Slovak Constitutional Court to decide on positive discrimination  
Bratislava, 10. 10. 2004, 20:08 (CTK)

The Slovak Constitutional Court will be deciding on whether the passage about positive discrimination of the anti-discrimination law, which has been in effect since July, as Mikulas Dzurinda's government decided after long disputes last week to turn to the court. The law bans discriminating against people on grounds of sex, religion, nationality, racial origin, sexual orientation and the state of health.

The law also unifies the legal protection of ethnic minorities which had been dispersed in several other laws. The law was pushed through mainly by the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) in spite of a persistent resistance by the coalition Christian Democrats (KDH), who said that it would suffice to amend the valid legislation. The KDH also disliked the provision banning discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

The bickering over the anti-discrimination law, which narrowed in the past weeks into disputes over whether positive discrimination is constitutional or not, developed into a personal dispute between deputy prime minister for human rights Pal Csaky (SMK) and Justice Minister Daniel Lipsic (KDH). Csaky says that the law-embedded possibility of giving someone advantage from time to time mainly aims to help Romanies extricate themselves from backward conditions. "It is a matter of principle. Do we want to create an effective basis for solving the Romany issue or not," he asks. He points out that the principle of positive discrimination has helped Afro-Americans in the United States and that it is also applied in the European Union. "Positive discrimination is unjust as any other discrimination," Lipsic says.

He says that the constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms to all irrespective of race and colour of skin, and therefore it is neither possible to disadvantage anyone nor to give any advantage to anyone.

Lipsic disagrees with Csaky's argument that positive discrimination will be applied individually, saying that there is nothing about this in the law.

Lispic has eventually persuaded a majority of other ministers that the dispute should be resolved by the Constitutional Court. The respective resolution was approved by a tight majority of votes at the government.

Csaky was angered that Agriculture Minister Zsolt Simon, also a member of the SMK, left the government before the vote. The Bratislava-based Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) released a poll last week according to which 85 percent of Slovaks are in favour of the anti-discrimination law.

The European Union demands all member countries to have a general anti-discrimination directive. The "old" member countries were to have it by the end of last year already and the European Commission sent five countries which failed to meet the deadline to the European Court.

The Czech Republic, which entered the EU on May 1 just as Slovakia did, does not have the law either. The government council for human rights has already drafted its final version and the government should discuss in the weeks ahead.

ms/mr (CTK)