Conference
3 and 4 December 2008, City Museum of Ljubljana
Photo: Peace Institute
On 26 February 1992 the authorities unlawfully erased 18.305 people, at the time mostly being citizens of other former Yugoslav republics, from the register of permanent residents of Republic of Slovenia. Due to this act they remained without any legal status in Slovenia. Since they did not apply for the Slovenian citizenship the authorities saw them as unfaithful to the new young nation state. Until today the erasure has still not been legally resolved despite the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the representatives of the state have not apologized for this offense. Many erased people managed to regulate their legal status in Slovenia throughout the years, though, the experience of deportations, suicides, job and housing losses, family members, partners and friends losses, health insurance and pensions remain. In 2008 there were still at least 4000 people without regulated legal status in Slovenia, many of them being displaced in other republics of former Yugoslavia, Europe and across the world. On the other hand, legal as well as political struggle of activists and some non-governmental organizations for the support of the erased people was very strong for a number of years. But the erasure remains a stain on the legal and political image of Slovenia.
Speakers at the conference: Lev Kreft, Jelka Zorn, Matevž Krivic, Ljubo Bavcon, Dragica Wedam Lukić, Andraž Teršek, Uršula Lipovec Čebron, Neža Kogovšek, Aleksandar Todorović and other researchers, legal experts, sociologists, political experts and activists, representatives of the Peace Institute, Amnesty International Slovenia, Legal Information Center – PIC, the erased and guests from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.