List of issues and questions prior to the submission of the seventh periodic report of Slovenia *

General

1.Please provide information and statistics, disaggregated by sex, age, disability, ethnicity, minority status and nationality, on the current situation of women in the State party to enable monitoring of the implementation of the Convention. In accordance with the State party’s obligations under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention and in line with target 5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, as well as in the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/SVN/CO/5-6, paras. 20(f), 22 (d) and 28 (b)), please indicate how the State party intends to improve the collection and analysis of data pertaining to the areas covered by the Convention so as to support policymaking and programme development and to measure progress towards the implementation of the Convention and the promotion of substantive equality of women with men, including with regard to the specific areas covered herein.

Impact of the pandemic on women’s rights and gender equality

2.Please indicate measures implemented by the State party in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to redress long-standing inequalities between women and men by placing women at the centre of the recovery as an economic diversification strategy; to meet the needs and uphold the rights of women and girls, including those belonging to disadvantaged and marginalized groups and women in conflict or other humanitarian situations; and to ensure that lockdown measures, whether partial or total, and post-crisis recovery plans do not see women and girls relegated to stereotyped gender roles. Please indicate measures in place to ensure that all COVID-19 crisis response and recovery efforts: (a) address and are effectively aimed at preventing gender-based violence against women and girls; (b) guarantee that women and girls have equal participation in political and public life, decision-making, economic empowerment and service delivery; and (c) seek to ensure that women and girls benefit equally from stimulus packages, including financial support for unpaid care roles, that are aimed at mitigating the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic. Please explain how the State party is ensuring that measures taken to contain the pandemic, such as restrictions on freedom of movement or physical distancing, do not limit access by women and girls, including those from disadvantaged and marginalized groups, to justice, shelters, education, employment and health care, including sexual and reproductive health services.

Constitutional, legislative and public policy framework

3.In accordance with the State party’s obligations under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention, as well as in the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations (paras. 10 and 12), please provide information about legislative provisions recognizing discrimination by association and multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and explain how the Protection from Discrimination Act adopted in 2016 enforces the State party’s obligations under the Convention, concerning protection of women against all forms of discrimination. Please also indicate the legal remedies and compensation available to women who are subjected to any form of gender-based discrimination, particularly women belonging to ethnic or national minorities, Roma women, migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking women, women with disabilities, older women, and women and girls living in rural areas. Please provide information on the results achieved under the national programme for equal opportunities for women and men for the period 2015–2020 (para. 5 (a)) in all fields covered by the Convention. Please also provide information about new plans or strategies to achieve equality between women and men, including the human, technical and financial resources allocated for their implementation, and about specific programmes addressing the rights and situation of women belonging to minority groups, Roma women, women with disabilities, and migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women.

Women’s access to justice

4.Please indicate whether free legal aid is available to women without sufficient means in all areas of law, in order to ensure their access to justice, and provide information about legal arrangements to facilitate the work of non-governmental organizations and other key stakeholders assisting women in judicial proceedings, including those before the Constitutional Court (para. 10). Please provide information about the number of complaints concerning gender-based discrimination against women that have been received and processed by the Human Rights Ombudsman since 2016, disaggregated by sex, age, rural or urban area, migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status, disability and the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Please indicate whether the Ombudsman has the authority to refer cases of gender-based discrimination against women to the courts. Please provide information about the mandate and resources of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality in the field of gender equality and non-discrimination and about mechanisms to ensure compliance with the recommendations of the Advocate. Please also explain the legal complaint procedures available for women in cases of discriminatory acts perpetrated by private actors, including enterprises or service providers (para. 14 (c)). Please provide information about judgments in which the provisions of the Convention have been applied, invoked and/or referred to directly, and efforts made to interpret national legislation in line with the Convention.

5.Please indicate measures taken to facilitate reporting of cases of gender-based violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, sexual violence (para.19 (f)), harassment or other forms of gender-based violence perpetrated online. Please report on the number of prosecutions carried out in the past five years in cases of gender-based violence against women, disaggregated by age, offence, urban or rural area, sentence imposed and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim (para.20 (b)). Please indicate the number of victims of gender-based violence, disaggregated by sex, age, disability, ethnicity, national minority status and nationality, who have received reparations, psychological rehabilitation and compensation in the past five years. Please also provide information about measures taken to tackle the attitudinal barriers that have prevented judges from imposing sentences on perpetrators that are commensurate with the gravity of the crime in cases of gender-based violence against women, including capacity-building programmes for judges and law enforcement officials adjudicating cases of gender-based violence (paras. 12 (a) and 20(g)).

National machinery for the advancement of women

6.Please provide information about the human, technical and financial resources available to the Sector for Equal Opportunities of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities to work on the advancement of women (paras. 13 and 14 (a) and (b)) and about the proportion of the annual increase or decrease (over the past five years) in the Government’s recurrent budget for gender equality. Please describe any measures taken to strengthen and further develop the national machinery for the advancement of women, including in the aftermath of the COVID‑19 crisis, such as strengthened coordination arrangements. Please describe any efforts made to take into account the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Platform for Action in the State party’s measures to give effect to the Convention. Please provide information about the mechanisms of the national machinery for the advancement of women to ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality at the ministerial and local government levels, as well as across all sectors of policymaking. Please also inform the Committee about strategies in place for monitoring gender budgeting and their impact on women’s rights.

7.Please provide information about the number of registered non-governmental organizations (national and international) that promote women’s human rights and describe the formal procedures established by the national machinery to consult women’s civil society organizations in the planning of strategies and plans for gender equality and the empowerment of women and to ensure their participation in the mechanisms for implementing and monitoring such strategies and plans. Please provide specific information about budget allocations and methodologies to engage with organizations of Roma women, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, women with disabilities and women living in rural areas.

Temporary special measures

8.Please provide information about policies, programmes and plans on the development of temporary special measures to achieve substantive equality between women and men, particularly with reference to the participation of women in public decision-making and political life, and to address women’s underrepresentation in such areas as education and employment and their lack of access to credit and loans, in accordance with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures. Please elaborate on the groups of women targeted by temporary special measures, the short-and-long-term-goals of such measures and whether they have been implemented in the public or the private sector, as well as the budget allocated and time frames for implementing such measures. Please provide data, disaggregated by urban or rural area and sector, on the number of women promoted in employment or appointed to decision-making positions on the basis of the implementation of temporary special measures in the past five years. Please also inform the Committee about temporary special measures adopted to eliminate multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women with disabilities, refugee and asylum-seeking women, Roma women, older women and women belonging to minority groups. Please describe awareness-raising programmes among public authorities, journalists, teachers and the general public about substantive equality between women and men, and on temporary special measures as a means to achieve it (para. 16 (c)).

Stereotypes and harmful practices

9.Please provide information about: (a) measures taken to address prevailing gender-based stereotypes regarding the roles of women and men in the family and in society (paras. 17 and 18 (a)), indicating the form of discrimination, the targeted beneficiary, the type of media outlet and the expected audience of the measures and whether they were implemented in urban or rural areas; (b) programmes to combat gender-based stereotypes in the media and in education, and steps taken to review and reform the national core curriculum with the aim of mainstreaming the principle of gender equality, and to increase understanding by children and parents of this principle (para. 18 (b) and (c)). With reference to the joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) on harmful practices, please provide information on measures of redress for girls who have entered into child and/or forced marriages, rehabilitation and counselling services available to them and mechanisms to track cases of child and/or forced marriages, and the number of prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators in the reporting period (para. 40). Please provide information about the cooperation with women’s civil society organizations and the private sector on measures to eradicate discriminatory gender stereotypes and about the monitoring of the implementation of these measures.

Gender-based violence against women

10.With reference to the Committee’s general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, please provide information about legislation defining all forms of gender-based violence against women, including physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence, marital rape, as criminal offences in the Criminal Code, in addition to that of domestic violence (para. 20 (a)). Please describe strategies to identify instances of hate speech and incitement to gender-based violence against women belonging to minorities and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking women, and provide information about the number of prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators of hate speech and incitement to gender-based violence against women during the reporting period. Please indicate the proportion of women aged 15 to 49 years subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past 12 months (by urban or rural area, ethnicity, five-year age group and whether the woman has attained secondary or higher education). Please describe national strategies or programmes implemented during the reporting period to prevent gender-based violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, partnerships with civil society actors to monitor and evaluate the implementation of such strategies or programmes, and progress achieved.

11.Please report on the number of shelters and crisis centres throughout the country and the human, technical and financial resources allocated to them. Please provide information on measures aimed at increasing the accessibility of shelters for women with disabilities and on the legal and psychosocial counselling available to them (para. 20 (d)). In its previous concluding observations (para. 19 (e)), the Committee expressed concern about the lack of enforcement of restraining orders issued in cases of gender-based violence. Please provide information about the number of restraining or protection orders issued in the past five years for the benefit of women who are victims of gender-based violence and the ratio of those issued in rural areas to those in urban areas (victim’s place of residence). Please also inform the Committee about efforts undertaken to establish a unified mechanism for the systematic collection of statistical data on the incidence of gender-based violence against women.

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

12.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (paras. 21 and 22), and information from alternative sources, indicating difficulties in the State party’s identification of victims of trafficking, including children, as well as the lack of information about restitution available for victims of different forms of trafficking, please provide information about the current legislation, public policies and plans to combat trafficking in persons and about steps taken to bring the definition of trafficking into line with international standards. Please also report on: (a) existing mechanisms and the human, technical and financial resources allocated to identifying women and girls who are victims of trafficking and exploitation during the reporting period; (b) the number of detected women and girls who are victims of trafficking, disaggregated by age, country of origin, minority status and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status; (c) the number of investigations, prosecutions and sentences imposed on perpetrators of trafficking in women and girls during the reporting period; and (d) the type of redress and reparations provided for women and girls who are victims of trafficking, including psychosocial support, crisis and housing shelters, compensation and restitution.

13.Please indicate measures taken to prevent sex and labour trafficking in women and girls, particularly migrant and refugee women, and about legislative and policy measures to facilitate women’s access to safe and protected employment. Please describe efforts undertaken to cooperate with countries of origin of trafficking in women and girls in identifying and combating the root causes of trafficking, including low socioeconomic status, poverty and armed conflict. Please also inform the Committee about the introduction of gender-sensitive safeguards throughout migration and asylum procedures. Please report on programmes available to women who wish to leave prostitution regardless of their country of origin, age, minority status or other factors.

Participation in political and public life

14.Information before the Committee indicates that the percentage of women in parliament fell and the number of women in ministerial positions declined in 2019 and 2020. Please provide updated data on the representation of women in political and public life, including in relation to the most recent national, regional and municipal elections, the National Council, the diplomatic service, international organizations, and in the Slovenian Armed Forces. Please provide information about measures taken to better understand and address the factors hindering the representation of women in the political sphere and the decline in women’s participation during the reporting period. Please provide information about any efforts to introduce temporary special measures to facilitate the appointment of women to public and management positions and to supervisory boards of companies, particularly the gender parity system and quotas for all elected and appointed decision-making positions (paras. 24 (b) and (c)). Please describe the State party’s legal framework with regard to political harassment and measures to promote the political participation of women on an equal basis with men (para. 24 (d) and (f)). Please indicate measures implemented by the State party to support women candidates in campaigning for elected positions.

Nationality

15.In the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations and its follow‑up assessment letter dated 28 November 2017, please provide information about: (a) targeted measures for women and girls whose names were deleted from the register of permanent residents, particularly about compensation provided and specific measures in the field of social protection, health care, education programmes and housing (para. 26 (b)); and (b) measures aimed at facilitating family reunification under more favourable conditions for women and girls whose names were deleted from the register of permanent residents (para. 26 (c)). Please also describe any efforts made to ratify the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and provide updated data, disaggregated by sex and other factors, on statelessness in the State party.

Education

16.Please provide information about: (a) the enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education of women and girls in urban and rural areas, at all levels of education, and in vocational training; (b) the proportion of female students and graduates in science, technology engineering and mathematics and measures to promote women’s pursuit of non-traditional career paths; (c) programmes and budget allocation for developing scholarships and study grants targeting women, particularly at the tertiary level; and (d)criteria for distributing education grants among women in marginalized groups. Please provide information about continuing education, the percentage of women therein and scholarships available to them. Please also provide statistics on the enrolment rates of girls with disabilities in mainstream schools and special schools, and measures taken to ensure their access to good-quality inclusive education. Please provide information about education on sexual and reproductive health and rights in accessible formats, including measures to review school curricula to include awareness-raising on gender equality and eliminate sexist approaches to education.

Employment

17.In a report of 2019, the European Commission highlighted the robust growth of the State party’s economy, the low level of inequality and a decline in the unemployment rate, including long-term unemployment, in both the eastern and western regions of the country, and persistent challenges related to the participation of older and low-skilled workers in the labour market. Please provide information, disaggregated by age, urban or rural area and disability, about: (a) the national employment rate of women and the distribution of women’s employment across different sectors of economy; (b) the unemployment rate of women compared with that of men, the number of women in the informal sector of economy and measures taken to address unemployment among women, as well as the impacts of pregnancy and short-term contracts on job security for women (paras. 29 (e) and 30 (e)); and (c)the gender pay gap and the main outcomes in implementing the recommendations of the civil society study entitled “Equal pay for equal work and the gender pay gap” (para. 30 (c)). Please explain the legal framework concerning retirement and disability pensions and specific measures aimed at increasing women’s access to social protection schemes, including non-contributory schemes targeting women with disabilities or women from marginalized groups, during the reporting period. Please indicate the current coverage of childcare centres and support in the community for women with parental responsibilities, including in rural and urban areas. Please inform the Committee on steps taken to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), and the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No.190), of the International Labour Organization.

Health

18.Please provide information about the policy framework for the protection and promotion of sexual and reproductive health care and rights (paras. 31 and 32), describing the health-care and reproductive services covered by universal health insurance, accessible gynaecological and obstetric services available for women with disabilities, and measures to address discrimination and barriers faced by women in poverty, women with disabilities, older women, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, Roma women, women drug users and women living with HIV/AIDS. Please also describe measures taken to expand the coverage and availability of family planning services for women and adolescent girls and specify whether procedures to treat infertility, including assisted reproduction, are publicly funded. Please also indicate whether the free and informed consent of women is required or verified in cases of sterilization. Information before the Committee indicates the adoption of a resolution on a national mental health programme for the period 2018–2028. Please provide information about the scope of the programme, the availability of community-based mental health programmes and measures to protect the mental health of women of all ages. Please also provide information about the measures taken to protect the lives and health of women health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that they account for the majority of workers in the health sector.

Economic empowerment of women

19.Please provide information on measures taken during the reporting period to identify and provide redress and compensation to women affected by austerity measures, particularly the reduction of social benefits and the imposition of eligibility criteria resulting in the exclusion of women from social protection (paras. 33 and 34). Please also provide information about: (a) access of women to bank loans to households in urban and rural areas during the reporting period; (b) the number of women entrepreneurs throughout the country, start-up businesses owned by women and women beneficiaries of finance schemes for businesses, including microloans and appropriate technology for establishing and developing small and medium-sized enterprises, disaggregated by urban or rural area, age, disability and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status; and (c) the level of poverty affecting women of all ages and measures to combat the social exclusion of women, particularly older women.

Rural women

20.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (paras. 35 and 36), please provide information about measures adopted during the reporting period with the aim of increasing land ownership by rural women and improving their livelihoods. Information before the Committee indicates that the natural environment is an asset in local economies. Please provide information about: (a) legal and policy frameworks to protect the natural environment and rural women’s livelihoods; and (b) mechanisms to mainstream gender equality and consult rural women organizations regarding the protection and management of natural and other assets and the water supply.

Disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women

21.In view of the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination on disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women in the State party, please provide information about the situation of the groups of women outlined below.

22.Migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women. Information before the Committee indicates that the International Protection Act of Slovenia provides for safeguards for women, including pregnant women, women with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities and those subjected to gender-based violence against women. Please explain how the State party implements the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, with respect to women seeking asylum and their dependants, and the protocols and guidance in place to ensure a gender-sensitive approach to refugee inflows and asylum claims, including in procedural matters (para. 38). Please also provide information about: (a) measures taken to combat discrimination against migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, particularly with regard to their access to education, employment, health care and housing; (b) measures to ensure the accessibility of safe houses, crisis centres and maternal homes and to provide women referred to such facilities with interpretation services; (c) reintegration services set up in the reporting period and about the results achieved; and (d)international cooperation programmes at the regional or international levels aimed at addressing the vulnerability of migrant and asylum-seeking women and ensuring the safety of women facing deportation to their country of origin.

23.Roma women. Recalling the recommendations issued by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues in 2019 (A/HRC/40/64/Add.1, para. 63), please provide information about measures taken to protect the rights of Roma women in the process of regularizing settlements, to protect them against multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including to prevent hate speech and incitement to violence against Roma women, and to ensure their equal access to social services, including education, safe drinking water, water and sanitation, affordable housing and health care.

24.Women with disabilities. In the light of the recommendations issued by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD/C/SVN/CO/1, paras. 6 and 7), please provide information about steps taken to mainstream the rights of women with disabilities in legislation and policies on gender equality. Please also inform the Committee about the situation of women and girls with disabilities in institutions, including psychiatric hospitals and residential institutions, and about programmes adopted during the reporting period to promote the social inclusion of women with disabilities.

Marriage and family relations

25.Please explain the current legal framework concerning marriage and family relations, in particular how it guarantees that women and men have the same rights and responsibilities during marriage, at its dissolution and in all family matters, including inheritance, property rights and child custody. Please provide information on monitoring mechanisms concerning the effective enforcement of the decisions concerning child maintenance payments (para. 42). Please specify if there is any subsidy available for single-parent families in the absence of child maintenance payments.

Climate change

26.In the light of information about the impact and vulnerability of the State party to natural disasters, such as floods and forest fires, which are expected to occur more frequently owing to climate change, please describe how women’s organizations are consulted and participate in decision-making procedures regarding climate change with the aim of establishing legal frameworks on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction that are responsive to gender equality and the rights of women.

Additional information

27.Please provide any additional information deemed relevant with regard to legislative, policy, administrative and any other measures taken to implement the provisions of the Convention and the Committee’s concluding observations since the consideration of the previous periodic reports, in 2015. Such measures may include recent laws, developments, plans and programmes, recent ratifications of human rights instruments or any other information that the State party considers relevant. Please note that, further to the issues raised herein, the State party will be expected, during the dialogue, to respond to additional questions relating to areas covered by the Convention.

Sustainable Development Goals

28.Please provide information about measures taken to integrate a gender perspective into all efforts aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.