Candidate for Secretary-General of UN

Dear president Danilo Trk,

I write to you again after a long time to call upon you to take measures regarding the
respect of human rights in Slovenia, your own homeland. Especially now, when you
are running for Secretary-General of United Nations, you could distinguish yourself
with some gestures in practice as well; it would certainly be the right time for it, e.g.
in the style of show and tell.
You probably remember the many letters I swamped you with, hoping that you would
do something tangible as president of the Republic of Slovenia regarding the respect
of commitments made with the signing of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities 1 (UN CRPD), which was ratified by Slovenia as early as 2008, soon
after you took on the role of president of the republic. And then everything was
different, right?
Ten years have passed this year since this important international document had been
adopted by the UN. Back then, we had had high hopes that things will start to
turn for the better very soon, because we finally had a legal instrument with
which we could put up an adamant fight to have equal opportunities and respect
of human rights, dignity of persons with disabilities, ban on discrimination in all
aspects of living, and last but not least ban on segregation in institutions.
However, our hopes were dashed completely when all our efforts had been deceived,
played and politically abused by politicians of the time. Not only are things more or
less stagnant and UN CRPD and its individual articles are mostly ignored when
adopting current legislation, on some level things are actually turning for the worse.
One such example, ramming personal assistance into the Long-term Care Act, which
is meant for aged people, which was transferred from the domain of Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs to Ministry of Health, is telling enough. The very Preamble
of UN CRPD emphatically dismisses this paradigm.
Slovenia is still saving on public funds for the poor, the army is impoverished, we
were hit by a wave of refugees and we are expecting the next one, medical services
are in shambles, social services have no rhyme or reason, judiciary has no credibility,
especially now when the supposedly ailing Igor Bavar is playing basketball free as a
bird instead of in jail where he belongs. There are always more than enough excuses
for not finding the time and funds for Personal Assistance Act, with which we have
been pestering politicians for a decade. You yourself have been a victim of two or
three pestilent interviews with me as well.
Our focus, above all, is Article 19 of UN CRPD, which is for us, who need personal
assistance up to 24 hours per day, of utmost and decisive importance. What have you
personally done about this while you were president of the Republic of Slovenia?
Nothing, except maybe making a brief general point on 3rd December, International
Day of Persons with Disabilities that this document should be respected and its
1

Here is an easily readable version for all Slovenian members of National Assembly.
http://www.mddsz.gov.si/fileadmin/mddsz.gov.si/pageuploads/dokumenti__pdf/konvencija_invali
di_lahki_vodnik.pdf

articles implemented. Of course, this is not happening today and, as it seems, it will
not happen tomorrow either. Institutions where segregated individuals are forced to
live simply because they have disabilities, continue to exist and new ones are being
built without any special reservations. Of course, these days it is fashionable to talk
about deinstitutionalisation and to organise round tables, but all goals are set in distant
future, because "we are not ready yet." Maybe we will be ready in the next 20 or 30
years.
We were both presidential candidates in 2007 where I had a chance to meet with you
often and I have to say that it became quite clear to me very soon that you are a true
diplomat and a bureaucrat in the negative sense of both words. You smooth-talk a lot,
say little and do even less. Supposedly that is one way to make it far and diplomacy is
a guarantee to success in international circles anyway, especially as seen from
Slovenian cultural perspective: "nod to everything, counter nothing and express your
opinion as rarely as possible." I will never forget a scene when I caught you on public
television practicing with your PR agent pre-prepared answers to potential questions. I
must admit it made me laugh a little, because someone with your credentials and
reputation should, in my opinion at least, answer questions on human rights without
predicament in the middle of the night if need be.
Anyway, years have passed and you are again running for a prestigious international
post and you have active support from Slovenian government. Is it more about
prestige or is it something else? Could you maybe find some time to do something
for us?
I do not want to speculate on your chances to win the position of Secretary-General,
because I do not know your competitors but whether you are ultimately successful or
not in securing the post, it is your political and ethical duty to solve such issues not
only in Slovenia but also in the EU if not the whole world, where living conditions are
much worse and independent living is but wishful thinking.
Elena Peari