of candidates alternating by sex in the upper half of the list to the effect that it is sufficient that they are arranged so that at least each third candidate is of the other sex. It will be possible to evaluate to what degree the Act will have positive effects for the representation of women in municipal councils only after the local election in 2006.

8. The drawing up of an act amending the National Assembly Elections Act is currently underway; it is to provide measures for promoting equal opportunities of women and men in standing for election and is planned to be adopted in 2006.

9. Even before the said amendment to the Constitution, an amendment to the Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act was adopted, introducing the requirement for gender balanced representation in the lists of candidates. Article 15 of that Act requires that at least 40- per cent representation of either sex is ensured in any list of candidates. Lists of candidates must be drawn up in such a way that at least one candidate of each sex figures in the first half of any list. Lists not complying with the above provision shall be deemed invalid. As stated within the chapter "General Data", the introduction of the requirement for at least 40- per cent representation of women and men respectively in the lists of candidates was efficient as it made possible that among seven Slovenian members to the European Parliament there are three women.

10. In May 2004, the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act was adopted; it is a fundamental and general law ( lex generalis ) on the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of any personal circumstances, which includes the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex. In Article 1, the Act lays down common basis and starting points for ensuring equal treatment of everybody in the exercise of their rights, obligations and fundamental freedoms in any area of social life, in particular in the areas of employment, working relationships, membership in trade unions and interest groups, education, social security, access to and supply of goods and services irrespective of personal circumstances such as nationality, racial or ethnic origin, sex, health state, disability, language, religious or other conviction, age, sexual orientation, education, financial state, social status or any other personal circumstance. In Articles 4 and 5, the Act defines direct and indirect discrimination and harassment. In Article 7, the Act stipulates that the National Assembly, the Government, line ministries and other State bodies and bodies of self-governing local communities are responsible for providing the conditions for equal treatment.

11. It is foreseen that in designing solutions and proposals for achieving the purpose of the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act , the Government and line ministries should cooperate closely with social partners and NGOs (such cooperation is laid down in the said Act). Pursuant to the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act , the Council of the Government for the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment was established in August 2004 (hereinafter: "the Council"). Basic tasks of the Council are to provide the implementation of the provisions of the Act; to monitor, establish and assess the position of individual groups within society as regards the implementation of the principle of equal treatment; to formulate and submit to the Government proposals, initiatives and recommendations for the adoption of legal acts and measures required for the implementation of the principle of equal treatment; to formulate and submit proposals for the promotion of education, awareness-raising and research in the field of equal treatment of persons; to inform on the work of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality. The Council consists of 24 members, of whom 9 are representatives of ministries and government agencies, 4 are representatives of expert institutions, 2 are representatives of the Italian and the Hungarian national minority, 1 is a representative of the Roma Association of Slovenia, and 8 are representatives of the NGOs active in the area of equal treatment.

12. In Chapter IV, the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act lays down the work of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality who, in an informal procedure, hears cases of alleged discrimination. In compliance with the Act, the Advocate of the Principle of Equality started working on 1 January 2005. Article 22 provides the reversed burden of proof. Where a person discriminated against presents facts, which justify the assumption that the ban on discrimination was violated it is up to the alleged offender to prove that he or she did not violate the principle of equal treatment or the ban on discrimination. Article 23 lays down the right of NGOs to participate in court and administrative proceedings on the side of the person discriminated against.

13. The same prerogatives as that of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality are exercised by the Advocate for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men who hears cases of alleged discrimination on the grounds of sex. The institute of Advocate for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men, introduced with the adoption of the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act, was presented into more detail in the Third Report. From the beginning of its work in 2003 until 30 June 2005, the Advocate for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men received 28 initiatives for hearing cases of alleged discrimination based on sex.

14. Out of these, 17 initiatives were submitted by women, 7 were submitted by men, 2 by an NGO on behalf of a man, and in 2 cases the initiatives were submitted by a trade union.

15. In the period concerned, the Advocate issued 13 opinions on the initiatives submitted; in 18 cases sex-based discrimination was established, while in 5 cases discrimination on the grounds of sex was not proofed. In 3 cases, the Advocate terminated the proceedings either because of the expiry of the time limit or because in the treatment described discrimination could not be established. The cases heard had occurred in different areas, ranging from work relationships and employment through conducting of court and administrative proceedings to awards in sports. In cases when the Advocate established that discrimination on the grounds of sex had actually occurred, she notified, in the opinion issued, the offender of the ban on sex-based unequal treatment on the irregularities found and recommended in what way the irregularities should be eliminated. Thus, for instance, the Advocate recommended to the organisers of marathon events to change their prize policy and make men's and women's prizes equal; she recommended to an employer to adopt a statement of policy on sexual harassment; to student employment agencies she recommended to advertise vacancies without specifying sex; to a health insurance company to change their general conditions which currently do not include in their health insurance policy covering medical assistance abroad the expenses incurred due to pregnancy, pregnancy related complications, abortion or childbirth. Even though the Advocate's opinions are not binding, practice has shown that perpetrators of discrimination do respect her recommendations to a certain extent and that they are not indifferent when their actions are recognised to be discriminatory. With the entry into force of the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act , the Advocate's opinions became more influential because in situations where perpetrators of discrimination do not remedy the established irregularities in compliance with her recommendations and inform her, within the set time scale, on the measures adopted, she transfers her opinion to a competent inspection body.

16. In compliance with Article 14 of the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act , the Government adopted in September 2004 Decree regulating the criteria for implementation of the principle of balanced representation of women and men . The Decree lays down the procedure for ensuring balanced representation of women and men in the composition of working bodies and in appointing and nominating Government representatives. Both, the Decree and the Act provide that the principle of gender-balanced representation is respected when at least 40- per cent representation of women and men respectively is ensured. In certain specified circumstances the Decree permits, on objectively justified grounds, exemptions to this principle. Such exemption is permitted in cases where membership to a certain Government body stems from a particular function.

17. In October 2005, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (2005 – 2013). The proposal for the Resolution was prepared by the Office for Equal Opportunities in cooperation with line ministries and other government bodies, self-governing local communities, social partners, research institutions, NGOs and other civil-society organizations as well as with individual experts, and before the proposal was submitted to the National Assembly it was considered and adopted by the Government. The Resolution contains commitments of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action and conclusions of the 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, titled " Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century ". The Resolution is a strategic document, which defines objectives and measures as well as key policy-makers for the achievement of gender equality in different fields of life of women and men in the period 2005-2013. The fundamental aim is to improve the status of women and ensure faster progress towards the realisation of de facto gender equality. Equal Opportunities for Woman and Men Act introduced systematic monitoring of the implementation of the national programme. Article 17 provides that the Government shall regularly submit two-year report to the National Assembly on the measures and activities carried out under the national programme over the past two years. The drawing up of the reports is coordinated by the Office for Equal Opportunities.

18. Concrete tasks and activities for the achievement of the objectives and implementation of measures shall be determined in periodic plans , which are drawn up every two years and stipulate into more detail the timetable and manner of implementation of separate tasks and activities. The Office for Equal Opportunities is responsible for the preparation of the proposals for periodic plans and for submitting them to the Government for consideration and adoption. The first implementing periodic plan is currently in the process of preparation.

19. In compliance with the document " Building a World Fit for Children ", adopted at the 27th Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2002, a medium-term national programme for improving the situation of children and youth is currently being prepared by the Government.

20. In compliance with the conclusions of the Second World Summit on Ageing and the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing , adopted in April 2002, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs prepared in early 2003 " Report on the implementation of the programme for the protection of elderly in the field of social security by 2005 ". A key emphasis of the Report is that policies relevant for population ageing should be examined in terms of their long-term nature and sustainable social development, whilst taking into account global initiatives and principles adopted at international conferences and meetings and at U nited Nations summits. In 2005, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs prepared a draft Strategy for the protection of elderly by 2010 the purpose of which is to get ready, through a comprehensive and long-term policy, for demographic changes and to ensure conditions for all elderly inhabitants of Slovenia for a safe and good quality life and full social inclusion. The Strategy devotes a special attention to the issues of gender equality, in particular as regards participation of elderly women and decision-making on important issues regarding health care, educational opportunities and the prevention of violence.

21. In the further text of the Report on the Implementation of the Provisions of Individual Articles of the Convention in Slovenia, the integration of gender equality perspective in other legislative and programme measures is presented.

Article 4

E ncouraging the realisation of substantive gender equality with temporary special measures

22. As already explained in the Third Report, Articles 7 and 8 of the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act provided the legal basis for the adoption of special measures. The Act defines three categories of special measures:

Positive measures that under the same fulfilment of the prescribed criteria give priority to persons of the sex that is underrepresented or is experiencing unequal status on account of their sex in certain areas of social life, particularly in education, employment, professional life, public or political activity, and that cease to apply when the aim they are intended to achieve is achieved; they are introduced following the action plans based on the analysis and specifying the reasons for the adoption of positive measures, aims that they are intended to achieve, the commencement of their implementation, the method of monitoring the attainment of objectives and supervision of their implementation;

Encouraging measures that give special benefits or introduce special incentives for the purpose of eliminating non-balanced gender representation or an unequal status on account of sex and that may be introduced in the plans for the implementation of national programmes in particular fields and in the internal acts of state authorities and other bodies in the public sector, economic operators, political parties, civil society organizations and other bodies by defining them within the context of the nature and contents of their field of application;

Programme measures in the form of awareness-raising activities and action plans in certain fields promoting and achieving gender equality that may be introduced following the same method as encouraging measures.

23. The legal basis for the adoption of positive differentiation measures, including on the basis of other personal circumstances and not only based on sex, is determined also by the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act . In compliance with Article 6 of this Act, positive measures are provisional measures determined by law, which are intended to prevent a less favourable position of persons owing to a certain personal circumstance, or they represent a compensation for a less favourable position.

24. The third and fourth paragraphs of Article 15 of the Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act determine that none of the sexes may be represented by less than 40 per cent s on the candidate list. The provisions of the Act determining in detail the implementation method of this special measure are stated in paragraph 9 of this Report.

25. Similar special measures were introduced also in the Local Elections Act (see paragraph 7).

26. Ensuring balanced representation in appointments is regulated by a special measure also in the Decree regulating the criteria for implementation of the principle of balanced representation of women and men (see paragraph 16).

27. Several measures that in their nature or purpose for which they were introduced in the first place belong among special measures are included also in programme documents intended to promote employment, eliminating unemployment and increasing the social inclusion.

Article 5

E limination of prejudices and stereotypes

Education for gender equality

28. Education for gender equality is a special objective in the field of education, set up in the Resolution on the National Programme for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 2005 - 2013 . Education for gender equality is included within the framework of the primary school elective subject titled civic culture, while at the secondary schools, the education for gender equality is included within the framework of obligatory elective subjects such as civic culture, education for family, peace and non-violence, trafficking in human beings, etc.

29. Different categories of government sector personnel are being educated on gender equality, for example, judicial staff within the programme of training in human rights. The Training Centre for Legal Staff, which is the main provider of training for judges, state prosecutors and state attorneys, frequently organizes trainings and seminars that include also the protection of human rights of women. The judicial bodies participate in study visits abroad organized by foreign education and training institutions, dealing, inter alia , with human rights guaranteed under international legal instruments. Similar education and training programmes are available also in the police, health sector and social work centres.

30. In the field of education for gender equality, intergovernmental organizations in Slovenia are active as well. The Council of Europe Information and Documentation Centre in the Republic of Slovenia organizes each year a contest for children and young people whose objective is learning about human rights. In the 2004/2005 school year, a contest on the subject of “ I am a citizen in the changing Europe ” was organized, which encompassed also gender equality dimension.

31. The Office for Equal Opportunities contributes to education for gender equality in several ways. It forwards different documents of international, intergovernmental and regional organizations to target groups and interested individuals, issues and sends translations of certain international documents and supports the work of students who increasingly tend to choose the subjects relevant for gender equality as the topics of their seminar, graduate and post-graduate papers with its corpus of documents and literature, knowledge and experience of its personnel. In addition, the Office prepares and publishes publications also by itself. The Office issued the manual and fold-out titled Advocate for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, the manual Special measures for providing equal opportunities for women and men , the brochures My rights and Non-discrimination and fold-out Sexual harassment at work. Currently, the Office is completing the preparations on publishing the manual on gender mainstreaming. Within the framework of co-financing the books relevant for the promotion of gender equality, the Office facilitated the publication of a book on positive diferentiation, a manual for media on implementing the principle of equal opportunities for women and men and a manual on psychological and social help for women and children exposed to violence.

32. In 2004, the Commission for the Promotion of Women in Science (see Chapter “General Data”, (c) Gender equality institutional mechanisms) carried out two information workshops titled “ Equal opportunities for women and men at the university ” at all three Slovenian universities. The workshops were dedicated to getting the university public at large acquainted with the actual problems related to discrimination on the grounds of sex in science and research in Slovenia and in Europe and to presenting the activities of the Commission.

33. Likewise, non-governmental organizations play an important role in the education for gender equality. Apart from participating in the implementation of education and training programmes for different categories of public employees, they also issue such publications as for example: COMPAS: Manual for young people on learning about human rights, a manual Human rights of women: Introductory explanations and documents, a publication Women in trafficking (in English) , Where in the puzzle: Trafficking in human beings in Slovenia, from Slovenia and through Slovenia , etc.

34. Within the framework of the European Year of People with Disabilities (2003), the Faculty of Social Work in Ljubljana organized a conference titled “ So beautiful, and she is disabled! ” – “ Social work against discrimination of handicapped women ”, whose purpose was to draw attention to the obstacles, prejudices and discrimination, faced by handicapped women in their everyday life.

Family life

35. The research conducted by Eurostat in 2004 showed that the traditional division of roles between the sexes still exists in Slovenia . The data indicating the time that employed women and men dedicate to gainful activities and study (women 4:23, men 5:25) and domestic work (women 4:24, men 2:09) show that the division of family work between the partners or parents is still unequal and mainly burdens the women. The results of the research show that women mostly perform work such as cooking, cleaning, laundering, shopping and caring for children, the elderly and the sick family members. Men, however, carry out the major part of repairs in the house, while work in the garden is more or less equally divided between women and men. In comparison with fathers, mothers devote more time to caring for children (care for children younger than 6 years: women 2:23, men 0:56) and spending time with children (children until 9 years of age: women 6:09, men 4:07). Men, however, devote more time to their free time activities than women (women 3:51, men 4:37).

Advertising jobs

36 . The provision of Article 25 of the Employment Relationships Act , which determines that an employer may not advertise a job only for men or only for women, unless a specific sex is an essential condition for performing the work, was already presented in the Third Report. The announcement of a vacant job may also not indicate that the employer gives priority in employment to a specific sex. In relation to advertising jobs, labour inspectors established in total 38 violations for the year 2004; in 6 cases the employers violated the principle of equal treatment of the sexes in advertising a job vacancy. They advertised a job only for women or only for men.

37. With reference to this provision, the Office for Equal Opportunities implemented in 2004 an extensive awareness-raising campaign, aimed at the Employment Office, employers, student work brokerage services and printed media. The Office drafted proposals for employment advertisements and forwarded them to around one thousand large- and middle-size companies, public institutions, trade unions, student work brokerage services, employers’ associations and trade unions and association of human resources management personnel. By a special letter, the Office also invited the advertising departments of daily newspapers to responsible acting. In addition to launching the awareness-raising campaigns, the Office performed also an analysis of job advertisements, published in three of the main daily newspapers before the campaign and after the campaign. Before the awareness-raising campaign, the regulatory provision on advertising jobs was violated in 74% of advertisements, while after the campaign, the share of violations was reduced by 27%.

Violence against women and violence in the family

38. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed its concern during the consideration of the Second and Third Reports of the Republic of Slovenia because of the incidence of violence against women, including violence in the family, and because of the light penalties for crimes of violence committed against women. The Penal Code does not specify a separate criminal offence of violence against women, but such offence is defined as one of the criminal offences from the fifteenth (criminal offences against life and body), sixteenth (criminal offences against human rights and freedoms), nineteenth (criminal offences against sexual integrity) or twenty-ninth (criminal offences against public law and order) Chapter of the Penal Code .

39. The range of sentences is determined depending on the seriousness of individual criminal offences. Thus, for example, a criminal offence of a minor bodily harm stated under Article 133 of the Penal Code is sanctioned by a fine or a sentence of imprisonment for not more than one year, but the stated criminal offence contains also an aggravated form punished by a sentence of imprisonment for not more than three years. The Penal Code states in its Articles 134 and 135 the criminal offences of an aggravated or grievous bodily harm carrying the sentence of imprisonment of not more than five years or ten years or from one to ten years or not less than three years (which means not more than fifteen years in accordance with the provisions of the General part of the Penal Code ). The criminal offence of maltreating as defined in Article 146 of the Penal Code is punished by a fine or a sentence of imprisonment of not more than six months, but the stated criminal offence includes all those injuries that involve less than a minor bodily harm (for example, scratches or abrasions, and in the case of psychological impairment fear or agitation).

40. By amending the Penal Code in 2004, more severe punishment was introduced for criminal offences against sexual integrity, particularly in the cases of abuse of position when committing such a criminal offence (Article 184), abuse of a feeble person (Article 182) or a person bellow fifteen years of age (Article 183).

41. In dealing with violence against women, the criminal offence of violent conduct as defined in Article 299 of the Penal Code is also relevant. Such a criminal offence may be caused by a grave insult, bad treatment or endangering the security, thereby causing endangerment, indignation or fright within families. Such a criminal offence is punishable by a sentence of imprisonment of not more than two years; if, however, a minor bodily harm is entailed, the sentence of not more than three years is imposed. This criminal offence is thus a merger of the above stated offences of a minor bodily harm and bad treatment. If, however, a person is badly injured by an act of violence or even dead, this constitutes a merger of the above stated criminal offences of an aggravated and grievous bodily harm or murder under Article 127 of the Penal Code .

42. Important is also the measure of a ban on approaching a specified place or person, defined in Article 195 of the Criminal Procedure Act that was already included in the Third Report of the Republic of Slovenia on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention.

43. At the end of August 2003, amendments to the Police Act began to apply, providing the policewomen and policemen with more power of intervention in the cases of family violence. A policewoman or a policeman may issue a restraining order prohibiting a person from approaching a specified location or area and a particular person, which includes also a ban on harassment via means of communication. The police started to carry out the measure of banning the approach in September 2004, when detailed instructions to the police on how to handle such cases came into effect, as determined in the Rules on restraining orders on approaching a particular location or person . The policewomen and policemen impose this measure in cases when a well-founded suspicion exists that the person concerned committed a criminal offence with the elements of violence or that he or she was apprehended while committing such act. In order to impose the measure, it is in both cases necessary to establish the reason or suspicion that the perpetrator will threaten the life, personal safety or freedom of the person with whom he or she is or has been in a close relationship. The policemen and the policewomen may establish the existence of circumstances entailing the imposition of such a measure directly during their intervention, or they may establish such circumstances by gathering reports or on the basis of information forwarded to them by a social work centre or other entities. The measure of a ban on approaching is not imposed if during the intervention procedure, the police have established grounds for suspicion that the person concerned committed a criminal offence, which is prosecuted ex-officio or at the request of the injured party. Since the adoption of the Rules, the policewomen and policemen issued 14 restraining orders in 2004 and 49 such orders in the first half of the year 2005.

44. Offences related to the family violence are also determined by the Offences against Public Order and Peace Act . This Act specifies that any person disturbing the peace or threatening the safety of a person in private surroundings in an illicit manner shall be considered as committing the offence. In December 2005, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted draft proposal of a new act (draft proposal of the Offences Against Public Order and Peace Act ), in which the offences related to family violence are defined separately and punished by more severe sentences than before. By coming into force of the new Offences Against Public Order and Peace Act , the data on family violence will be collected more systematically.

45. The Republic of Slovenia adopted important legislative amendments aimed at eliminating and preventing the violence against women in the family. An action plan on preventing violence in the family and a research project titled “ Advanced guidelines in the substantive criminal law ” (guidelines for the reform of the substantive criminal law) that will present theoretical bases for the decision whether the Slovenian Penal Code should define the criminal offence of family violence as an independent criminal offence are under preparation. The progress has been made also in setting up the mechanism for a systematic collection of data on the violence against women, but difficulties arise in consequence of the fact that prosecutor offices and the judiciary do not record the violence against women in the family separately, but together with all the rest of criminal offences.

46. The tasks and assignments of the police in the field of family violence are defined in the mid-term action plan of the police for the period from 2003 – 2007. They include the analysis of measures, establishing faults and deficiencies, education and training of policewomen and policemen and active participation in drafting and implementing new legislative solutions. The police are regularly organizing the training and specialisation on violence in the family, against children and women. Such training is performed by experts from the police, prosecutor offices, the judiciary, social work and health, and is often participated also by experts from the national and foreign non-governmental organizations. The General Police Directorate and individual police administrations organize round tables and consultation meetings on juvenile crime, violence against children and violence in the family every year. Policewomen, policemen and criminal police officers also provide information on these topics to teachers, parents and children. The police also issue posters and fold-outs on the possibilities of preventing the violence and an appropriate response to violence.

47. The Housing Act from 2003 introduced an important novelty by allowing the municipalities, state and the public housing fond or non-profitable housing organizations to rent, when allocating a dwelling unit as a provisional solution of housing needs of socially de-privileged persons, such a dwelling unit based on the list of persons eligible for such allocation (that is, on the basis of a public invitation to tender). This category includes also women and women with children, victims of violence in the family. The Rules on renting non-profit housing units provide the women and women with children, victims of violence in the family, who temporarily reside in maternity homes and shelters (safe houses, shelters, centres providing help to the victims of criminal offences), with the possibility of participating in public invitations to tender for renting non-profit housing units, including in the location of their temporary residence.

48. The Ministry of the Interior is a key source of data on the prevalence of violence against women. According to the data of the Ministry, around one fifth of the victims of criminal offences against life and body are women. In 2004, 26.3 per cent of women were among the victims of murders. Women were the victims in around 14.7 per cent of cases suffering a grievous bodily injury and in 24 per cent of cases suffering a minor bodily injury and in the same percentage in the cases of being threatened by a dangerous tool.

49. In the period from 2001 to 2004 the share of women that were victims of offences against the public law and order has slightly decreased. In 2001, this percentage was 42.3 and in 2004, it was 38.8. During the same period, the share of offences involving the family violence has increased considerably, i.e. from 2.566 or 15.5% in 2001 to 4.443 or 26.7% of the total of offences committed against the public law and order in 2004. The majority of offences involving the family violence were committed in domestic surroundings, accounting to almost 90% of the cases.

50. In November 2003, the human rights ombudsman organized an experts’ meeting titled “ Family violence – the paths to solutions ”, with the purpose of helping the victims and protecting both the victims and the society from the damage caused by family violence. He invited the experts from different ministries, governmental offices and non-governmental organizations, working in the field of combating family violence, to participate in the meeting. Based on the conclusions of this experts’ meeting, the human rights ombudsman issued in June 2004 a special report containing practical experiences, needs and proposals of experts meeting and dealing with the issue of family violence in their everyday work.

51. The Expert Council on dealing with the violence against women, which has been operating from 2001 within the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, performed an analysis of the situation concerning the violence against women in the family. The analysis was intended for the survey of methods of institutional treatment (health care, justice, police, social work centres and non-governmental organizations) of women who were exposed to family violence and legal bases for dealing with the violence against women. The analysis based on a questionnaire that was answered by police administrations showed that the majority of suspects and victims of violence are found in marital and extra-marital relationships (34 per cent s), followed by friendship relationships or acquaintances (25 per cent s), total strangers (15 per cent s) and former spouses or extra-marital partners (3 per cent s). Based on the findings of this analysis, the positions and draft proposal of a fundamental legal act on the prevention of family violence were prepared. The Council was reappointed in July 2005 by a decision issued by the competent minister. Its tasks are defined as preparing expert groundwork and providing guidelines for the adoption of the relevant legislation in the field of violence against women and supervising its implementation.

52. The activities for the prevention of violence against women form an integral part of the work programme of the Office for Equal Opportunities. During the international days dedicated to combating violence against women in 2004, the Office prepared a session titled “ Speaking up about the violence against elder women ”, in which participated the representatives of non-governmental organizations, social work centres, home health care and nursing services, associations of retired people, justice, police and the interested individuals. The analysis presented at the session showed that elder women are much more frequently the victims of different forms of violence within the home environment than elder men. The most frequent forms of violence against elder women are psychological, emotional and physical abuse and the perpetrators of such acts of violence are most often their partners.

53. Within the framework of public service, social work centres perform services aimed at eliminating the existing distress and problems and the protection of individuals in case of violence. Social work centres have an important role also in providing help to the offender when trying to eliminate the causes of violent behaviour and thus prevent its repetition. A new development is represented by regional coordinators coordinating and providing expert support to personnel in social work centres and to the victims of violence, and participating in the activities carried out by inter-institutional teams for the prevention of violence. In the period from 2004 to 2005, social work centres employed 12 regional coordinators.

54. The Working Group for Non-Violence at the Chamber of Nursing and Midwifery Services of Slovenia – Slovenian Association of Organizations of Staff Nurses, Midwives and Medical Technicians - plays an important role in identifying the violence through the personnel engaged in nursing care and their appropriate response. The operation of the Working Group is focused mainly on enhancing the role and responsibilities of those employed in health care institutions with respect to reducing the tolerance of violence in general and to preventing and eliminating the violence at work. Within the framework of its activities, the Working Group prepared, among other things, special protocols on the actions to be taken by those employed in nursing care when meeting, in the course of their work, with women – victims of violence in the family, carried out several expert trainings for the employees on sexual violence at work, participated actively in different public campaigns and prepared different educational materials for those employed in nursing care, users of hospital services, visitors of hospitals and other people entering the health care institutions.

5 5 . Based on the public invitation to tender for co-financing the projects of non-governmental organizations, the Office for Equal Opportunities financially supported the implementation of 12 projects in the field of violence against women in the years 2004 and 2005. Among other things, the projects were focused on identifying and dealing with the violence in the field of nursing care, sexual harassment at work, violence against disabled women, advocacy for women exposed to violence, individual and collective counselling and support to victims, training in social skills for perpetrators of violence, prevention of violence and awareness-raising of the general public.

5 6. The Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs is co-financing prevention programmes aimed at preventing the family violence. On the basis of a public invitation to tender, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs co-financed in 2004 twenty-four programmes implemented by non-governmental organizations and public institutions, earmarking SIT 9 million (approx. USD 40.000) for their implementation. In 2005, the Ministry allocated SIT 247 million (approx. USD 1.235.000) to implementing the programmes of safe houses, crisis centre and other programmes aimed at helping the victims of violence. It assigned an additional amount of SIT 78.862.555 (approx. USD 394.000) to other programmes dealing directly or indirectly with these issues.

57 . In addition to the national non-governmental organizations having an invaluable role in preventing and eliminating the violence against women and family violence and in providing assistance and support to victims and working with the offenders, the educational, research and other institutions, international non-governmental organizations and media are also active in Slovenia in this field.

Sexual harassment at work

58 . The Third Report presents Article 45 of the Employment Relationships Act that prohibits sexual harassment at work. The prohibition of sexual harassment at work is included also in the Civil Servants Act , adopted and amended in December 2005. The added Article 15.a prohibits any unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct or behaviour of a public servant deriving from any personal circumstance and creating intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, abusive or offensive working environment for any person and violating his or her dignity.

59 . The provisions of Article 184 of the Penal Code are applied to the cases of sexual harassment, defining the violation of sexual integrity by abuse of position as a criminal offence, punishable by a sentence of imprisonment of not more than five years, and imposing the sentence from one to eight years of imprisonment for an aggravated form of this criminal offence. The statistical data of the police indicate that the number of criminal offences against sexual integrity by abuse of position has been fluctuating during the recent years. Thus there were 12 criminal offences committed against sexual integrity by abuse of position in 2003, and 21 in 2004 - their victims were predominantly women.

6 0 . Since the beginning of 2003, when the new Employment Relationships Act came into force, the provisions of this Act already described in the Third Report of the Republic of Slovenia have also been applied in dealing with the cases of sexual harassment at work.

6 1 . With the purpose of providing information on Article 45 of the Employment Relationships Act , determining that an employer is obliged to guarantee a working environment in which no worker will be exposed to sexual harassment, the Office for Equal Opportunities at the end of 2003 organized a conference on sexual harassment, intended for employers, trade unions, lawyers, personnel in the human resources management, lay and professional public (police, justice, non-governmental organizations). After the conference, the Office for Equal Opportunities send to all large- and medium-scale companies, trade unions, non-governmental organizations and the public sector (ministries, local communities, health care and social establishments, justice, educational institutions, etc.) the documents from the conference, among others also the publication titled “ How to cope with sexual harassment at work?” and a sample of “Declaration on the policy against sexual harassment”. In 2004, the Office for Equal Opportunities issued a fold-out titled “Sexual harassment at work” , distributed to the same target groups.

6 2 . In 2003, the Advocate for equal opportunities for women and men dealt with one initiative related to the sexual harassment at work. She established that all signatories of the initiative (5 employees) were exposed to sexual harassment from their superior, therefore she made a recommendation to the employer to adopt a declaration on the policy against sexual harassment, which the employer complied with. In 2004, the Advocate also dealt with one initiative concerning the sexual harassment.

6 3 . In 2004, labour inspectors did not establish any violations concerning the sexual harassment at work. However, they received several anonymous calls of women employees asking the inspectors for their professional help, but these callers declined to report the offence because the person allegedly harassing them was in the majority of cases their superior.

Article 6

T rafficking in women and prostitution

6 4 . During the period since the submission of the Third Periodical Report, the Republic of Slovenia ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children , supplementing this Convention.

6 5 . In 2004, amendments to Chapter 19 (Criminal offences against sexual integrity) and Chapter 35 (Criminal offences against humanity and international law) of the Penal Code were adopted. In May 2004, amendments to the Penal Code came into force, defining the abuse of prostitution in a new Article 185, thus merging the former definitions of criminal offences of pimping (Article 185) and serving as agent in prostitution (Article 186). This criminal offence is defined as cooperation in the prostitution of another person for the purpose of exploitation and accustoming or inciting another person to prostitution or obtaining another person for prostitution by force, threat or deception. Such offence is punishable by imprisonment from three months to five years; if, however, it is committed against a minor or against several persons or within a criminal association, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment from one to ten years.

66 . The Penal Code also contains a new Article 387.a, defining a criminal offence of trafficking in human beings. In addition to defining such criminal offence in accordance with the Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children , the Article contains also an aggravated form of the criminal offence if it is committed against a minor or by threat, deception, kidnapping or abuse of a subordinated or dependent position, or with the purpose of forcing a person to pregnancy or in vitro fertilization, which constitutes the grounds for more severe punishment. Aggravated forms of the criminal offence include the circumstances when the criminal offence is committed within the framework of an organized criminal association set up for implementing such acts or obtaining high proceeds. The sentence of imprisonment from one year to ten years is determined for this criminal offence, while for its aggravated forms, the perpetrator shall be punished by a sentence of imprisonment of not less than three years.

67 . In December 2005, the Witness Protection Act was adopted, regulating the conditions and proceedings for the protection of witnesses and other persons, threatened by reason of their cooperation in the criminal procedure. By entering into force, it also provides an effective and appropriate witness protection of victims of trafficking in human beings and other threatened persons, provided the conditions for the protection of threatened persons as defined by Article 10 of the Act are met.

68 . In 2004, the police dealt with 14 criminal offences, related to trafficking in human beings. For the crime of enslavement (Article 387 of the Penal Code ), a criminal complaint was lodged on behalf of five victims, all of them women of age. For the criminal offence of pimping as defined in Article 185 of the Penal Code , one report dealing with the suspicion of committing a criminal offence of enslavement and two reports dealing with the suspicion of committing a criminal offence of pimping were submitted to a district prosecutor office. Five criminal complaints and two reports concerning a newly defined criminal offence of abuse of prostitution were submitted to the competent state prosecutor’s offices. In one case where a criminal offence of abuse of prostitution was committed to the harm of a woman, the state prosecutor changed the legal definition of this criminal offence into a criminal offence of trafficking in human beings. Criminal complaints were lodged against the total of 12 persons; the injured persons (25) were all women, but only 19 of them were recognized as victims of trafficking in human beings.

69 . In 2003, 16 criminal offences were discovered under the then effective articles of the Penal Code (pimping, presenting persons for prostitution and enslavement), the number of suspected perpetrators was 34 and the number of injured persons was 22. In 2004, only 9 criminal offences with 12 suspected perpetrators and 29 injured persons were discovered under the above stated articles of the Penal Code and its amended articles (abuse of prostitution and trafficking in human beings) that came into force in May 2004.

7 0 . The police state that in Slovenia , trafficking in human beings, particularly women, is connected exclusively with sexual exploitation. Detecting and investigating trafficking in women and abuse of prostitution is very demanding, particularly because of the new legal definitions of the overt forms of criminal offences. Collection and perpetuation of evidence against suspected persons exploiting decriminalization of prostitution and associating with the perpetrators from abroad, depends largely on the cooperation of victims.

7 1 . For the purpose of an improved detection and investigation of trafficking in human beings, the General Police Directorate implements intensive trainings of criminal police officers, participated by experts from the national and foreign institutions and non-governmental organizations, the same as in trainings described in the part of the text referring to the prevention of violence against women within the context of reporting under Article 5 of the Convention.

7 2 . In July 2003, the Minister of the Interior signed a Declaration on the commitment: legalisation of the status of victims of trafficking in human beings , by which Slovenia committed itself on offering the appropriate help and protection to the victims of trafficking in human beings and provide them with the appropriate legal status. In September 2003, the Ministry of the Interior and the State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia concluded an Agreement on cooperation in the field of providing help to the victims of trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Slovenia with the non-governmental organization Ključ, which implements the programme of help and support to the victims of trafficking in human beings. The Agreement defines the procedures of operation and specific cooperation in offering help to the victims, including the regulations of their status in the state, integrated help and information to the victims during the rehabilitation process and their further deciding on the cooperation with the law enforcement authorities. The Agreement grants a three-month temporary residence in the Republic of Slovenia to a victim residing illegally in the Republic of Slovenia . The permit for a three-month temporary residence shall be issued by the competent authority on the basis of a certificate that the victim is accommodated in a safe place provided by the Ključ society. This period is devoted to the victim’s learning all the necessary information and to be offered psychological-social, medical and legal assistance. After a period of “reflection”, the victim may decide on her or his further cooperation in the criminal proceedings. In case her or his testimony might be important for the criminal proceedings, the administrative authority may, on the basis of a declaration of the Supreme State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia, issue a temporary residence permit based on other substantiated grounds as laid down in Article 40 of the Aliens Act with the validity period of not more than one year. If during the validity period of the temporary residence permit the criminal proceedings in which the victim participates as a witness is not completed yet, the permit may be extended until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. After the concluded criminal proceedings, the temporary residence permit of the victim who participated in it may be extended for one more time on other substantiated grounds under Article 40 of the Aliens Act on the basis of a certificate of the Ključ society, confirming that the victim was integrated in the rehabilitation programme.

7 3 . Already in its Third Periodical Report, Slovenia reported that the Government of the Republic of Slovenia established an Inter-ministerial Working Group to combat trafficking in human beings in 2001, whose task it is to coordinate the government policy on fight against trafficking in human beings and help to the victims. Based on the proposal prepared by the Inter-ministerial Working Group, the Government adopted an Action plan on combating trafficking in human beings in 2004 . The Action plan is based on the operation of all government ministries and offices and other institutions and organizations that are represented in the Inter-ministerial Working Group (the ministries, police, National Assembly, Supreme State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia, international and national non-governmental organizations and media) to prevent trafficking in human beings and protect the victims. It is also based on training and international cooperation of personnel, officials and volunteers addressing the field of trafficking in human beings during their work.

7 4 . In 2003, the International organization for migrations and the non-governmental organization of the Peace Institute performed a research study on trafficking in human beings in Slovenia . The research study reached the conclusion that Slovenia is a destination country, a country of origin and a transit country and that trafficking in human beings is mostly restricted to trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual abuse. The study presents the estimates of the Ključ society, the only non-governmental organization in Slovenia offering assistance to the victims of trafficking in human beings, namely that between 1.500 and 2.500 women who might be or who might become victims of trafficking in human beings, travel annually through Slovenia to the Western Europe .

Article 7

W omen in political and public life

7 5 . As already stated in the fifth paragraph of this Report, the Republic of Slovenia supplemented the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia with the provision on promoting equal opportunities for women and men in standing as candidates in elections to state bodies and bodies of local communities by introducing special measures into the legislation.

76 . Even before adopting the constitutional amendment on equal opportunities for women and men in standing as candidates in elections, the Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act was adopted, which was the first electoral act to introduce the requirement for at least 40- per cent share of women and men on candidate lists (see paragraph 9 of this Report). At the first elections of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament (13 June 2004), there were 45.1% of women among 91 candidates on the candidate list for election. The Office for Equal Opportunities organized a public meeting before elections to the European Parliament, where the women candidates for election to the European Parliament from all candidate lists presented themselves. The outcome of the elections is a good example of the relevance of introducing special measures in the electoral legislation, because now there are as many as three women (42.9 per cent ) among seven members from the Republic of Slovenia in the European Parliament.

77 . As stated in the part of the Report presenting the implementation of the provisions of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, amendments to the Local Elections Act (see paragraph 7) were adopted in July 2005.

78 . The Government of the Republic of Slovenia is preparing a Draft Act amending the National Assembly Elections Act , in which the measures for promoting equal opportunities of women and men in standing as candidates in elections to a legislative body of the Republic of Slovenia will be determined as well.

79 . With the purpose of establishing a balanced representation of women and men in appointed positions, as stated in the part of the Report presenting the implementation of provisions of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted a Decree regulating the criteria for implementation of the principle of balanced representation of women and men (see paragraph 16). According to the data collected and monitored by the Office for Equal Opportunities, the representation of women in government bodies, delegations, expert councils and public entities has remained approximately the same as before the adoption of the Decree. According to the estimates of the Office for Equal Opportunities, the proposers of the composition of governmental bodies, delegations, expert councils, etc., frequently make use of the exemptions that allow derogation from the principle of a balanced representation under the circumstances as defined by the Decree. These exemptions are used in favour of the representation of men particularly in the field of finances, economy, transport and defence, whereas their application in the field of labour, family, social affairs and education is mainly in favour of the representation of women. In this way, the division into the predominantly “male” and “female” fields of work is still partially preserved, therefore the Office for Equal Opportunities is trying to encourage, by way of constant monitoring and calling on obligation to respect regulations adopted, progress in achieving gender-balanced composition of government bodies, delegations and expert councils.

8 0 . In the Third Report on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, Slovenia has already informed the Committee on the obligation of the political parties, introduced by the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act , to submit a plan to the Office of Equal Opportunities every four years, in which they take a position on the issue of balanced representation of both sexes and in accordance with the position, determine methods and measures for encouraging a more balanced representation of women an men within the bodies of the party, on candidate lists for election to the National Assembly and to bodies of local communities and for elections of the President of the Republic. The amount of fine imposed on political parties for violating this regulatory provision is determined as well. Until 1 December 2005, only 6 political parties submitted such a plan to the Office for Equal Opportunities, while 7 others announced the adoption and submission of the plan during the first half of 2006 at the latest. However, 5 political parties informed the Office in writing that they did not have any intention of adopting such an action plan because they are committed to providing a balanced gender representation by their statutes. 19 political parties, among them one parliamentary party, have not responded to the written invitations of the Office and 9 of them even failed to collect the last letter that the Office sent to them in August 2005 against return receipt. The Office has not yet initiated any procedure for the imposition of a fine in relation to any of the political parties, because it estimates that the cooperation with political parties for the purpose of raising their awareness on the importance of a balanced representation of women and men in the bodies of a political party and in standing as candidates in elections is more beneficial than imposing sanctions. Moreover, several parties that have not responded to the recent written initiatives made by the Office for Equal Opportunities, operate only at a certain local level or else have a very limited membership and a weak structure, so that they do not hold regular meetings or else their decision-making bodies meet very rarely.

Women holding political decision-making positions

8 1 . In spite of the fact that the share of women on candidate lists of political parties for election to the National Assembly has been slowly increasing (in 1992 14.8 per cent of women, in 1996 18.6 per cent , in 2000 23.4 per cent and in 2004 24.9 per cent ), the success rate of women remains low. At the latest elections to the National Assembly in 2004, 11 women or 12.2 per cent of women were elected and after the final distribution of seats in the Assembly, the share of women members is 13.3 per cent and has not changed in comparison with the preceding mandate. The share of women is even lower in the National Council, where there are 3 women (7.5 per cent ) among 40 members after the last elections in 2002, which is even 2 women less than during the preceding mandate..

8 2 . In 2004, a research titled “ The 2004 Elections to the National Assembly from the perspective of representation of women and men ” was conducted following the latest elections to the National Assembly. The project covered the analysis of candidate lists, programmes and statutes of political parties from the perspective of ensuring equal gender opportunities, pre-election confrontations of candidates in the media, analysis of election outcomes and proposed measures for increased representation of women in the Parliament.

8 3 . Similarly as at the national level, the participation of women in political decision-making bodies is low also at the local level. The share of women candidates on the lists for the positions of councillors in the city and municipal councils has been slightly increasing (at the last elections in 2002, 21 per cent ), but the share of elected women councillors remains to be considerably lower than the share of their male counterparts. At the local elections in 2002, the share of elected women councillors was 13.1 per cent (in 1998, 11.7 per cent ) and of women mayors 6.2 per cent (in 1998, the percentage was 4.2). Considering the new developments introduced by the Act amending the Local Elections Act , it is possible to expect that the representation of women among the elected councillors and mayors will be higher each time the local elections take place.

8 4 . Based on the Local Self-Government Act , the Romas in the areas of the autochthonous residence of the Roma community have a representative instituted in the municipal council. Among 19 elected Roma councillors (in the 2002 elections), there is one Roma woman councillor or 5.2 per cent , respectively.

8 5 . At the 2004 elections, 3 women were elected to the European Parliament (the total number of the Slovenian members to the European Parliament is 7), as stated in paragraphs 9 of this Report. This 42.9 per cent representation of women considerably exceeds the average representation of women in the European Parliament.

Women in the Government

86 . The representation of women is also low in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia . After the last elections in 2004, there is only one female minister in the Government, accounting for 5.9 per cent , which is considerably less than after the elections in 2000, when there were three female ministers in the Government (a 20 per cent representation). The Secretary-General, heading the Government Secretariat-General, is a man, and among state secretaries there are four women, accounting for 22.2 per cent .

87 . Gender representation in governmental authorities and public administration bodies is slightly more balanced if compared to the representation in politics. In 2004, the share of women among senior administrative officers was 52 per cent , but there were fewer in the highest positions. The share of women among the officials appointed to mandate positions was 25.6 per cent , the highest share of women was among the heads of government offices (38.5 per cent ) and the lowest among the directors-general of directorates (13.3 per cent ).

88 . In 2004, the share of women in government bodies was 36.2 per cent , the lowest representation of women was in the government working bodies (11.3 per cent ) and slightly higher in government councils (35.7 per cent ) and government working groups (38.3 per cent ). The share of women among the representatives of Republic of Slovenia in international working bodies was 21.8 per cent . The situation was similar also with governmental representatives or representatives in public enterprises, shareholding companies and limited liability companies, where the share of women was 20.2 per cent . The proportion between the government representatives of both sexes in public enterprises was relatively balanced, with women accounting for 48.9 per cent ; the women were better represented than men in social welfare institutions (71.4 per cent of women) and social work centres (70.8 per cent of women).

Women in the judiciary

89 . The share of female judges in the judicial branch of power is higher in average than that of male judges and has been slightly increased during the recent years. The Supreme Court has 9 members, 4 of them are female constitutional court judges, accounting for 44.4 per cent ; a female judge holds the position of the vice-president of the Constitutional Court . In 2004, there were 70.5 per cent of women among all the judges. Their share is lowest at the Supreme Court (34.2 per cent ) and highest at the labour courts (83.3 per cent ) and local courts (77.2 per cent ). Although female judges predominate in the courts, except the Supreme Court and Higher Labour and Social Court, they are in positions of presidents of courts at 24 local courts (of the total of 44 local courts), at 6 district courts (of the total of 11 district courts) and at 2 labour courts (of the total of 3 labour courts). Women judges are also the presidents of a labour and social court, higher labour and social court and one of the four higher courts.

9 0 . Among state prosecutors, the share of women is slightly higher than the share of men. However, in the prosecutor’s office the share of women among senior staff gets lower the higher we rise up the hierarchy of the prosecutor’s office. At district state prosecutor’s offices the share of women among senior staff is 58 per cent and at the Supreme State Prosecutor General this share is 45 per cent . A woman also occupies the position of a State Prosecutor General.

Women in the economy, employers’ organizations and trade unions

9 1 . The number of women in leading positions in companies, social partners’ organizations and other associations and organizations is still low despite the fact that during the recent years, the share of women in highest positions has been growing. In 2003, there were 4 per cent of women (in 2000, there was none) among the presidents of management boards of the largest economic companies and entities, and 22 per cent among the members of management boards. Among the persons holding managerial positions there were 34 per cent of women. A hundred of the most successful enterprises and companies in Slovenia were headed by 99 male directors and 3 female directors.

9 2 . In all the major Slovenian confederations of trade unions a man occupies the presidential position. The survey of the managerial structure of trade unions that are members of confederations indicates that presidents are mostly men, while women slightly more frequently occupy the position of vice-president, but their share is still quite low.

9 3 . The situation is similar in the employers’ organizations (Association of Employers of Slovenia, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the Chamber of Craft of Slovenia), where there is no woman holding the highest position of a president. There are three female members (20 per cent ) in the Governing Board of the Association of Employers of Slovenia. In the management of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, only two positions out of five are held by women, i.e. the position of a vice-president and the position of a general secretary. The percentage of women among the directors of regional chambers of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia is 38.5 per cent . The management of the Chamber of Craft of Slovenia consists of men only, while there are 8 per cent of women among the presidents of the regional chambers of craft. Women predominate in holding positions of secretaries in the regional chambers of craft, accounting for 71 per cent .

Civil-society initiatives

9 4 . Already in the Third Report, we reported on the efforts of the Coalition for Establishing a Balanced Representation of Women and Men in Public Life . In the past years, the Coalition had an impact on the amendments of electoral legislation, whose aim was to provide a balanced representation of women and men in all elected bodies (see paragraph 5).

9 5 . In the period since the last reporting, the capacities of non-governmental organizations for encouraging a better participation of women in politics, particularly women from the vulnerable social groups, have been strengthened. Thus in June 2003, a regional centre for gender equality within the Stability Pact implemented a regional project “ Roma Women Can Do It ”, intended to encourage Roma women to participate more actively in the public and political life and in the network of non-governmental organizations for gender equality.

Article 8

W omen as government representatives in international organisations and in diplomacy

96 . In 2005, the diplomatic or consular representations of the Republic of Slovenia employed a total of 413 diplomats, out of which 205 or 49.6 per cent were women.

97 . The structure of diplomatic or consular representations by sex points at the imbalance with respect to hierarchy and positions. Among the ambassadors, there were 22.6 per cent of women: 38.6 per cent of female Ministers Plenipotentiary, one (20 per cent ) female Consul General and 62.1 per cent of female Minister Counsellors. With respect to the position of a Counsellor and Secretary, women prevailed in holding the position of the First Counsellor (75 per cent ) and Second Secretary (64 per cent ). Among administrative and technical staff, all posts of correspondents and administrative clerks were held by women, while the posts of security personnel and attendants - drivers were held by men.

98 . In supranational parliaments, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, women representation is as follows: In the European Parliament, there are 3 women (42.9 per cent ) out of 7 Slovenian members; in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the composition of a six-member Slovenian delegation (three representatives and three substitutes) consists of 4 women and 2 men. In the European Union Committee of the Regions, women represent 14.3 per cent out of 14 Slovenian members (7 representatives and 7 substitutes), while in the EU Economic and Social Committee, women make up 28.6 per cent (2 women) out of 7 representatives of the Republic of Slovenia .

Article 9

C itizenship

99 . Since the last report, there have been no legislative changes. The Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act does not differentiate between the sexes. The arrangement is uniform for women and men.

Article 10

E ducation

10 0 . The Organization and Financing of Education Act has brought no changes since the last report. The Act was adopted as early as 1996 and does not differentiate between the sexes. The educational objectives set forth in Article 2 of the said Act, among other things, identify also equal opportunities and gender equality:

guaranteeing optimum development to individuals regardless of their sex, social and cultural background, religion, nationality and physical and mental handicaps;

educating for mutual tolerance, developing the awareness on gender equality, respect for human diversity and mutual cooperation, respect for children's and human rights and fundamental freedoms, and fostering equal opportunities for both sexes and thereby developing the capacity to live in a democratic society.

10 1 . In June 2004, the National Assembly adopted the Resolution on the Master Plan for Adult Education in the Republic of Slovenia until 2010 . The Resolution is to provide access to information and counselling on learning possibilities for all adult groups and implementation of the gender equality principle. Sp ecial attention to equal opportunities in education is also devoted in the document on the development strategy in Slovenia , which was adopted by the Government in 2004.

Pre-school education and education in kindergartens

102. In the school year 2004/2005, 54,815 children or 61.4 per cent of all children of 1-6 years age were enrolled in kindergartens, which is by 4.6 percentage points more than in 2000. The number of children enrolled in departments of children with special education needs amounted to 465, out of which 152 or 32.7 per cent were girls. In the school year 2004/2005, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens increased by 300 in comparison with the previous year. The number of staff increased too, while the number of institutions and departments decreased. In comparison with 2001, the share of girls among children enrolled in kindergartens remains almost the same.

Primary and upper secondary school education

10 3 . In Slovenia , the gender structure of children in primary schools is levelled-out. Along with the 8-year primary school, gradual implementation of the 9-year primary school programme started in September 1999, according to which the school entering age is lowered to six as opposed to seven in the 8-year school programme. In the school year 2004/2005, all children entering school enrolled in the 9-year primary school and as of the school year 2008/2009 all primary school children will have been enrolled in the 9-year primary school.

1 04 . In the school year 2002/2003, 2,178 children were enrolled in primary schools with modified schedule and curriculum, out of which 789 or 36.2 per cent were girls.

1 05 . The gender structure of pupils enrolled in the upper secondary school education programmes is levelled-out. However, the differences in shares of boys and girls enrolled in individual upper secondary school programmes indicate that gender segregation in the upper secondary education system sill exists. Girls predominate in the field studies such as textiles, chemistry, pharmacy and rubber industry, economy, health, and education for teaching professions in the fields of social sciences, culture and personal services. Boys are primarily enrolled in education programmes focusing on areas of forestry, wood, construction industries, press and paper industry, electrical engineering and computer science, metallurgy and mechanical engineering, transport and communications and mining. Both sexes are equally represented only in three upper secondary school programmes, namely agro-food processing, catering and tourism and in general education programmes.

Two-year higher and higher education

1 06 . Data on students at universities and free-standing higher education institutions in recent years show that the number of young people who wish to continue education after completing upper secondary school is growing. In 2004, there were 91,229 students enrolled in higher education programmes, of which 54,163 or 59.4 per cent were women, while 12,621 students were enrolled in two-year higher education programmes, out of which 6,129 or 48.6 per cent were women.

1 07 . In 2004, there were no essential changes in relation to the choice of study. As in previous years, women still predominate in higher education and at faculties educating in the areas of health care, social work and pedagogic work. The share of female students appreciably exceeds the share of male students also in the areas of the social sciences, business studies, law, art and humanities. However, the share of male students substantially exceeds the share of female students in technical and science studies, mathematics and computer sciences. A similar situation exists also as regards the share of female graduates in individual study programmes.

1 08 . In 2004, among 1,056 students who obtained the title of a specialist and master 596 or 56.4 per cent were women, while among 355 doctors of science, 144 or 40.6 per cent were women.

Scholarships

1 09 . At the end of 2004, an average scholarship amounted to 35,100 SIT (approximately USD 180); among scholarship-holders were 36,675 pupils (35.9 per cent of pupils in regular schooling) and 24,016 students (21.3 per cent of enlisted students). Among all scholarship-holders were 33,187 or 54.7 per cent of women, out of which 18,743 or 51.1 per cent were female pupils and 14,444 or 60.1 per cent female students.

11 0 . Company scholarships were awarded to 7,077 or 11.7 per cent of all scholarship holders, national scholarships to 40,659 or 67 per cent of scholarship holders, Zois scholarships for talented pupils and students to 12,920 or 21.3 per cent of scholarship holders. All scholarship holders made up 37.7 per cent of female pupils and students, 44.3 per cent of women among students and 26.7 per cent of women among pupils. Between national and Zois scholarship holders, the percentage of women was higher (56.9 per cent ) given the fact that women accounted for 54.6 per cent of pupils and 63.8 per cent of students.

Lifelong learning

11 1 . I n 2004, the Resolution on the Master Plan for Adult Education in the Republic of Slovenia until 2010 was adopted, which is based on the lifelong learning concept. The Resolution notes that there are not enough programmes for adults with low education level, adults with special needs, members of ethnic minorities etc. Consequently, it is necessary to take special measures with respect to the education of vulnerable groups of adults, adults with special needs, population in the least developed regions and in areas suffering from depopulation, and immigrants. National plan is to provide access to information and counselling on learning possibilities for all groups of adults as well as the implementation of the gender equality principle.

11 2 . I n the year 2002/2003, programme for attaining education included 17.9 per cent of the population aged 15 or over, out of which women accounted for 51.9 per cent . Whereas further education included 19.3 per cent of the population aged 15 or over, out of which women accounted for 53.4 per cent . In comparison with men, women are more frequently included in two (59 per cent ), three (63.4 per cent ) or four or more educational activities (69.2 per cent ). Informal education was participated by 74.7 per cent of the population aged 15 or more, out of which 51.4 per cent were women. The most frequent forms of informal learning include learning via television, using audio-and videocassettes, professional literature, computer, visiting libraries and education centres.

11 3 . More than two thirds of the population aged 15 or over did not participate in attaining education nor did they attend further education. The reason stated most repeatedly was a lack of interest in learning (65.2 per cent ), out of which 52.8 per cent were women. As the most frequent reason for non-participating in any form of education, women, more often than men, state language difficulties (83.4 per cent ) and family responsibilities (79.5 per cent ); less frequent than men, women state reasons as excessive work load (34 per cent ) and lack of education (41.6 per cent ).

Article 11

E mployment

Women in the labour market

1 14 . The field of employment is regulated by the Employment Relationship Act , the Employment and Insurance Against Unemployment Act , the Pension and Disability Insurance Act , the Health Care and Health Insurance Act , the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Parenthood and Family Earnings Act , which were already presented in the Third Report of the Republic of Slovenia . During the period covered by the present report, no legislation changes occurred, which would have a special effect on the status of women.

1 15 . June 2004 saw the adoption of the Constitutional Act amending Article 50 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia , with which the Constitution grants the right to a pension. The first paragraph of Article 50, as amended, defines: "Citizens have the right to social security, including the right to a pension, under conditions provided by law."

1 16 . Already in the Third Report, Slovenia mentioned the adoption of the Employment Relationship Act , which entered into force on 1 January 2003, and Article 6 thereof, which prohibits direct or indirect forms of discrimination in employment and during the employment relationship. In the period 2003-2004, the Slovenian Labour Inspectorate noted 4 cases of violation of Article 6 (a total of 8 cases of violations); breach of a ban of discrimination on the grounds of sex was established in two of these cases, one in 2003 and one in 2004. In both cases, Article 25 of the Employment Relationship Act was violated, which prohibits the advertising of vacant posts only for men or only for women. In the case of 2003, the employer advertised two vacancies, stating (male) sex and specific age as conditions for employment. The penalty was imposed on the employer or his responsible person for committing an offence pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 229 of the Employment Relationship Act . Also in the case of 2004, the infringement was related to the advertisement of a job vacancy. In the advertisement, the employer made the job vacancy conditional upon the sex (male) and the age stipulated between 25 and 40. Proceedings against the employer as a legal person and against its responsible person were initiated.

1 17 . Labour inspectors established violations of the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of maternity, in the case of which the employers terminated the employment contract with pregnant women who returned from the child care leave, and with other women, who enjoy special protection owing to maternity. In individual cases, employers did not provide them with work or forced them to sign inadequate employment contracts. In 2004, labour inspectors did not establish any violations related to the postponement of maternity, imposed by the employer as a condition for the conclusion of employment contract. However, some cases of anonymous phone inquiries with inspectors were reported about the legitimacy of employment conditions imposing prohibition of pregnancy or maternity. Nor did inspectors establish any violations of the prohibition against performing certain work duties during pregnancy and breast-feeding, and of the obligation for the provision of breastfeeding breaks. In 2004, 5 cases of breaches of Article 190 of the Employment Relationship Act were established by the inspectors; in these cases, the employer imposed overtime or night work without prior written consent on pregnant female employees and on employees caring for children under the age of 3.

1 18 . The Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act , already presented in the Third Report, introduced a non-transferable father's right to paternity leave of up to 90 days, of which 15 days must be taken in the form of full-absence from work during the period of maternity leave of the mother; the remaining 75 days may be used in the form of full absence from work at any time before the child reaches 8 years of age. During the first 15 days of the paternity leave, a father is entitled to paternal allowance, while the Republic of Slovenia shall ensure him the payment of social security contributions from the minimum wage for the duration of 75 days.

1 19 . The right to paternity leave was introduced gradually. In 2003, fathers could take 15 days of paternity leave during the maternity leave of the mother, while in 2004, the 15-day right was extended by 30 days amounting in total to 45 days. Since 1 January 2005, this right has been granted for the period of 90 days. According to the data of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, this right was exercised by 10,972 fathers of children born in 2003, namely in the average duration of 8 days. In 2004, 12,667 beneficiaries took paternity leave with pertaining paternal allowance, which accounts for approximately 72 per cent share. The major drawback of existing arrangement is that for the duration of 75 days, which a father may take after the expiry of the mother's maternity leave, he is not entitled to receive paternal allowance, instead, he is eligible to the payment of contributions for social security from the minimum wage. Such an arrangement does not encourage fathers to take up the leave to the full extent. In 2004, 9 per cent of fathers took up the paternity leave without paternal allowance.

12 0 . Labour inspectors report that almost no notices were received with respect to the violations of the Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act . However, inspectors were often consulted when employees and employers sought information on how to enforce or ensure the rights provided under this Act.

12 1 . In 2004, the Office for Equal Opportunities financed a research entitled " Parents between work and family life ". The research study aimed to examine the effects of parenthood on professional work and on the employment and career opportunities of both parents, and to evaluate the trends towards the reconciliation of family and professional responsibilities in Slovenia . One of the goals in the research study included the proposal of potential policies or solutions for easier reconciliation of professional responsibilities and parenthood. The research has shown that prevailing patterns in taking care of the family are still traditionally divided by sex, taking into account that various forms of parental leave (with the exception of paternity leave) are significantly more used by mothers, while at the same time, women are still more involved in children upbringing than men. Parents frequently use institutional forms for care of children, which, according to parents, do not sufficiently meet the needs of employed parents. As regards parenthood, women have had more negative experience with respect to their employment and working post than men (such as job seeking, promotion, deterioration of the relationship with superiors).

12 2 . In 2005, the Office for Equal Opportunities participated in a European project under the Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality entitled " Men and Parenting - An Active Fatherhood " within the organisation of the Danish Department of Gender Equality. Within the framework of this project, a research was conducted " Prospects of new fatherhood in Slovenia : the influence of paternity leave on active fatherhood and parenthood ". The project aims at identifying the reasons and main barriers to active fatherhood in Slovenia . In addition to the research study, the objective of the project also included the awareness-raising to promote the active involvement of fathers in the lives of their children and to overcome existing gender stereotypes in the society. The awareness-raising campaign started in autumn 2005.

12 3 . In view of encouraging an equal sharing of parental responsibilities in childcare between women and men, it is important to take up parental leave and enforce the rights deriving from it, such as sharing 260 days of child care leave between two parents after the expiry of 105 days of maternity leave of the mother. In Slovenia , a childcare leave is most frequently used to the full extent by women. In 2003, among persons who used the right to the childcare leave, there were only 2.3 per cent of fathers. Nevertheless, there are indications of positive changes since, in previous years, the share of fathers did not exceed 1.0 per cent .

1 24 . The Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act introduced a parental right to part-time work until the child reaches three years of age. The results obtained by the research study " Parents Between Work and Family " show that, after the expiry of child care leave, 3 to 4 per cent of parents opt for part-time work, out of which 90 per cent are mothers. According to the data of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the right to part-time work owing to parenthood was exercised by about 10 per cent of beneficiaries.

1 25 . D ata on sick leave used for taking care of family members, children, the elderly or other persons in need indicate that such care rests primarily with women since their absence from work for this purpose is six times higher than men's. As the population is ageing, it is possible to anticipate that a substantial share of care for the elderly will fall on the family members. Consequently, further strategies will be necessary to prevent an increased burdening of women with family work.

1 26 . Pursuant to the Employment Relationship Act , 2003 saw the adoption of Rules on protection of health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding , binding the employer to perform risk assessment with respect to the nature, degree and duration of exposure as well as the nature and degree of risk to injury and health damage, and to set and implement appropriate safety measures for all works posing the risk to exposure to agents which may affect health of pregnant workers or workers who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding. In the compliance with the said Rules, a female worker has the right to paid time off for preventive medical examinations with respect to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, if such examinations cannot take place outside of working hours.

Employment

1 27 . The activity rate of the population and the employment rate have slightly increased during the last years. In 2004, the activity rate amounted to 59.0 per cent (of which 52.5 per cent were women and 65.9 per cent men), while the employment rate amounted to 55.3 per cent (of which 48.9 per cent were women and 62.0 per cent men). Among both women and men, the employment ratio is highest in the age group from 25-49 years (86.3 per cent with women and 84.3 with men in 2004).

1 28 . In 2004, women accounted for 45.9 per cent of persons in employment. Women predominated among family assistants, accounting for 58 per cent ; the share of women in employment was 47.3 per cent , while the self-employed women accounted for 27.9 per cent .

1 29 . The majority of persons in employment are full-time employed persons. Of the total number of persons in employment in 2004, 11 per cent of women and 7.9 per cent of men worked part-time. About 22 per cent of employed population regularly work also on Saturday and 13 per cent on Sunday, out of which the share of women is 44 per cent . In recent years, the rate of temporary employment has been increasing and is slightly higher among women. Of the total number of persons in employment in 2003, 14.9 per cent of women and 12.7 per cent of men were temporary employed. Frequent are also new forms of work. Among persons in employment, 5.4 per cent of them (6.1 per cent of women and 4.8 per cent of men) telework, that is to say, work from home.

13 0 . Over the past years, there has been a steady decrease in the share of self-employed women and men. In 2004, the share of self-employed persons among the working population was 9.8 per cent , out of which women accounted only for one quarter. Among persons in employment, the share of family assistants amounted to 5.7 per cent , out of which women accounted about 60 per cent .

13 1 . Labour market analyses confirm the existence of vertical and horizontal sex-based segregation in the labour market. Data for 2004 indicate that the share of women in the highest ranking and best paid positions (senior official and management positions and legislators) amounts to only one third (33.3 per cent ) even though, on average, women attain higher level of education than men. As regards the occupation, the representation of women is above average in professions such as officials (65.3 per cent ), services and sales workers (63.8 per cent ), specialists (60.2 per cent ), while the least represented by women are occupations in non-industrial jobs (8.2 per cent ).

13 2 . As regards the activity, women prevail among labour employed in the service activities (55.3 per cent ), in particular in the fields of health and social assistance, education, financial intermediation as well as in catering and tourism. In non-agricultural industries, the share of women amounts to one third of the total number of the persons employed, with the construction sector employing the fewest women.

13 3 . The data for 2002 show that, on average, women earn 9.5 percentage points less than men with equal level of professional qualifications. On average, women in Slovenia in companies, businesses and organisations according to the level of professional skills earned 90.5 per cent of the pay of men. In comparison with 2000, when women's average earnings had been by 12.2 per cent less than men's, the gender gap pay was reduced by 2.7 percentage points. In 2002, the widest gap was among persons with vocational qualifications (23.7 per cent ) and the narrowest among persons who attained the academic title of 'Doctor' (7.8 per cent ).

Unemployment

1 34 . Since 2004, there has been a marked fall in unemployment; however, the unemployment rate of women has increased. In recent years, the share of women among all unemployed has been increasing and amounted to 53.1 per cent in 2004. The restructuring of industrial sectors, such as textile, leather and footwear industry, has affected mostly women, representing the majority of the employed in these industries.

1 35 . In 2004, the rate of surveyed unemployment amounted to 6.4 per cent among women and 5.7 per cent among men, and the rate of registered unemployment 12.4 per cent among women and 9.1 per cent among men. The major gender gap emerged in the unemployment of young people aged 15 to 24: in 2004, the unemployment rate of young women (18 per cent ) was almost by 7 percentage points higher than that of young men (11.2 per cent ), and, among unemployed job seekers and first-time job seekers with high education, the share of women amounted to 75 per cent . A decrease in unemployment rate resulted also in a downturn of long-term unemployed. In the period from 2004 to 2005, the number of people who were registered as unemployed for more than one year dropped by 16.7 per cent . On the contrary, the share of women among long-term unemployed in the period from 2000 to 2004 rose by 2.8 percentage points, namely from 51.3 to 54.1 per cent .

1 36 . Education is one of the factors that affect employment opportunities. The unemployed with higher education level usually secure employment more easily, even though the situation in recent years has changed due to the increasing inflow of graduates in the labour market. The main field of study is becoming ever more important and, often, employers require work experience. Among the registered unemployed are mostly persons with low education level or with the field of education for which there is no demanded in the labour market. More than one third of registered unemployed have not completed their primary school with the share of women among them amounting to 50 per cent in 2004. The largest share of the unemployed women constitutes women with high education level (63.6 per cent ) and those with lower vocational education (63.3 per cent ).

1 37 . Data on the age structure of registered unemployed show that the unemployment rate of young persons grows year by year. At the end of 2002, the unemployment rate was highest among persons aged from 40 to 50 (23.5 per cent ), while in 2004, the trend reversed, and the share of unemployed was highest among persons aged from 18 to 25 (22.5 per cent ). Among registered unemployed persons, women predominate in the age group above 25-30 years and above 35-40 years.

Measures to achieve gender equality in the labour market and in employment

1 38 . The Third Report presented the National Programme on the Development of Labour Market and Employment by 2006 along with the measures adopted in the National Programme, aimed at guaranteeing equal opportunities for men and women in the labour market as well as at the reconciliation of professional and family life. Measures stated in the National Programme are being implemented through action programmes for employment and active employment policy programmes drawn up on a yearly basis. Since 2004, all programmes of active employment policy have been integrating gender equality through horizontal approach. This means that within each measure there is a specified proportion of women who must be included in such a measure, and that women are one of the basic target groups in terms of which the success and effectiveness of measures are measured. Moreover, women are also considered to be within the group of more difficult to employ persons, to whom special attention is devoted.

1 39 . The report on the implementation of measures for active employment policy for 2003 shows that at least 50 per cent of women were included in all the measures, while the largest share (66 per cent ) of women was included in the programme to promote part-time employment. The assessment of the impact of the application of active employment policy programme for 2004 shows that unemployment in 2004 fell on average, however, the share of unemployed women grew (from 52.4 per cent in 2003 to 52.7 per cent in 2004) as well as the share of first time job seekers (from 25.5 to 26.1 per cent ). In 2005, the active employment policy programmes give priority to a 50 per cent inclusion of women in the measures and activities and to the inclusion of women in self-employment activities.

14 0 . The full membership to the European Union entitled Slovenia in the period 2004 - 2006 to draw on financial resources from the European Structural funds. The Single Programming Document of the Republic of Slovenia 2004–2006 provides a plan for implementing measures and activities to be co-financed through structural funds. The document includes equal opportunities among horizontal priorities. The gender equality principle must be taken into account in all measures and activities of the programme document, namely in the planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects. In accordance with Slovenia 's commitment to implementing horizontal policy of equal opportunities, defined in tasks of the Single Programming Document, the Ministry for Labour, Family and Social Affairs drew up guidelines for gender mainstreaming in structural funds.

14 1 . A part of the funding that Slovenia draws on from the European Social Fund has been earmarked for implementing the programmes within the framework of Community Initiative Programme (CIP) EQUAL 2004-2006, aimed at the elimination of different types of discrimination, including multiple discrimination (based on ethnic origin, sex etc.). Gender mainstreaming is defined as horizontal policy or strategy to be used in the programme under Initiative EQUAL. Two thematic fields under Initiative EQUAL have been devoted exclusively to guaranteeing equal opportunities for women and men:

Thematic Field 7: Reconciliation of family and professional life, as well as the re-integration of men and women who have left the labour market, by developing more flexible and effective forms of work organisation and support services;

Thematic Field 8: Reducing gender gaps and supporting job desegregation.

Within the period from 2004 to 2008, Slovenia will focus on thematic field 8, in the framework of which measures and activities to combat discrimination in employment and to promote participation of women in the labour market will be supported.

14 2 . In the Social Agreement for the Period 2003 – 2005 , equal opportunities are particularly identified among the tasks of social partners. The provision of equal opportunities and respect for differences are highlighted also in the proposal of the Social Agreement for the Period 2006 – 2008 . The tasks of the Government related to gender equality referred to in the Social Agreement for the Period 2003 – 2005 as well as in the proposal of the Social Agreement for the Period 2003 -2008 include:

ensuring equal opportunities for women and men by developing measures for preventing, detecting and eliminating direct discrimination of women and men in the labour market;

ensuring equal opportunities for women and men by adopting measures in order to provide special support to women in establishing their own companies, to increase the participation of women in programmes of education and training, and to reduce segregation and inequalities in incomes;

guaranteeing the implementation of the Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act and therein envisaged positive measures as a tool to promote the process leading to substantive gender equality and elimination of hidden discrimination;

encouraging companies to pay special attention to families with dependant family members (children, the elderly and other needy members), among other things, also via the action " Family-Friendly Company ";

adopting measures for encouraging fathers to take up paternity leave and for distribution of the child care leave between both parents, as well as for even distribution of absence from work due to taking care of a sick family member;

promoting equal opportunities for women and men, particularly in the field of upbringing and education, labour market and employment, and the reconciliation of professional and family life.

Article 12

H ealth of women

14 3 . Since the Third Report, the Health Care and Health Insurance Act has been amended, regulating health insurance of farmers, members of their holdings as well as other persons pursuing agricultural activities in the Republic of Slovenia as the sole or principal occupation. The amendment is presented in more detail in the part of report on implementing Article 14 of the Convention . (See paragraph 179 of this Report.)

Health protection of women

Reproductive health

1 44 . Slovenia adopted measures to reduce the maternal mortality rate, which was recommended by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its Consideration of the Second and Third Report of the Republic of Slovenia . A Working Group was set up to discuss the cases of maternal death and which is preparing the report on maternal mortality in the last period, with recommendations for professional clinical and public health measures in the field of reproductive health. Preliminary data for 2001 and 2002 show that the maternal mortality rate in Slovenia has significantly reduced. A five-year average mortality rate for the period 1998 – 2002 amounts to 12,5/100.000 live births. (See paragraph 159 of this Report.)

1 45 . In Slovenia, there has been a long tradition of active health care for the entire population, which is above all evident from preventive programmes, drawn up and implemented for various groups of the population. It is common for all preventive healthcare activities that they are equally accessible to all Slovenian citizens, given they are fully financed from compulsory health insurance. The National programme of the Republic of Slovenia for health care from 2000 set a special measure aimed at promoting sexual and reproductive health as the third priority goal. This measure was implemented through a programme for healthy sex practice, including three areas: sex education, family planning and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. The fourth priority goal consisted of a special measure aimed at studying adverse effects on the health of individual group of inhabitants, with emphasis on pregnant women.

1 46 . The majority of priority tasks in the field of health protection of adults is related to reproductive health. The approach to reproductive health of inhabitants in Slovenia is comprehensive and implemented in different fields:

development of cross-sector planning for the protection of reproductive health (cooperation of various government sectors and NGOs);

protection of reproductive health (active health care, implementation of preventive programmes and promotion of the enhanced health care with emphasis on higher-risk groups, improving cervical cancer detection in the period before pre-pregnancy as well as in prenatal, perinatal and postnatal periods, national programme for organised breast cancer screening);

reinforcing health education in the field of reproductive health promotion and protection (providing healthy lifestyle, fulfilling and safe sexual practice and responsible parenthood, providing information, education and preventive programme for responsible and voluntary decision-making on sexual life and birth of children, accessibility to expanded choice of contemporary methods for family planning and other choice of fertility regulating methods, awareness-raising among teenagers and children on various types of abuse).

1 47 . In Slovenia , preventive programmes for family planning in the field of reproductive health, which are accessible to all women or future parents, are running in the following areas:

Preventive programmes for family planning . They encompass examinations and counselling on effective family planning, the use of contraceptives, the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and consequential infertility.

Preventive programmes for safe pregnancy. Prescribed is a minimum level of care for individual pregnant women and neonatal mothers, comprising a total of 10 preventive examinations during pregnancy, individual health educating counselling, two ultra-sound examinations, laboratory tests, screening for toxoplasmosis, screening tests for Dawn's syndrome for pregnant women aged over 35. The programme includes also examinations and counselling after childbirth, spontaneous and permitted terminations of pregnancy and extra-uterine pregnancies, preventive nurse home visits to pregnant women, newborns and their mothers, and in cases, where women have not decided on their personal gynaecologist yet.

Preventive programme for the prevention of cervical cancer. Due to the complexity of this project, the National Cervical Screening Programme , ZORA , was officially launched in 2002. The purpose of the programme was to actively invite all women aged between 20 to 74 to a gynaecological examination with a PAP test. The same examination is made available to women aged between 65 and 74, who are not actively invited. After two years of its application, the programme started to yield positive results. The share of women in the age group between 20 to 74, who decided to have their personal gynaecologist, increased by 20 per cent (average of 80 per cent ) due to an easier and organised access to gynaecologists. Consequently, the share of those who underwent the examination with PAP test has also increased. Access to a gynaecologist has improved for all age groups, mostly for women aged over 50.

Preventive programme for breast cancer screening. Mammography screening for breast cancer has been carried out for some years throughout Slovenia . It is intended for women aged between 50 - 69 and for women aged between 40 - 49 who have a family history of breast cancer. Women within limited age (according to the international standards setting the age when women are entitled to mammography screening) have the right to a clinical examination of breast every two years, the costs being covered by compulsory health insurance. June 2004 saw the adoption of the national programme for phased introduction of organised mammography screening for early detection of breast cancer. The organised screening programme is to include women of the same age groups, who will be invited to an examination since our purpose is that all women become acquainted with the possibility of examination rather than only those who take better care of their health.

Preventive programme for prescribing hormone replacement therapy during perimenopause and after menopause . The programme includes guidance on counselling and prescribing hormone replacement therapy.

Programmed health education and health promotion in primary health protection of women . The programme encompasses guidance to encourage healthy physical, mental and sexual development, responsible parenthood, to build the capacity of people to prevent diseases and to react to health problems. The programme ensures quality information and the capacity of target groups of the population.

Antenatal health education - School for Parents . This programme includes guidance to achieve optimum level of perinatal health of pregnant women and their partners and for particularly high-risk groups of pregnant women (young persons, pregnant women with social and health risks).

1 48. N ational Programme of Physical Activity to Promote Health is in the adoption procedure and, among other things, defines strategic policy and Government tasks for target groups of women and pregnant women with a view to mitigating risk factors for the development of diseases associated with pregnancy. Resolution on National Nutrition Policy Programme for 2005 - 2010 , adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia in March 2005, among other things, defines national goals and measures in the areas of healthy nutrition, healthy lifestyle and health education for women in pregnancy, postpartum and lactation periods.

1 49 . In 2002, the outpatient clinic for persons without health insurance was up and running in the capital of the Republic of Slovenia . General and numerous specialist outpatient clinics and consultation rooms are intended to visits of all persons without health insurance, free of charge. Outpatient clinics provide health services for homeless people, aliens, asylum seekers, refugees and other persons without health insurance. In addition to the outpatient clinic, there are also consultation rooms for general issues, children, pregnant women and diabetics. In 2003, 8,101 persons visited the outpatient clinic; the most frequent visitors being persons with serious chronic illnesses, pregnant women, persons with chronic hypertension, vascular diseases and cancer.

15 0 . Reproductive health care in the Republic of Slovenia is organized at various levels: primary, secondary and tertiary level. At primary level (community health care centre), an operating team, which consists of a gynaecologist, senior midwife and medical nurse or health care technician, provides a full range of reproductive health services for women (women's health care clinic). In Slovenia , women are seen by gynaecology specialists already on the level of primary healthcare activities. Prior to the introduction of the organized screening programme for cervical cancer, ZORA , the share of examined women amounted to 20-30 per cent . As a result of the low share of women in preventive programmes for reproductive health care, the share of curative visits to gynaecologists and the rate of cervical cancer morbidity were so much higher. In 2002, the number of visits in the primary health care of women grew by 12.7 percentage points and the number of preventive visits by 2 percentage points. The increased number of visits is largely due to the above stated organised approach to implementing preventive programmes for early detection of precancerous changes of the cervix, breast cancer and changed preventive treatment of pregnant women . In 2002, the number of visits for contraceptive consultation increased, which is due to the new arrangement stipulating that the prescriptions are made out for not more than 3 months in advance. Also encouraging is the information that the number of referrals to specialists at the secondary level has been in constant decrease (4.9 per cent of treated women) as well as the number of referrals to further treatment in hospitals (3.2 per cent of treated women). The highest rate of referrals to secondary treatment includes preventive or curative mammography, followed by referrals to childbirth and treatment related to the permitted or spontaneous abortion.

15 1 . With regard to the above-mentioned good access of women to gynaecologists already at the primary level, also the access to contraceptives for women among all age groups is rated well.

15 2 . The most recent research on sexual behaviour of Slovenian upper secondary school pupils indicate the age of 17 to be the average age for the first sexual intercourse. The most frequent contraceptive method among sexually active upper secondary school pupils is the use of condoms (49 per cent ), followed by contraceptive pills (32 per cent ), pills and condoms (4 per cent ), withdrawal method/coitus interruptus (4 per cent ), and other methods (4 per cent ). Seven per cent of secondary school girls and boys do not use any contraceptive method. In comparison with 1996, the use of oral contraceptives increased from 14 to 32 per cent , while the incidence of unprotected sexual intercourse dropped from 19 to 7 per cent . In the Republic of Slovenia, we notice that, owing to the access to reproductive health care to all women, irrespective of age, permitted abortions among young girls has been in decrease: at the end of nineties the abortion rate was close to 12/1,000, and in 2002, it stood at 9/1,000 of young girls. In reducing the abortion rate of young girls and early motherhood, a significant role is given to sexual education in primary and upper secondary schools in pursuance of enhanced knowledge and skills along with the ability of self-control, quality information and interpersonal relations as well as forming healthy (contemporary) viewpoints and beliefs that young people need for informed and responsible decision-making on their sexuality. Within the framework of health care, education, including sexual health counselling, is organised also for young girls and boys, who abandon official forms of education. Information on sex and counselling on contraceptive methods are available to young girls and boys also free of charge through telephone line of the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth.

Morbidity and mortality of women and maternal mortality

15 3. In 2004, the infant mortality rate stood at 3.7/1,000 live births, which ranks Slovenia among countries with the lowest infant mortality rate. In the last years, the number of live births annually in the Republic of Slovenia was between 17,000 and 18,000 on average. In 2000, 5 women died during pregnancy, the intrapartum and postpartum period (maternal mortality), in 2001 there were 3, while in 2002 and 2003, no maternal death has been recorded.

1 54 . Data from the Cancer Registry of Slovenia show that the morbidity and mortality rate of cervical cancer reached its peak in 1997 (23.1/100,000 women) despite the fact that regular gynaecological examinations were made available to all women. This was a strong argument for the introduction of an organized screening programme including active invitations to women. The data on recent years indicate a decline in morbidity. In 2000, 201 women fell ill (19,7/100.000). In 2002, there were 186 reported cases of illness and 181 in 2003.

1 55 . Breast cancer morbidity has gradually increased and in the past years its rate has been around 91.2/100,000. This information is worrying, in particular as this is a specific type of cancer, which can be early detected by examining the overall population of women. Consequently and as mentioned in paragraph 153, the Republic of Slovenia decided to introduce an organised screening to replace the existing one in the entire territory of Slovenia .

1 56 . Morbidity and mortality of population constitute an important health indicator. In the Republic of Slovenia , the access to general medical practitioners is good and equally accessible to women and men. Data on mortality of adult population illustrate that circulatory diseases are the leading cause of death among men and women. On average, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases among women is 10 years later than among men. With women, brain blood vessel diseases and heart diseases are in the second place. Among women aged under 65, the second and third common cause of death is breast cancer, followed by alimentary tract cancer. Gender gaps also exist in the use of health care services, since women use primary level health care service more often than men. Major gender gaps are reflected also as regards the use of medications prescribed at outpatient clinics or the frequency of prescribing medications. In 2002, women were prescribed 61.7 per cent of all medications. Curative treatment at primary level health care in the entire state includes also the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, fully financed from funds allocated for basic health care insurance, and is, thus, free of charge for all users. Within this preventive programme, preventive examinations of the entire population within specific age are conducted on a regular basis by a chosen physician and on the basis of which, risk assessment is made as of the risk level of an individual for the development of cardiovascular diseases. According to the level of risk, appropriate steps are taken. In this area, health care centres provide a range of health education activities, equally accessible to all male and female inhabitants in Slovenia .

1 57 . Various research studies have shown that socio-economic factors have an important effect on the cause of death and on the age-standardized premature mortality (before the age of 65) . The cardiovascular disease mortality rate is higher among women who have not completed primary school, while the breast cancer mortality rate is higher among women with higher education. Individuals with the lowest level of education seek primary health care help less frequently and are more frequently hospitalised, which indicates the fact that they seek medical help only when their disease has further advanced .

Mental health of women

1 58. Mental health disorders that affect women are depression, anxiety and psychosomatic diseases. 10 - 25 per cent of women suffer from depression at least once in a lifetime. The share of women seeking primary health care due to mental and behavioural disorders is higher than that of men's (61.7 per cent of women in 2002), while the share of men, in comparison with women, is somewhat higher in hospital treatment and continues to increase every year. There is an increase in the use of medications for relieving and treating mental disorders and, compared to men, more prescriptions are handed out to women.

1 59 . S lovenia ranks among the first ten countries in the world with the highest suicide rate, exceeding 25 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The share of men in suicides is four times higher than that of women; on the other hand, the suicide attempt rate is higher among women.

16 0 . Similar to other countries, also Slovenia deals with many problems associated with different types of eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating), called women's disease since women account for 90 per cent of cases; the incidence of eating disorders is most frequent among women aged between 15 and 25. According to the assessment of experts in anorexia, 1 per cent of women aged between 12 and 25 suffer from anorexia. In the last years, the age limit of people suffering from this disease has been declining. Women account for 95 per cent of anorexia cases. The incidence of bulimia is more spread and it affects up to 5 per cent of the population, out of which women account for 80 to 90 per cent . The most frequent eating disorder is compulsive overeating, which affects around 12 per cent of the population; its incidence is frequent in early and middle adulthood, out of which women account for 90 per cent of cases.

Sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and HIV

16 1. The most common sexually transmitted infections in Slovenia are chlamydial infections, gonorrhoea, non-specific urethritis, genital herpes and genital warts; syphilis cases occur as well. Occurrence of gonorrhoea infection among female is lower than among men (10.7 % cases in 2002), while chlamydial infection is slightly more common in women (56.7 % cases in 2001).

16 2 . All Slovenian residents may take a free HIV test that is equally accessible to both, women and men. Once a week, an outpatient clinic operates within the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Ljubljana offering anonymous and free testing to all. From 1986, when the first two cases were registered, to 30 June 2005, there were in total 119 registered cases of AIDS, 15 in women and 104 in men (two were in children, one girl and one boy). In the same period, we registered a total of 139 cases of infection with HIV where AIDS had not yet developed, namely in 108 males, 26 females, three boys (two haemophilic) and two girls. At the moment, at least 130 persons with detected HIV infection who have not developed AIDS and 43 female and male patients with AIDS are supposed to live in Slovenia . Most likely, the number of HIV infected persons is higher than indicated by the number of registered cases, as the scope of testing is relatively small in comparison with other European countries (1.1 test per 100 residents in 2004). In the first half of 2005 there were 16 registered cases of detected infection, 3 in females and 13 in men.

Programmes for raising awareness of women

16 3 . Since the Third Report, numerous activities have been carried out aimed at raising awareness in the area of women's health. Within the ZORA programme, the Institute of Oncology issued in 2003 a fold-out titled " You, too, should take a gynaecological examination! ". To celebrate World Health Day, the Institute of Public Health organized a congress under a slogan " For every mother and every child ", in which the Office for Equal Opportunities took part. At that occasion the Institute issued a " Guide through rights of pregnant women "; in 2004, the Institute issued a booklet " Beyond smile: post-natal depression " with the information on how to identify post-natal depression, where to seek help and how to treat it.

1 64 . The non-governmental organisations play an important role in awareness raising. Europa Donna, working since 1997, is an association most active in fighting breast cancer. The main objective of this non-governmental organisation is to provide equal opportunities and conditions regarding early detection of the disease and immediate effective treatment to all women in Slovenia . In order to achieve this objective the association carries out activities concerning information, counselling, further education, modernisation of medical equipment and the provision of support to women in need or at the threshold of poverty due to their illness.

Article 13

O ther areas of economic and social life

1 65 . I n December 2003, the Social Assistance Act was amended granting the right to a family assistant to adult persons with severe mental development disorder and to adult physically handicapped persons who need assistance with all basic life needs. The family assistant can be a person with the same permanent residence as the disabled person or one of family members of the disabled person. The 2004 data show that 58  per cent of family assistants were women.

1 66 . Data on cash social assistance disbursed under the Social Assistance Act show that the number of applicants of both sexes is growing; the proportion of female recipients of the cash social assistance is increasing as well. In January 2003, there were 45,922 cash social assistance recipients (out of which 49.2 % were women), in December 2003 there were 57,742 recipients (out of which 53.3 % were women), and in December 2004 the number was 62,256 (out of which 54.4 % were women).

1 67 . The Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act was presented in the Third Report. In 2004, the number of children entitled to child allowance was 383,570. In the same year, the monthly average of persons entitled to parental salary reimbursement was 16,032; parental allowance was granted to 2,806 persons. In 2005, the amount of minimum income giving entitlement to cash social assistance came to 46,981 SIT (approximately 235 USD) for a single person and the first adult person in the family, to 32,887 SIT (approximately 165 USD) for each subsequent adult person in the family and to 14,094 (approximately 70 USD) for a child; the increase for single parent families amounted to 14,094 SIT (approximately 70 USD).

1 68 . In July 2004, Slovenia adopted a National Action Plan on Social Inclusion – NAP (2004 – 2006), which implements the social inclusion policy already defined in a Programme to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion from 2000 and in a Joint Inclusion Memorandum – JIM from 2003 signed by Slovenia and the European Commission.

1 69 . The risk-of-poverty rate , account taken of the income in cash and in kind, amounted to 9.9  per cent in 2002 (8.5 % for men and 11.2 % for women) that is a 1.4 percentage point lower than in 2000. Analyses of poverty and social exclusion reveal gender differences within individual groups facing higher risk of poverty and social exclusion (certain groups of handicapped, young unemployed, Roma's, single-parent family members, victims of violence, older people etc.). The greatest difference is shown between people over 65 (the risk-of-poverty rate is 24.1 % for women and 10.8 % for men) and between men and women living in single households (the risk-of-poverty rate for women living in single household is 38.7 % and for men 30.5 %). Households facing poverty risk higher than Slovenian average are single-parent families with at least one dependent child (17.2 %); most single-parent families are single-mother families (86 %). However, data show that the level of risk of single-parent families has decreased over recent years (in the period 2000 – 2006 it decreased by 3.9 percentage points). The unemployed (37.5 % women and 39.3 % men) and female and male tenants (21.4 % women and 18.3 % men) also face a higher risk of poverty. In the period 2000 – 2002, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for female tenants increased by 4.6 percentage points.

17 0 . As regards participation of women in recreational activities and in cultural life, the data for 2000/2001 show that women spent much less time on culture, sports, hobbies and social life than men (women 39 minutes and men one hour and 2 minutes).

17 1 . A 2004 Eurostat survey showed that Slovenian women aged 20 to 74 years spend on average one hour and 5 minutes less on leisure time than men of the same age (women 4:26; men 5:34). Likewise, employed women spend one hour and 1 minute less on leisure time than employed men (women 3:51; men 4:52).

Article 14

R ural women

17 2 . In line with the recommendations of the Committee regarding rural women, in particular older ones, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food is preparing a national programme on gender mainstreaming and inclusion of different age and social groups in agriculture and rural development in co-operation with the FAO and the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana . One of the anticipated results is the establishment of national expert network facilitating the exchange of experience, knowledge and good practice in the field of gender mainstreaming in the agriculture and rural development strategies.

17 3 . Since the Third Report, the Health Care and Health Insurance Act has been amended so as to include farmers and members of their holdings as well as other persons pursuing agricultural activities in the Republic of Slovenia as the sole or principal occupation. The 2003 amendment specified persons deemed as insured persons, namely the farmers, members of their holdings and other persons pursuing agricultural activities as the sole or principal occupation in the Republic of Slovenia, generating income from such activities and, on this basis, covered by the compulsory pension and disability insurance or covered by such insurance on voluntary basis; farmers, members of their holdings and other persons pursuing agricultural activities in the Republic of Slovenia as the sole or principal occupation who are not covered by the pension and disability insurance are also deemed as insured persons, provided that the agricultural holding generates per member of the holding and per month a cadastral or other income amounting to at least 25  per cent minimum wage less taxes and contributions. All persons who pursue agricultural activities within the holding as their sole or principal occupation are deemed as members of the agricultural holding.

1 74 . A 2002 survey on rural women in Slovenia showed that younger rural women differ significantly from the entire women rural population as regards their productive activities. According to the 2000 Census of agricultural holdings (presented in the Third Report), 30  per cent of all women living and working in agricultural holdings also pursue activities in other sectors and only 13  per cent make a living by farming. Out of all women aged 20 to 50 participating in the survey only 8  per cent stated agricultural activity as their main source of income. Out of the same group 64  per cent of women aged 30 to 50 are employed outside the holding. 2 per cent of women from this group are entrepreneurs. The rest of women in the sample have the following main income: 5  per cent different compensations, 6  per cent scholarships, 13  per cent do not have any independent source of income (half are students, one third unemployed, the rest are housewives).

1 75 . The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia reports that the most recent available data, collected in spring 2005, show that on average a rural woman is 50 years old, has completed primary school, cultivates (together with other members of the household) on average 6.3 ha of farm land and rears 6.6 livestock units spending 42 hours per week on such work. In addition to time spent on cultivating farmland and rearing livestock, a rural woman younger than 45 years cares for 1.3 child on average. As to the formal status of rural women in Slovenia , three quarters are housewives and pensioners. Less than one-third of younger women (aged 45 or younger) working in agriculture are housewives and less than one-fifth are unemployed. The above-mentioned statuses are intertwined since a lot of unemployed persons in rural areas help on the family holdings while seeking employment. Data on educational level of women working in agricultural activities show that two-thirds of them have completed or not completed primary education; over one-third acquired upper secondary education. Younger women employed in agriculture are better educated; one-third of them have completed primary education, while two-thirds acquired upper secondary education. Younger women express higher educational aspirations; one-fourth is in regular schooling, but they attend clubs, seminars, courses etc. less frequently, probably due to lack of time.

1 76 . Among rural women Roma women right to adequate standard of living, particularly the right to appropriate housing is particularly affected; according to some data almost half of Roma families still live in inappropriate living conditions (no electricity and tap water). In its Decision from October 2004, the Republic of Slovenia decided that Roma living conditions as well as education and employment have to be afforded special attention and support from state resources. The Republic of Slovenia endeavours to actively address the Roma issue in all areas, in particular by improving economic and social status of Roma people. Some of the more important activities include an invitation to tender for funding basic public infrastructure planning in Roma settlements (issued by the Ministry of the Economy in 2002) and an invitation to tender for co-financing basic public infrastructure in Roma settlements issued in September 2004 by the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Regional Development and Preservation of the Settlement of Slovene Rural Areas. In July 2005, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia also adopted an Implementing programme to assist municipalities in planning the minimum necessary public infrastructure in Roma settlements in 2005. The Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy will issue each year a new call for the application of projects within the yearly Implementing programme to assist municipalities in planning the minimum necessary public infrastructure in Roma settlements.

Article 15

E quality before the law

1 77 . There has been no change in the implementation of this Article in the reference period.

Article 16

M arriage and family relations

1 78 . As regards marriage and family relations, the following acts have been amended since the Third Report: the Public Guarantee and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia Act – its proposal was presented in the Third Report, the Marriage and Family Relations Act and the Penal Code . The Registration of a Same Sex Partnership Act was adopted.

1 79 . Amendments to the Marriage and Family Relations Act entered into force in May 2004 regulating in greater detail particularly the parents-children relation; it also shifted the power of decision from the social work centres to the courts. The current arrangements enable parents who live separately or are divorced to decide that children live with one of them or that some children are entrusted to the care and upbringing of one parent and other children to the care and upbringing of the other parent. They may also agree that they both stay involved in the care and upbringing of children (joint custody). Parents can decide on joint custody only by mutual consent; if they cannot reach the agreement, the decision is taken by the court, which may not decide to entrust the children to both of them – it can only entrust all the children to the care and upbringing of one parent or place some children with one and other children with the other parent or entrust them to care and upbringing of a third person. The amended Act regulates in greater detail the right of a child to contacts with both parents if they live separately; in addition, the amendment defines the right of a child to stay in contact with other persons who are family related and have a close personal bond with the child. The amended Act also regulates the exercising of parental rights and the child maintenance.

18 0 . By the 2004 amendment to the Penal Code the offence of avoiding payment of the maintenance was amended and supplemented (Article 203). By the entry into force of the amended Article, the "avoidance" of payment of maintenance need not be proved; the non-payment itself is sufficient, regardless of the fact that the liable person is capable of paying. If the avoidance of payment of maintenance should threaten the subsistence of the beneficiary or in cases where the liable person avoids the payment of maintenance, a new grading of this offence is determined providing for the more severe sentence up to three years in prison.

18 1 . In July 2005, the Registration of a Same Sex Partnership Act was adopted; it defines procedure and conditions to register a same-sex partnership, legal consequences of the registration, method of its termination and relations between partners after the termination of the registered same-sex partnership. By virtue of the registration of the partnership, the partners have the right to subsistence and maintenance, the right to joint property and regulation of property relations within the partnership, the housing right, the right to inherit a part of joint property from the deceased partner, and the right to obtain information about the health condition of the sick partner as well as to visit him or her in healthcare institutions. The Act does not regulate relations and rights of the same-sex partners to an equal extent as provided for by the Marriage and Family Relations Act in respect of heterosexual partners. The Registration of a Same Sex Partnership Act does not allow partners to adopt a child. It also restricts inheritance rights, i.e. the partner has a right to inherit a part of joint property (the part acquired through work during their relationship) but does not have a right to inherit other property of her or his partner.

18 2 . The area of family life in Slovenia shares socio-demographic similarities and developments with the rest of Europe . Next to the "traditional" families of married couples with children there is a growing number of single-parent families, reconstituted or reorganized families, cohabitations and same-sex partnerships.

18 3 . The 2002 Population Consensus showed the number of 555,945 families in Slovenia , indicating a 12,000 or 2.2  per cent growth compared with 1991. Single-parent families make up almost one fifth of all families and are predominantly single-mother families, representing 86  per cent of all single-parent families. In the 2002 Population Consensus 23  per cent of families had no children, an average family consisted of 3.1 members and 86.7  per cent of Slovenia 's inhabitants were included in families. The prevailing family type was a nuclear family composed of married couples with children (53 %); couples with children living in cohabitation represented 5.3  per cent .

1 84 . The number of children born out of wedlock in Slovenia is increasing; it amounted to 44.8  per cent of all children born in 2004. The number of divorces is increasing as well. In 2004, Slovenia recorded an average of every third marriage ending in divorce. In recent years approximately 60  per cent of divorced couples had dependent children. In most cases mothers are entrusted the care and upbringing of children, however the number of children entrusted to the joint care and upbringing has been increasing lately. In 2003, 7  per cent of dependent children of divorced couples were entrusted to sole care and upbringing of fathers.

1 85 . In most cases maintenance is fixed on the basis of mutual agreement between parents at the social work centres (54 %), on the basis of maintenance judgement (41 %) and only a small part is fixed pursuant to a compromise in court (5 %). In most cases maintenance recipients are mothers of children (in 75 % of cases) or children themselves (in 21 % of cases). In 93  per cent of cases the person liable to pay the maintenance is a child's father.

Appendix 1

Legal references

Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia , Uradni list RS No. 33/91, 42/97, 66/00, 24/03, 69/04.

The Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act, Uradni list RS No. 50/04.

Equal Opportunities for Women and Men Act, Uradni list RS No. 59/02.

Political Parties Act, Uradni list RS No. 62/94, 13/98 – Decision of the CC, 24-1127/1999 – Decision of the CC, 70/2000, 51/2002, 94-4708/2002 – Decision of the CC.

Election of Slovenian Members to the European Parliament Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 40/2004.

Local Elections Parties Act, Uradni list RS No. 72/93, 7/94, 33/94, 61/95 – Decision of the CC, 70/95, 20/98 – Decision of the CC, 51/02, 11/03 – Decision of the CC, 73/03 – Decision of the CC, 72/05.

Penal Code Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 95/04.

Criminal Procedure Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 96/04.

Witness Protection Act, Uradni list RS No. 113/05.

Police Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 70/05.

Criminal Offences Against Public Order and Peace, Uradni list SRS No. 16/74, 15/76 – ZVPH, 42/86, Uradni list RS No. 8/90 – ZSDZ, 67/94 – ZGSH, 29/95 – ZPDF, 98/99 – ZZZiv and 15/2003 – ZOPA.

State Prosecutor Act, Uradni list RS No. 63/94, 59/99, 110/02.

Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 7/03.

Employment Relationship Act, Uradni list RS No. 42/02.

Marriage and Family Relations Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 69/04.

Public Guarantee and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 26/03.

Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 76/03.

Organization and Financing of Education Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 14/03.

Pension and Disability Insurance Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 20/04.

Health Care and Health Insurance Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 20/04, 76/05.

Infertility Treatment and Procedures of Biomedically Assisted Procreation Act, Uradni list RS No. 70/00.

Health and Safety at Work Act, Uradni list RS No. 56/99, 64/01.

Housing Act, Uradni list RS No. 69/03, 18/04.

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons Act, Uradni list RS No. 63/04, 72/05.

Registration of a Same-Sex Civil Partnership Act, Uradni list RS No. 65/05.

Employment and Insurance Against Unemployment Act, Uradni list RS Nos. 5/91, …, 63/04.

Social Assistance Act, Uradni list RS No. 36/04, 6/05, 69/05 – Decision of the CC.

Civil Servants Act – official consolidated text, Uradni list RS No. 35/05, 62/05 – Decision of the CC.

Act Amending the Civil Servants Act, Uradni list RS No. 113/05.

Aliens Act, Uradni list RS No. 108/02 – official consolidated text.

Local Self-Government Act, Uradni list RS Nos. 72/93, …, 72/05.

Act Ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, Uradni list RS No. MP-15/04.

Act Ratifying the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Uradni list RS No. MP14/04.

Act Ratifying the Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime, Uradni list RS No. MP-15/04.

Resolution on the Master Plan for Adult Education in the Republic of Slovenia until 2010, Uradni list RS No. 70/2004.

Resolution on national programme for safety and health at work, Uradni list RS No. 126/03.

Social Contract for the period 2003 to 2005, Uradni list RS No. 40/03.

Decree regulating the criteria for implementation of the principle of balanced representation of women and men, Uradni list RS No. 103/04.

Rules on restraining order prohibiting approach to a certain location or person, Uradni list RS No. 95/04.

Rules on protection of health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding, Uradni list RS No. 82/03.

Rules on renting non-profit housing units, Uradni list RS No. 14/04, 34/04.

Appendix 2

Statistical data

Table 1:Population by sex in 2002, 2003 and 2004

Year	Total	Men	Women	% of women
2002	1.995.033	975.598	1.019.446	51,10
2003	1.996.433	976.802	1.019.631	51,07
2004	1.997.590	977.052	1.020.538	51,09

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2003, 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 2: Population and citizens of the Republic of Slovenia , Census 2002

	Total	Citizens of RS
	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women
Total	1.964.036	1.005.460	51,2	1.924.677	992.281	51,6

Source: Census of Population, Households and Housing, 31.3.2002, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 3: Population by ethnic affiliation and sex, Census 2002*

	Total	Proportion (%)	Women	% of women
Total	1.964.036	100,00	1.005.460	51,2
Declared	1.766.982	90,00	920.187	52,1
Slovenes	1.631.363	83,06	858.750	52,6
Italians	2.258	0,11	1.173	51,9
Hungarians	6.243	0,32	3.360	53,8
Roma	3.246	0,17	1.601	49,3
Albanians	6.186	0,31	2.057	33,2
Bosnians	21.542	1,10	9.191	42,7
Montenegrins	2.667	0,14	1.143	42,9
Croats	35.642	1,81	17.086	47,9
Macedonians	3.972	0,20	1.507	37,9
Muslims*	10.467	0,53	4.671	44,6
Serbs	38.964	1,98	17.372	44,6
Undeclared	22.141	1,13	10.847	49,0
Declared as Bosnians	8.062	0,41	3.869	48,0
Others**	12.085	0,62	6.173	51,1
Did not want to reply	48.588	2,47	24.356	50,1
Unknown	126.325	6,43	50.070	39,6

* Ethnic groups representing more than 0,1 per cent of total population.

** In sense of ethnic and not religious affiliation.

*** Persons who said they would like to remain ethnically undeclared.

Source: Census of Population, Households and Housing, 31.3.2002, Statistical

Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 4: Live births by sex, 2000 to 2004

Year	Total	Boys	Girls	% of girls
2000	18.180	9.368	8.812	48,47
2001	17.477	9.064	8.413	48,14
2002	17.501	9.025	8.476	48,43
2003	17.321	8.930	8.391	48,44
2004	17.961	9.101	8.860	49,33

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 5: Mean age of mother at live births and at first birth, 2000 to 2004

Year	Age of mother at live births	Age of mother at first birth
2000	28,3	26,5
2001	28,5	26,7
2002	28,8	27,2
2003	29,0	27,3
2004	29,2	27,5

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic o f Slovenia .

Table 6: Marriages and divorces, 2000 to 2004

Year	Marriages	Divorces
2000	7.201	2.125
2001	6.935	2.274
2002	7.064	2.457
2003	6.756	2.461
2004	6.558	2.411

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 7: Mean age of bride and groom, 2000 to 2004

Year	Groom	Bride
2000	31,4	28,4
2001	31,8	28,8
2002	32,3	29,2
2003	32,3	29,2
2004	32,6	29,6

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 8: Life expectancy at birth by sex, 2000/2001 to 2003/2004

	Men	Women
2000/2001	72,1	79,6
2001/2002	72,3	79,9
2002/2003	73,2	80,7
2003/2004	73,5	81,1

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 9: Deaths by sex, 1999 to 2004

Year	Total	Men	Women	% of women
1999	18.885	9.671	9.214	48,8
2000	18.588	9.557	9.031	48,6
2001	18.508	9.654	8.854	47,8
2002	18.701	9.696	9.005	48,2
2003	19.451	10.075	9.376	48,2
2004	18.523	9.479	9.044	48,8

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 10: Infant deaths by sex, 2000 to 2004

Year	Total	Boys	Girls	% of girls	Infant mortality per 1000 live births
2000	89	52	37	41,6	4,9
2001	74	44	30	40,5	4,2
2002	67	44	23	34,3	3,8
2003	69	37	32	46,4	4,0
2004	66	32	34	51,5	3,7

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 11: Unemployment rate by sex, 2000 to 2004

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Total	7,7	5,9	5,9	6,6	6,1
Women	7,7	6,3	6,3	7,1	6,4
Men	7,6	5,6	7,0	6,1	5,7

Source: Annual report 2005, Employment Service of Slovenia.

Table 12: Initiatives addressed to Advocate for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men, 2003, 2004 and 2005

Year	2003	2004	2005*
Total	13	8	7
Women	9	5	3
Men	3	1	3
Institutions	1	2	1
% of women	69,2	62,5	42,9

*Data for 2005 until 30. 6. 2005.

Source: Office for Equal Opportunities, 2005.

Table 13:Crimes against life and body and the share of women victims of such crimes, 2002-2004

Year		Murder	Particularly serious physical injury	Serious physical injury	Light physical injury	Threat with a dangerous weapon
2002	Total Against women Share of women	78 22 28,2	21 6 28,6	389 69 17,7	2.043 496 24,3	341 80 23,5
2003	Total Against women Share of women	57 23 40,4	18 2 11,1	295 43 14,5	2.084 483 23,2	353 87 24,7
2004	Total Against women Share of women	95 25 26,3	10 0 0	306 45 14,7	2.331 562 24,1	365 88 24,1

Source: Ministry of the Interior, 2005.

Table 14:Offences against public order and peace, number and theshare of female victims, number and share of offences with elements of domestic violence, 2001 – 2004, by place

Year and place	No. of breaches of public order and peace	Number of female victims	% of female victims	No. of breaches with elements of domestic violence	% of breaches with elements of domestic violence
2001	16.553	6.999	42,3	2.566	15,5
Apartment	7.176	3.975	55,4	2.307	89,9
2002	17.353	7.342	42,3	3.038	17,5
Apartment	7.826	4.138	52,9	2.754	90,7
2003	17.900	6.460	36,1	5.014	28,0
Apartment	8.298	3.092	37,3	4.477	89,3
2004	16.618	6.450	38,8	4.443	26,7
Apartment	7.738	3.122	40,3	3.992	89,8

Source: Ministry of the Interior, 2005.

Table 15: Candidates and share of women in the elections to the National Assembly, 2000 and 2004

Year	2000	2004
Total	1.007	1.395
Women	236	347
% of women	23,4	24,9

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 16: Number and share of women among elected deputies in 2004 elections to the National Assembly

Parliamentary parties	Total no. of deputies	Share (%)	No. of women	% of women
Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS)	29	29,08	3	10,3
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS)	23	22,80	3	13,0
United List of Social Democrats (ZLSD)*	10	10,17	2	20,0
Slovenian People's Party (SLS)	7	6,82	0	0
New Slovenia – Christian People's Party (NSi)	9	9,09	2	22,2
Democratic Party of Retired Persons of Slovenija (DeSUS)	4	4,04	0	0
Slovenian National Party (SNS)	6	6,27	1	16,7
Representatives of national communities	2	2,2	1	50,0

* On 2 April 2005 the party renamed into Social Democrats (SD)

Source: National Assembly, 2005.

Table 17: Mayors of urban and other municipalities by sex in the local elections 1998 and 2002

Year	1998	2002
Total	191	193
Men	183	181
Women	8	12
% of women	4,2	6,2

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 18: Judges by type of court and sex, 2000 to 2003

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003
Courts	All	Women	% of women	All	Women	% of women	All	Women	% of women	All	Women	% of women
Total	728	483	66,3	745	497	66,7	764	521	68,2	763	533	69,9
Local	276	209	75,7	290	221	76,2	300	229	76,3	303	234	77,2
District	229	144	62,9	225	143	63,6	229	150	65,5	224	151	67,4
Higher	97	54	55,7	99	54	54,5	100	58	58,0	104	62	59,6
Supreme	33	11	33,3	35	12	34,3	37	13	35,1	36	13	36,1
Administrative	27	20	74,1	28	21	75,0	27	20	74,0	27	20	74,0
Higher LSC*	15	7	46,7	17	8	47,1	18	8	44,4	17	10	58,8
LC and LSC**	51	38	74,5	51	38	74,5	53	43	81,1	52	43	82,7

* Higher Labour and Social Court .

** Labour Court and Labour and Social Court .

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 19:Diplomats, by sex (30 June 2005)

Title	All	Women	% of women
Diplomats total	413	205	49,6
Ambassadors	53	12	22,6
General Consuls	5	1	20,0
Authorized ministers	44	17	38,6
Minister advisors	66	41	62,1
First advisors	4	3	75,0
Advisors	78	43	55,1
1st secretaries	48	27	56,2
2nd secretaries	25	16	64,0
3rd secretaries	78	40	51,3
Attaches*	6	3	50,0
Consuls	2	1	50,0
Vice-consuls	2	1	50,0
1st rank Consuls	2	0	0

* Since 18 May 2005 this title is used only abroad

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2005.

Table 20:Kindergartens and pre-school preparation in the school years 2001/2002 – 2004/2005

School year	Kinder= gartens	Class units	Children total	Girls	% of girls	Staff total	Women	% of women
2001/02	801	3.477	61.803	29.293	47,4	7.099	6.956	98,0
2002/03	773	3.342	58.968	28.177	47,8	6.949	6.829	98,3
2003/04	767	3.243	54.515	25.815	47,4	6.729	6.636	98,6
2004/05	752	3.232	54.815	26.033	47,5	6.762	6.716	99,3

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 21: Pupils, students, participants in elementary and upper secondary schools, from beginning of school year 2000/01 to 2003/04

School year	Primary schools	Upper secondary schools
	Total	Girls	% of girls	Total	Girls	% of girls
2000/01	180.390	88.470	49,0	104.840	52.031	49,6
2001/02	178.345	86.943	48,7	103.528	51.368	49,6
2002/03	175.211	85.365	48,7	103.538	51.342	49,6
2003/04	177.535	86.310	48,6	103.203	50.964	49,4

Source: Rapid Reports No. 57/2002, 270/2002, 97/2003, 9/2004, 66/2004 and Statistical Yearbook 2004, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 22: Upper secondary schools – participants by fields of study at the end of the school year 2000/2001 and 2003/2004

	2000/2001	2003/2004
	Total	Girls	% of girls	Total	Girls	% of girls
Total	100.858	50.375	49,9	100.132	50.238	50,2
Agriculture	5.727	2.954	51,6	4.662	2.468	52,9
Forestry	136	2	1,5	132	-	-
Leather Processing	48	38	79,2	-	-	-
Textiles	1.893	1.836	97,0	673	646	96,0
Chemistry, Pharmacy, Rubber Processing and Non-metal	1.118	757	67,7	1.006	671	66,7
Wood Processing	3.078	28	0,9	2.009	24	1,2
Construction	2.556	221	8,6	2.191	159	7,3
Catering and Tourism	5.211	2.232	42,8	5.197	2.338	45,0
Economics	20.770	13.787	66,4	19.497	12.601	64,6
Paper and Printing	571	213	37,3	822	272	33,1
Electrotechnics and Computer Science	7.211	44	0,6	7.147	54	0,8
Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering	7.739	43	0,6	7.113	31	0,4
Transport and Communications	1.136	345	30,4	1.376	359	26,1
Mining	134	1	0,7	100	-	-
Health Care	5.242	3.963	75,6	5.399	4.014	74,3
Teacher Training	1.039	1.020	98,2	1.388	1.341	96,6
Social Sciences	824	732	88,8	-	-	-
Culture	629	445	70,7	593	440	74,2
General Education	32.887	19.394	59,0	39.040	23.351	59,8
Personal Services	2.672	2.296	86,0	1.787	1.469	82,2
Internal Affairs	237	24	10,1	-	-	-

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2003, 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 23:Student enrollment in undergraduate higher education studies and single higher education institutions and students graduating from universities, and single higher education institutions, by sex, 2002 to 2004

Year	Enrolled	Graduated
	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women
2002	87.056	50.161	57,6	12.029	7.430	61,8
2003	87.205	50.744	58,2	11.232	7.183	64,0
2004	91.299	54.163	59,3	11.608	7.334	63,2

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 24: Students by fields of education and sex, 2004/2005

Fields of education	Total	Women	% of women
Total	91.229	54.163	59,4
Education	9.766	7.883	80,7
Humanities and Arts	7.651	5.725	74,8
Social Sciences, Business and Law	38.014	24.498	64,4
Science, Mathematics and Computing	5.078	1.635	32,2
Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction	14.165	3.770	26,6
Agriculture and Veterinary	2.894	1.604	55,4
Health and Welfare	7.565	6.095	80,6
Services	6.096	2.953	48,4

Source: Rapid Reports No. 121, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 25: Graduates by fields of education and sex , 2004

Fields of education	Total	Women	% of women
Total	11.608	7.334	63,2
Education	1.407	1.209	85,9
Humanities and Arts	692	510	74,0
Social Sciences, Business and Law	5.237	3.554	67,9
Science, Mathematics and Computing	407	163	40,0
Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction	1.500	396	26,4
Agriculture and Veterinary	319	188	58,9
Health and Welfare	1.261	1.049	83,2
Services	695	265	38,1

Source: Rapid Reports No. 142, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 26: Doctors of science, masters and specialists, by sex, 2001 to 2004

	Doctors total	Women	% of women	Masters and specialists total	Women	% of women
2001	298	146	49,0	905	454	50,2
2002	318	144	45,3	1.058	572	54,1
2003	367	152	41,4	1.082	570	52,7
2004	355	144	40,6	1.056	596	56,4

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 27: Students and pupils scholars by type of scholarship, end of 2004

	Scholarships total	Sponsorship scholarship	National and Zois scholarship
Scholar total	60.691	7.077	53.579
Women	33.187	2.671	30.516
% of women	54,7	37,7	56,9
Students total	24.016	4.449	19.567
Women	14.444	1.970	12.474
% of women	60,1	44,3	63,8
Pupils total	35.675	2.628	33.047
Women	18.743	701	18.042
% of women	51,1	26,7	54,6

* National and Zois scholarship together

Source: Rapid reports No. 220/2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 28: Participation of population aged 15 years and more in formal, continuing and informal education, 2 nd quarter 2003

	Population aged 15+	Participation in regular education	Participation in continuing education	Participation in informal learning
Total	1.698.132	303.124	327.322	1.269.318
Women	875.575	157.458	174.933	652.352
% of women	51,6	51,9	53,4	51,4

Source: Rapid Report No. 118/2004, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 29: Participation of population aged 15 years and more in continuing education activities, by sex and number of educational activities, 2 nd quarter 2003

	Participated in continuing education	Participated in one educational activity	Participated in two educational activities	Participated in three educational activities	Participated in four or more educational activities
Total	327.322	269.002	42.762	10.410	5.148
Women	174.933	139.528	25.239	6.603	3.563
% of women	53,4	51,9	59,0	63,4	69,2

Source: Rapid Report, No. 118/2004, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 30: Participation of population aged 15 years and more in informal education activities, by sex, 2 nd quarter 2003

	Participation in at least one of form of informal learning	Use of printed materials	Use of computer/ web	Learning via broadcasted educational programmes, video and audio cassettes	Visits to learning facilities, libraries
Total	1.269.318	754.336	463.265	1.128.795	224.013
Women	652.352	397.247	217.949	575.914	138.971
% of women	51,4	52,7	47,0	51,0	62,0

Source: Rapid Report, No. 118/2004, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 31: Number of non-learners aged 15 years and more, by sex and by reason for not participating in education, 2 nd quarter 2003

Reason for non-participation	Total	Women	% of women
Total	1.142.276	585.281	51,2
Lack of time	202.930	91.186	44,9
Too busy with my job	51.311	17.471	34,0
No supply in the place where I live, other places too far away	16.867	8.069	47,8
Family responsibilities	27.576	21.911	79,5
Too expensive/lack of financial resources	27.209	15.679	57,6
Inadequate prior education	1.858	773	41,6
No support from the employer	3.477	1.567	45,0
Education at the wrong time	818	358	43,8
Language reasons	1.200	1.001	83,4
Health reasons	62.007	33.173	53,5
No interest (including age)	744.628	393.044	52,8
Other	2.395	1.049	43,8

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia , 2004.

Table 32:Activity rates by sex (annual averages), 2003 and 2004

	2003	2004
Total
Activity rate	56,6	59,0
Employment/population ratio	52,8	55,3
Men
Activity rate	63,5	65,9
Employment/population ratio	59,4	62,0
Women
Activity rate	50,0	52,5
Employment/population ratio	46,5	48,9

Source: Rapid Report, No 225 and 185, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 33: Employment/population ratio by age groups and sex (yearly averages), 2003 in 2004

	2003	2004
	Total
Employment/population ratio 15-64	62,6	65,3
Employment/population ratio 15-24	29,2	34,0
Employment/population ratio 25-49	85,5	86,3
Employment/population ratio 50-64	41,4	45,8
Employment/population ratio 65	6,2	8,6
	Men
Employment/population ratio 15-64	67,4	70,0
Employment/population ratio 15-24	33,7	39,0
Employment/population ratio 25-49	87,5	88,2
Employment/population ratio 50-64	51,4	55,6
Employment/population ratio 65 +	9,5	12,8
	Women
Employment/population ratio 15-64	57,6	60,5
Employment/population ratio 15-24	24,4	28,7
Employment/population ratio 25-49	83,4	84,3
Employment/population ratio 50-64	31,2	36,1
Employment/population ratio 65 +	4,2	6,0

Source: Rapid Report, No 225 and 185, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 34: Share of women among persons in employment by major groups of occupation (yearly averages), 2003 to 2004

	2003	2004
Total	45,4	45,6
Legislators and managers	33,2	33,3
Professionals	59,6	60,2
Technicians	53,3	53,6
Clerks	65,4	65,3
Service and sales workers	64,9	63,8
Agriculture and fishery workers	43,7	45,5
Craft and related trade workers	8,0	8,2
Plant and machine operators and assemblers	35,2	34,0
Elementary occupations	56,0	57,4

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 35: Share of women among persons in employment by activity (yearly averages), 2003 in 2004

	2003	2004
Total	45,4	45,6
Agriculture	43,5	45,2
Industry (except services)	32,3	31,7
Mining and quarrying	-	-
Manufacturing	37,8	37,4
Electricity, gas and water supply	(16,0)	-
Construction	9,9	8,6
Services	54,9	55,3
Wholesale, retail; certain repair	54,1	53,5
Hotels and restaurants	60,3	59,8
Transport, storage and communications	21,1	21,4
Financial intermediation	68,5	67,7
Real estate, renting and business activities	44,0	47,5
Public administration, defence, compulsory social security	53,1	50,2
Education	76,0	76,4
Health and social work	80,2	82,5
Other social and personal services	50,5	48,2

Source: Rapid Report No.225 (16. 8. 2004) and. 185 (15. 7. 2005), Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 36: Average monthly gross earnings of women employed in enterprises, companies and organisations as a share of men's average monthly gross earnings by level of professional skills, 2000 and 2002

Year	Total	University degree	Non-university degree	Secondary prof. degree	Lower prof. degree	Highly skilled workers	Skilled workers	Semi-skilled workers	Unskilled workers
doctors	masters	all
2000	87,8	85,9	83,2	79,3	87,5	88,5	85,9	83,0	80,1	84,8	88,0
2002	90,5	92,2	88,2	80,3	91,3	91,8	90,9	80,0	76,2	88,1	88,6

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 37: Average registered unemployment rate, 2000 to 2004

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Total	12,2	11,6	11,6	11,2	10,6
Men	11,1	10,4	10,4	9,7	9,1
Women	13,5	12,9	13,1	13,0	12,4
% of women	50,7	50,8	51,1	52,8	53,1
Seekers of 1st job	17,9	18,8	19,6	23,2	25,2
% of women	54,1	54,8	55,5	56,2	56,6
Unemployed over 1 year	62,9	58,9	54,4	48,6	46,2
% of women	51,3	50,9	51,0	54,1	54,1

Source: Annual report 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, Employment Service of Slovenia.

Table 38:Structure of registered unemployed persons by level of education, shares of women, 31. 12. 2002, 31. 12. 2003 and 31. 12. 2004

		2002			2003			2004
	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women
Total	99.607	51.378	51,6	95.993	50.324	52,4	90.728	47.817	52,7
Education level
Unfinished elementary school	39.130	19.826	50,7	35.531	18.038	50,8	32.262	16.120	50,0
Elementary school	6.324	2.436	38,5	5.533	2.219	40,1	4.936	1.988	40,3
Lower vocational education	1.393	850	61,0	1.185	734	61,9	1.037	656	63,3
Vocational school	24.810	11.873	47,9	22.471	10.977	48,8	20.995	10.533	50,2
Secondary school	22.668	13.360	58,9	24.840	14.494	58,3	24.846	14.523	58,5
Post-secondary school	2.049	1.032	50,4	2.083	1.095	52,6	2.078	1.087	52,3
Higher school, faculty, academy	3.233	2.001	61,9	4.350	2.767	63,6	4.574	2.910	63,6

Source: Annual Report 2002, 2003 and 2004, Employment Service of Slovenia .

Table 39:Age structure of registered unemployed persons by sex, 31. 12. 2001, 31. 12. 2002, 31. 12. 2003 and 31. 12. 2004

		2002			2003			2004
	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women	Total	Women	% of women
Total	99.607	51.378	51,6	95.993	50.324	52,4	90.728	47.817	52,7
Up to 18	359	147	41,0	285	135	47,4	270	129	47,8
Over 18 to 25	21.828	11.594	53,1	22.206	11.597	52,2	20.437	10.705	52,4
Over 25 to 30	13.471	7.850	58,3	14.524	8.520	58,7	14.754	8.637	58,5
Over 30 to 40	17.643	10.134	57,4	17.700	10.294	58,2	16.917	9.926	58,7
Over 40 to 50	23.455	12.393	52,8	21.326	11.697	54,8	19.408	10.845	55,9
Over 50 to 60	21.628	9.142	42,3	19.052	8.009	42,0	18.057	7.511	41,6
Over 60	1.223	118	9,6	900	72	8,0	885	64	7,2

Source: Annual Report 2002, 2003 and 2004, Employment Service of Slovenia .

Table 40: Indicators of medical staff provision for women aged 15 and over in women community health care services, 2002

	No. of women (15 years and more) per health professionals 1	% of HC provision fte 2	No. of health professionals 1
Year	Per 1 physician	Per 1 other health professional with high/university education	Per 1 post-secondary education	Per 1 secondary education	High/ university educat i on 3	Post-secondary education 4	Secondary education 5
Per 1 medical doctor /calculated on full time employment
2002	7.169,6	198.305,2	18.330,7	6.991,5	90,7	0,0	0,4	1,0

1) Full-time equivalent (fte) 2) Calculation based on a full-time equivalent 3) University education – including bachelor of science in nursing (B.S.N.) and midwifery education and other health professionals with university education. 4) Post-secondary education – including state registered nurse (S.R.N.) 5) Secondary education – including nursing assistants (N.A.), midwives and all e mployees with a degree in natural sciences

Source: Healthcare Statistical Yearbook 2002, Institute of Public Health .

Table 41: Preventive attendances at primary reproductive community women health services and percentage of women referred to specialists and to hospital, 2001, 2002

	All attendances	All preventive attendances	Preventive attendances
Year	%	Pregnancy %	Contraception %	Other reasons %
2001	731.550	412.171	100,0	118.158	28,7	116.271	28,2	177.742	43,1
2002	824.677	419.333	100,0	129.839	31,0	121.871	29,0	167.623	40,0

Source: Healthcare Statistical Yearbook 2002, Institute of Public Health .

Table 42: Curative attendances at primary reproductive community women health services and percentage of women referred to specialists and to hospital, 2001, 2002

	All attendances	All curative attendances	First curative attendances	Directed to specialist	Directed to hospital
Year				%		%		%
2001	731.550	319.379	169.339	53,02	40.946	5,60	24.301	3,32
2002	824.677	405.344	230.018	56,75	40.920	4,96	26.508	3,21

Source: Healthcare Statistical Yearbook 2002, Institute of Public Health .

Table 43: Most frequent diseases and other health problems according to ICD-10 classification, by sex, 2002

Diseases and other health problems	Total	Women
	Total	%	Total	% of women among affected	% of women by diagnosis
Total	4.542.688	100,0	2.738.932	100,0	60,3
Infectious and parasitic diseases	309.998	6,8	172.540	6,3	55,7
Neoplasmas	65.054	1,4	41.726	1,5	64,1
Blood and blood-forming organs diseases	18.660	0,4	14.601	0,5	78,2
Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases	88.768	2,0	52.215	1,9	58,8
Mental and behavioural disorders	90.094	2,0	55.624	2,0	61,7
Diseases of the nervous system	38.905	0,9	22.930	0,8	58,9
Diseases of the eye end adnexa	119.513	2,6	67.674	2,5	56,6
Diseases of the ear and mastoid process	171.111	3,8	88.228	3,2	51,6
Diseases of the circulatory system	301.893	6,6	175.714	6,4	58,2
Diseases of the respiratory system	804.571	17,7	436.720	15,9	54,3
Diseases of the digestive system	190.496	4,2	102.885	3,8	54,0
Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue	272.240	6,0	159.849	5,8	58,7
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue	422.137	9,3	247.531	9,0	58,6
Diseases of the genitourinary system	303.100	6,7	255.927	9,3	84,4
Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium	20.699	0,5	20.699	0,8	100,0
Conditions originating in the perinatal period	2.908	0,06	1.442	0,1	49,6
Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities	5.769	0,1	2.997	0,1	52,0
Symptoms, signs and abnormal findings, not elsewhere Classified	293.287	6,5	182.598	6,7	62,3
Factors influencing health status and contact with health services	1.023.485	22,5	637.032	23,3	62,2

Source: Healthcare Statistical Yearbook, 2002, Institute of Public Health .

Table 44: Total number of reported cases of AIDS, by sex and age group, 30 June 2005

Age group	Men	Women	Total
Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Total	104	100,0	15	100,0	119	100,0
up to 1 year	1	1,0	0	0,0	1	0,8
1 - 4 years	0	0,0	0	0,0	0	0,0
5 - 9 years	0	0,0	1	6,7	1	0,8
10 – 12 years	0	0,0	0	0,0	0	0,0
13 – 14 years	0	0,0	0	0,0	0	0,0
15 – 19 years	0	0,0	0	0,0	0	0,0
20 – 24 years	3	2,9	0	0,0	3	2,5
25 – 29 years	15	14,4	3	20,0	18	15,1
30 – 34 years	17	16,3	7	46,7	24	20,2
35 – 39 years	23	22,1	1	6,7	24	20,2
40 – 49 years	31	39,8	2	13,3	33	27,7
50 – 59 years	8	7,7	1	6,7	9	7,6
60 years +	6	5,8	0	0,0	6	5,1

Source: Institute of Public Health , 2005.

Table 45: Cash social assistance disbursed by month and sex of applicants

	January 2002	January 2003	December 2003	December 2004
Total	31.577	45.922	57.742	62.256
Women	15.442	22.589	30.758	33.865
% of women	48,9	49,2	53,3	54,4

Source: Ministry of labour, family and social affairs, 2005.

Table 46: Social cohesion indicators – income and poverty, 2000-2002

	Income
in cash	in cash + in kind
2000	2001	2002	2000	2001	2002
At risk of poverty rate	13,0	12,9	11,9	11,3	10,6	9,9
At risk of poverty rate with breakdown by age and sex
Men	12,5	12,4	11,1	10,5	9,6	8,5
Women	13,5	13,3	12,6	12,0	11,6	11,2
0-15 years	11,2	11,7	10,5	9,3	8,7	7,4
16-24 years	12,3	13,4	12,3	10,3	10,3	10,0
Men	13,2	14,1	12,9	10,7	10,4	10,2
Women	11,2	12,5	11,6	9,9	10,3	9,9
25-49 years	10,8	10,3	9,0	9,2	8,6	7,4
Men	11,3	10,6	9,3	9,5	8,7	7,6
Women	10,3	9,9	8,6	8,9	8,5	7,2
50-64 years	12,0	11,7	11,3	10,6	9,7	9,7
Men	12,3	11,8	11,9	10,9	9,3	9,7
Women	11,7	11,6	10,6	10,3	10,1	9,7
65 years or more	23,4	22,3	21,4	21,2	19,5	19,2
Men	18,5	19,6	16,7	14,0	12,9	10,8
Women	26,3	23,8	24,1	25,4	23,5	24,1
0-64 years	11,4	11,4	10,3	9,7	9,1	8,3
Men	11,9	11,6	10,5	10,1	9,2	8,3
Women	10,8	11,1	10,1	9,3	9,1	8,4
16 years or more	13,4	13,1	12,2	11,7	11,0	10,4
Men	12,8	12,7	11,5	10,6	9,7	9,0
Women	13,9	13,6	12,8	12,7	12,2	11,8
16-64 years	11,4	11,3	10,2	9,8	9,2	8,5
Men	11,9	11,6	10,7	10,1	9,2	8,7
Women	10,8	10,9	9,7	9,5	9,2	8,4
At risk of poverty rate with breakdown by most frequent activity status by sex
At work	6,8	6,8	5,6	5,2	4,8	3,7
Men	7,4	7,5	6,3	5,6	5,4	4,1
Women	6,1	6,0	4,8	4,8	4,1	3,3
Salary/wage employees	5,0	5,0	4,2	4,4	4,1	3,2
Men	5,3	5,4	4,8	4,6	4,4	3,6
Women	4,5	4,5	3,5	4,2	3,7	2,8
Self-employed	18,6	19,1	15,2	10,3	9,7	7,3
Men	17,4	18,4	13,9	10,3	10,3	7,1
Women	20,9	20,6	18,2	10,3	8,6	7,8
Not at work	20,4	19,9	19,1	18,5	17,6	17,4
Men	20,2	19,9	18,8	17,5	15,8	15,7
Women	20,5	19,8	19,3	19,3	18,9	18,6
Unemployed	39,5	40,3	39,1	42,1	40,8	38,4
Men	41,5	38,8	41,7	41,6	36,9	39,3
Women	37,1	42,3	36,2	42,8	45,8	37,5

Table 46 a: Social cohesion indicators – income and poverty, 2000-2002, continued

	Income
in cash	in cash + in kind
2000	2001	2002	2000	2001	2002
Retired	15,8	15,4	15,7	15,0	14,5	15,3
Men	15,3	16,1	15,6	12,3	11,7	12,1
Women	16,2	14,9	15,7	16,9	16,4	17,4
Other economically inactive	23,3	22,7	20,2	19,1	17,9	16,3
Men	21,9	20,8	17,5	18,9	16,4	14,8
Women	24,2	24,0	22,1	19,2	18,8	17,4
At risk of poverty rate with breakdown by household type
All households without dependent children	16,6	15,5	15,1	14,8	13,6	13,8
One person household, total	34,4	33,3	35,7	36,2	35,2	36,1
One person household, male	29,9	34,2	38,4	28,5	27,7	30,5
One person household, female	36,2	32,9	34,5	39,3	38,6	38,7
All households with dependent children	10,9	11,3	9,9	9,2	8,7	7,5
Single parent household, one or more dependent children	17,5	18,0	14,8	21,1	19,8	17,2
At risk of poverty rate with breakdown by accommodation tenure status
Owner or rent-free	12,8	12,8	11,5	10,9	10,2	9,2
Men	12,2	12,3	10,7	10,0	9,2	7,9
Women	13,3	13,3	12,3	11,7	11,2	10,5
Tenant	16,6	14,6	17,6	16,8	16,2	19,9
Men	17,6	14,8	17,8	16,8	15,0	18,3
Women	15,8	14,3	17,4	16,8	17,2	21,4

Source: Social Cohesion Indicators (Laeken Indicators), 2000 – 2002. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia , 2004.

Table 47: Time use of people aged 10 and over, by sex, April 2000 – March 2001

Activities	Men	Women
Total	24h	24h
Sleeping	8h 31'	8h 40'
Eating	1h 31'	1h 25'
Personal care	1h 19'	1h 16'
Employment	3h 13'	2h 13'
Study	43'	42'
Household care and informal help to other households	2h 23'	4h 4'
Family care	11'	27'
Participatory activities, religious activities	9'	8'
Culture, sport, hobbies	1h 2'	39'
Social life	1h 1'	1h
TV	2h 12'	1h 50'
Other mass media	32'	31'
Travelling	1h 11'	1h 1'
Other, unspecified	2'	2'

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

Table 48: Time use structure by Slovenian men and women aged 20 in 74 years

Activities	Men	Women
Total	24h	24h
Free time*	5:34	4:29
Meals, personal care	2:13	2:08
Sleep	8:17	8:24
Travel	1:09	1:02
Domestic work	2:39	4:57
Gainful work, study	4:07	2:59

*Free time includes all other activities, e.g. volunteer work and meetings, helping other households, socialising and entertainment, sports and outdoors activities, hobbies and games, watching television, resting or doing nothing, as well as unspecified time use.

Source: How Europeans spend their time: Everyday life of women and men (Data 1998 – 2002), Eurostat, 2004.

Table 49:Time use structure of Slovenian employedmen and women

Activities	Men	Women
Total	24h	24h
Free time*	4:52	3:51
Meals, personal care	2:07	2:02
Sleep	8:06	8:12
Travel	1:14	1:09
Domestic work	2:24	4:24
Gainful work, study	5:20	4:23

*Free time: See above

Source: How Europeans spend their time: Everyday life of women and men (Data 1998 – 2002), Eurostat, 2004.

Table 50: Major income of women working in agriculture and rural women, share according to income

Type of income	Total	Women working in agriculture	Rural women
No income	12,9	12,8	13,0
Scholarship/survivor's pension*	4,4	7,1	2,5
Pension, invalidity pension, old age or health status social assistance	3,8	2,8	4,5
Agriculture - not covered by pension and invalidity insurance	0,9	2,1	0,0
Agriculture- covered by pension and invalidity insurance	2,6	5,7	0,0
Employment	65,7	62,4	68,0
Independent gainful activity	4,1	2,1	5,5
Supplementary activity	0,3	0,0	0,5
Various social benefits and allowances	5,3	5,0	5,5

* Survivor's pension: a pension benefit granted to family members of a deceased pensioner or a deceased insured person who has completed the specified pension qualifying period.

Source: Survey on Rural women in Slovenia , Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana , 2002.

Table 51: Family by number of children and family type, Census 1991 in 2002

Family Type	Census 1991 (%)	Census 2002 ( %)
Married couples, total	82	81
Married couples without children	59	53
Married couples with children	20	21
Couples living in cohabitation with children	2	5
Couples living in cohabitation without children	1	2
Single parents, total	18	19
Mothers with children	15	16
Fathers with children	2	3

Sour ce : Statistical Yearbook 2004, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and Census of Population, Households and Housing, 31.3.1991, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .

Table 52: Children born to married couples and children born out of wedlock, 2001 to 2004

Year	Total	Born to married couples	Born out of wedlock	Share of children born out of wedlock (%)
2001	17.477	10.596	6.881	39,4
2002	17.501	10.464	7.037	40,2
2003	17.321	9.967	7.354	42,5
2004	17.961	9.908	8.053	44,8

Source: Statistical Yearbook 2005, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia .