Free legal aid provided by the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights
The Slovak National Centre for Human Rights is a national equality body and a national human rights institution established in Slovakia.
PROCEDURE OF FILING A COMPLAINT:
Filing a formal complaint
Everyone and anyone can turn to the Slovak national centre for human rights:
Anyone can contact the Centre by the following means:
- in writing, at the Centre’s headquarters in Bratislava or regional offices in Banská Bystrica, Košice and Žilina,
- in person at the Centre’s headquarters or the regional offices,
- by e-mail at info@snslp.sk.
Substantive elements of the complaint
The complaint should include:
- the applicant’s name and surname,
- identification of the individual or the legal entity who the applicant writes about,
- a detailed description of the situation alleged,
- what the applicant is seeking,
- copies of the documents proving the applicant’s accusations.
If your complaint lacks the aforementioned parts, the Centre will contact you by mail, e-mail or phone to ask you to complete it. Your complaint cannot be closed if the information provided is not completed.
Personal data protection of the applicant
In compliance with the applicable legislation, the Centre is required to ensure confidentiality and protection of personal data. As a complainant, you may request that the Centre keep your identity private. Anyone involved in the handling of a complaint, who knows the complainant’s identity, must keep it confidential.
If you do not include your name, surname and address (or the name and registered office of a legal entity) in the request, it is considered as an anonymous complaint, which the Centre will not investigate.
What happens after a complaint is received?
Watch a video that explains how legal services work and what occurs once your complaint is received.
How do I know if I am being discriminated against?
The Antidiscrimination Act provides the definition of discrimination. Discrimination is the most common in employment relations, the supply of services and goods, the provision of social assistance and health care, as well as in education and other forms of legal relations.
If you believe that you are being treated differently in a given situation than another person in a comparable position, you should consider the reason behind such treatment. As not all unequal treatment is discriminatory, it is critical to understand the reason for the treatment.
You should file the complaint if you suspect that the reason for less favourable treatment in a given situation is your gender, religion, belief, race, nationality, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital or family status, colour, language, political or other opinion, nationality, social origin, property, birth, other status, or reason for reporting crime or other anti-social activity.
Examples:
- My colleague was given preference for a promotion, despite the fact that I fit the qualifications better/managerial positions are exclusively filled by men.
- They have not promoted me since I already have one child and, “surely”, I’ll want another one soon.
- Employer put in the job posting that it is searching for young, healthy men under the age of 40 to work as warehouse clerks.
- Employees who are members of the LGBTI+ community will not be permitted to donate blood in the workplace.
- A restaurant owner denied entry to a restaurant or the shop to a Roma simply on the basis of his/her ethnicity.
- When class assignments were made, the school placed some students from marginalized Roma populations in a separate class, resulting in their social exclusion from the majority.