Positive observations included the country’s ratification of the Optional Protocol in November 2000. Slovakia also passed domestic laws to ameliorate the women’s human rights situation, including the 2004 Anti Discrimination Act on Equal Treatment in Certain Areas and Protection against Discrimination, amendments between 1999 and 2002 to the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, which criminalize violence against women, and changes to the Labor Code which allow integration of work and family life for men and women.

Also, in 2004 Slovakia implemented a National Strategy for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence Committed against Women and in Families. The government created a National Action Plan for Combating Trafficking in Persons in 2006.  And in January 2008, Slovakia established the Council of Government for Gender Equality which works to implement equality between the sexes.

However, the Committee also found areas of concern. These included limitations of anti-discriminatory legislation, violence against women, trafficking, the treatment of marginalized Roma women, women’s participation in the political sphere, employment, health, family relations, cooperation between the government and women’s non-governmental organizations, and international treaty ratifications.

Compiled from: “Draft concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Slovakia,” Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination, CEDAW/C/SVK/CO/4, 18 July 2008.