letopis sazu 2010

the Academy last year intervened in four cases, in which scientists in Syria and
Turkey were imprisoned on charges of verbal offenses.
The Chair of our Human Rights Commission and I submitted a request for
constitutional review of the Act on Archives, on the basis of which the Administrative
Court issued an absurd order to transfer patient files from the University
Department of Psychiatry to the Public Archives of the Republic of Slovenia as
they represent an important part of the cultural heritage of the Slovenian nation.
This anachronism would violate the right of the most vulnerable minority, people
with mental disorders, to protection of their highly sensitive personal data and
would also contradict one of the fundamental sacred obligations of the code of
ethics and deontology of the medical profession.
The Slovenian nation still lives in the shadow of the macabre events during
and after the Second World War. Many of us believe that the thousands of unfortunate
men, women and children cruelly killed in extrajudicial post-war mass
executions should finally be granted compassionate memory, that the crimes
committed against them should be condemned without reservation, and that the
perpetrators who repent should finally be forgiven. It is true that many steps have
been made, but it is equally true that there have been too few reconciliatory actions.
As long as this work remains unfinished, until enough Slovenians understand and
accept its necessity, the nation will not have a sound foundation upon which to
build a secure future. In the past two years, the Academy has made efforts to adopt
a Statement on post-war human rights violations, as drafted by its Human Rights
Commission. Worst of all, of course, were the extra-judicial killings. The draft of
the Statement also mentioned the continuing unethical conduct of the authorities
over the following decades. Many of us are disappointed because the effort ended
unsuccessfully. It became apparent that we were unable to achieve a sufficient
consensus to publish the prepared text - not even with amendments - in the name
of the Academy. The majority of us are aware how important it would be if reputable
institutions, such as the Academy, contributed to the general acceptance of
at least minimal ethical standards, below which nobody would be allowed to go,
regardless of the circumstances. Let me highlight just one: the State and society
cannot be permitted to punish crimes, real or imaginary, with blind retribution,
bypassing the judicial system. But there are also many other practices constituting
gross violations of the ethical minimum, which are completely unacceptable,
even more so in peacetime. To this day, this remains unclear to the general public
(and to the media controlling it). It seems that even the question of what a government,
bound by oath to protect the law and human rights, must never do, remains
a matter of controversy. The Commission decided that the draft of the Statement
and the accompanying materials will be stored in the Academy’s archives. A more
detailed report on the views and reactions of the members is available to those
who express such a wish.
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