The Office of the Commissioner for Children is a Slovakian state institution overseeing the protection of the rights of the child.
The Office was established by law in parallel with the Office of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
The Office was established with a view to cover the full scope of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol, which neither the mandate of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights nor the mandate of the Public Defender of Rights fulfilled.
How can it help you
Complaints regarding children’s rights
You as a child can turn to the Commissioner for Children either directly or through a third person, if you feel that your rights or best interests have been violated or hampered, or if you feel discriminated against by any public authority or private entity. You can do that without the consent or knowledge of your parents, guardian, carer or the school you attend.
The Commissioner can provide you psychological and emotional support, and she can advise you what procedures you should follow if your case is outside her competences. The Commissioner, after investigating your case, can issue her opinion. If she finds your complaint valid, she can turn with her recommendations to the subject who violated your right or legitimate interest. The violator is expected to rectify the wrongdoing and inform the Commissioner about the appropriate measures adopted.
The Commissioner is not authorised to act in criminal proceedings. If she receives a complaint which she assesses to be a criminal case, she forwards the case to the prosecutor’s office. The Commissioner has no competence in relation to constitutional bodies, either, like courts, the public prosecutor’s office, the National Council of the Slovak Republic, or the Government.
You or a person on your behalf can file a complaint either by mail (address below) or orally in a meeting with the Commissioner or an employee of the Office. You can also do so via e-mail info@komisarpredeti.sk or you can call the special helpline on +421 (0) 950 439 342, which is available every day around-the-clock. If you have no money to send a regular mail, any post-office is obliged to receive your communication addressed to the Commissioner even if it is not put into an envelope and provided by a post stamp. In the communication with the Commissioner, everyone is free to use his or her mother tongue. Costs of interpretation or translation are borne by the Office.
Activities
- Examining complaints concerning violations of the right of the child
- Monitoring of the implementation of the rights of the child
- Submitting notifications on behalf of the child or children to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (after all available national remedies have been exhausted)
- Promoting the best interests of children in society, working with children directly or through children’s rights organizations
- Issuing recommendations aimed at raising the efficacy of the protection of children's rights
- Visiting places of detention – facilities of juvenile justice, re-education centres etc., with the right to interviewing children in private and issuing recommendations
- Submitting reports on her activities to the National Council of the Slovak Republic annually