Republic of Slovenia

Covers the period from April 2001 to March 2004.

Population: 2.0 million (0.4 million under 18)
Government armed forces: 6,550
Compulsory recruitment age: 18 until end-2003 (conscription now abolished)
Voluntary recruitment age: 17
Voting age: 18
Optional Protocol: signed 8 September 2000
Other treaties ratified (see glossary): CRC, GC AP I and II, ICC, ILO 138, ILO 182

The minimum voluntary recruitment age was 17 but it was not known whether under-18s were serving in the armed forces.

Context

People detained by the police were frequently denied their rights to call their family or a lawyer, or to receive medical assistance. Members of ethnic and racial minorities, often children, were targeted for ill-treatment, which usually occurred during routine police arrests and detentions.1 On 29 March 2004 Slovenia became a member of NATO.2

Government

National recruitment legislation and practice

In April 2002 the government announced a decision to end conscription. Compulsory military service ended in October 2003. Compulsory reserve service was due to end in 2010.3 Previously, all men aged between 18 and 27 were liable to perform military service under the 1995 Military Service Act. Under the Act, draft duty was obligatory from the age of 18, but recruits were called up at 19, although in time of war or emergency 18 year olds could also be called up (Article 27).4

The 1991 Law on Military Obligation allowed volunteers to be recruited from the age of 16, during the year they turn 17.5

Military training and military schools

The military education system has been overhauled. Education on defence in primary and secondary schools was abolished in the 1990s.

Developments

In its second report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Slovenia said that, as part of its work for children traumatized by war, it had introduced educational programs for children in Bosnia-Herzegovina and for mental health workers and teachers from Chechnya.6

Slovenia has spoken out in favour of measures to combat the use of child soldiers at the international level. At a UN Security Council debate on children in armed conflict on 14 January 2003, Slovenia's Permanent Representative said that Slovenia would ratify the Optional Protocol "in the very near future". He said that Slovenia had established an institution for war-affected children in southeast Europe and that the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims, based in Slovenia, had worked to improve safety in the region.7

1 Amnesty International Report 2004, http://web. amnesty.org/library/engindex.

2 NATO update, Seven new members join NATO, 29 March 2004, http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2004/03-march/e0329a.htm.

3 US Department of State, Background note: Slovenia, May 2004, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3407.htm.

4 Second periodic report of Slovenia to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/70.Add 19, 18 June 2003, http://www.ohchr.org.

5 Initial report of Slovenia to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/8/Add.25, 30 May 1995.

6 Second periodic report to UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, op. cit.

7 Statement, http://www.sigov.si/mzz/dkp/mny/eng/children.html.

Disclaimer:

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.