Position Paper of Slovenia, Zara Hovhannisyan

[Zara Hovhannisyan]

Position Paper of Slovenia on the issue of the global Financial and Economic Crisis
Zaruhi Hovhannisyan

Slovenia is much influenced by the global financial and economic crisis. Almost every single field of the economic and social life of the country has been affected by that disease.
For more than two years, Slovenia’s economy has grown vigorously. But as exports and investment, the two engines of Slovenian economic growth, slow down, analysts are taking a harder look at the economy’s prospects. Growth is forecasted at 4.8 percent for 2008, down from a record 6.8 percent last year. Nowadays it is expected that 8,000 jobs will be cut in manufacturing, 5,000 in construction and 500 in retail. The foreign workforce in Slovenia will be hardest hit. Because Slovenia’s main trading partners are experiencing the same problems, export growth will also decrease. The current situation in the global economy is reflected in the changing demand patterns in the tourism and travel industry.
Today the Slovene government formed the Group for Anti-Crisis Measures in November 2008 as a special task force to craft and coordinate measures in response to the financial turmoil.
Slovenia believes that it is here where the crucial role of international cooperation will be most evident. The world is already interlinked to such an extent that no country can count on quality development if it resorts to protectionism or any other form of isolation. Now we must take timely action at the global level. Negotiations on international trade liberalization within the Doha Round must be pursued and successfully completed.
The whole world and Slovenia as well, awaits with hope the April G20 Summit in London, which should open the way to a new, more integrated, and better regulated and, above all, more representative system of international finance.
The largest and most global international organization, the United Nations, should undergo changes. Its programms are outdated in many aspects, and their modernization must be accelerated. The composition of the UN Security Council has not adequately reflected the contemporary world for quite some time. The number of permanent members must be increased, without increasing the number of those with veto rights. Furthermore, the number of non-permanent members must be increased and the system of rotation of non-permanent members improved.
Summing up Slovenia states that it is strongly and vitally important for our further development to come out somehow of this terrible situation. Slovenia is for joining and struggling against it and believes that the world is able to find a solution!

Position paper of Slovenia on the issue of the human rights education
Zaruhi Hovhannisyan

Over these years, our democratic system has developed and strengthened. In the past year we held parliamentary elections, which expressed reflected the will of the people. The new Government has undertaken the tasks of this year with utmost seriousness. We have every reason to expect that in the coming period in Slovenia, human rights, the most precious value of civilization, will enjoy the highest level of attention, respect and efforts for their full implementation.
The Republic of Slovenia's very existance is rooted in the popular strive for democracy and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Slovenia has continuosly strived, as a matter of policy, to contribute constructively and progressively to the universal promotion and protection of human rights.
Human rights provisions represent 1/3 of all provisions of the Slovenian Constitution. Further, the Chapter of the Slovenian Constitution entitled «Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms» is placed as Chapter 2, directly after the General Provisions of the Constitution. Human Rights also constitute one of the key pillars of Slovenia's foreign policy.
Slovenia is eager to support mainstreaming of human rights into all the aspects of UN activities. Including through communication between the HRC and other UN bodies.
Slovenia remains committed to the aims and principles of the UN Charter, norms and standards, emanating from the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international instruments in the field of human rights law, international humanitarian and refugee law. Today Slovenia ratified a long list of international instruments in the field of human rights law, including:
-International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols,
-Intetnational Convention on the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination,
-Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimanation against women and its optional protocol
-Convention on the rights of the child and its two optional protocols,
-Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
-Four Geneva conventions and their two additional protocols,
- The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
- The additional protocol to Prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the UN Convention against transnational organized crime,
-Convention on the Status of Refugees and its Protocol.
According to the Slovenian Constitution, these international legal instruments are directly applicable in the Slovenian legal order.
Slovenia will be happy to promote the development of human rights norms during this year, in accordance with the GA Resolution # 62/171, both on the national level and in the whole world through cooperation!