Address by Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic
H.E. Pal CSAKY

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Excellencies, Dear Friends,

It is my great pleasure and honor to be here today and be a part of this unique and remarkable event. It has been put together thanks to the energy, enthusiasm and dedication of many Americans, Czechs and Slovaks. I am very honored by your invitation and it pleases me to see that the ties connecting us in the past exist today as well. Let me extend my sincere gratitude to our hosts,  Dr. Benjamin Ladner, president of the American University, Dr. Miloslav Rechcigl, President of SVU and also to all the volunteers who have made this event happen.

Civil society and democracy has been a very fitting choice for a central theme of the Congress. Slightly more than a decade has passed since people of Central and Eastern Europe laid the foundations of a society where these terms would not sound hollow. With various degrees of  success and at a different pace of progress, building and shaping continues.

I would like to spend my time here by talking about Slovakia and about our building and shaping. The country is still a young republic. In the past seven years it has been through very different stages of development. In 1993 and 1994  we were searching for a direction to which Slovakia should be headed.  Elections in the fall of 1994   set us on a wrong path - toward self-inflicted isolation, full of blunders, myths and anachronisms. As representatives of political oppositon in those days, we did not find enough strength to steer the previous government away from that direction.

There is always a payback time - in our case it materialized in a lost opportunity for anchoring Slovakia in democratic economic and security institutions which now benefit our neighbors to the West, South and North.  We lost our bid for NATO, for the first group of candidates for the EU membership and just very recently have made up for the lost time by invitation to become the 30th member of the OECD.

While in the opposition,  we were permanently pointing out to the dangers of such development and were fully aware that it was bad not only for Slovakia but also for our neighbors and Europe as a whole. We have been and we are aware of the size and capabilities of our country. We realize that Central and Eastern Europe is a  very interesting region for the rest of the democratic world. And we are certainly aware of the fact that we can become a respected member of democratic community only if we share the values which unite the democrats and democratic countries around the world. We know very well that this compatibility requires from us deep internal changes, it requires to abandon our communist era reflexes and it wants from us to view the world through different eyes.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am delighted that in pursuing these goals I have a privilege to represent a government whose program and whose members received such a strong support in the Parliament - more than three fifth of the vote. I am also delighted to introduce you not only to our intentions  but also to the steps which have already been taken.

The Slovak Republic enjoys functioning institutions typical for a democratic state and a rule of law.  It is a multiethnic state and we can disduss serious achievements in building a tolerant society. You might be aware of the fact that I myself am  a member of the Hungarian community. In a twenty member Slovak government  the Minister of Construction and Regional Development,  Minister of Environment and myself represent the Party of Hungarian Coalition.

My area of responsibility is upholding of  human and minority rights in our country where I work very closely with an appropriate Parliamentary committee which is also led by my colleague from the Hungarian Coalition. In the Government there are several Councils which work under my guidance:
Council for Human Rights and Minorities
Council for Non governmental organizations
Council for Sustainable Development
and also the Council for Regional Policy

We have been working hard on incorporating all participants in the doemocratic process
- NGOs, minoritiy community, local leaders and academia 
- into our decision making. We pride ourselves in conducting a very open and democratic policy:
We have adopted a law according to which all governmental non-classified documents are in fact available to the public. Government adopted a program to fight all forms of intolerance, xenophobia and antisemitism and another program to fight corruption. We are dedicated to apply this program effectively.

At the moment we are in preparations of legislation which would reform public administration, decentralize power in the country and shift the decison making process away from Bratislava.

Slovakia is inhabited by a relatively high number of Roma population which has been traditionally the most impoverished and least educated segment of he society not only in Slovakia. We have extended our hand for cooperation in order to break the mold of poverty and despair. The implementation of actual programs is conducted by a Plenipotentiary of the Government who is working under the auspices of my office. He is also part of the community.

The 1999 Slovak budget  as well as the one for 2000 earmarked a separate amount of resources to support minority cultures and another fund focused on issues concerning Roma.   Both funds are disbursed autonomously by respective minority groups. The Government has also adopted a separate strategy  for Roma issues and works with the PHARE program of the EU on a Minority Tolerance Programme and Minority Development Programme.   We are open to any advice or dialogue in this matter. Slovakia works closely with structures of intl. organizations such as UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, but also on a bilateral basis with all interested parties.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the US government and Congress as well as NGO sector in the US for all forms of support in various areas.

Ladies and gentlemen,
We are fully aware that none of the countries can pursue its goals in isolation, therefore we have a very strong interest in all forms of international cooperation. We have excellent relations with our neighbors. Recently we have been able to come to an agreement on some sensitive issues with the Czech Republic which waited for seven years to be solved. With Hungary we are building new bridges over the Danube River and this year we’re opening new consulates in Kosice and Bekescsaba. Poland has played an invaluable role of a mediator in our bid for the OECD.

We are pleased that the EU Summit in Helsinki last year opened the door for accession negotiations for Slovakia as well.  EU and NATO memberships remain the top priority of our foreign policy. I am delighted to report that Slovakia in the past 18 months has changed from a troublemaker into a cooperative partner. Our efforts to have good relations with the neighbors apply also to the countries in the East. However, unfavorable developments in some areas of cooperation has led to the introduction of visa policy toward Russia, Ukraineand Belarus.

Ladies and gentlemen,
So far I have been musing about the positives of our governance. I have had no intention to say that the problems do not exist. But I am certain that we have what we need to overcome them.  As I have mentioned earlier, we are open to dialogue on any form of cooperation. Our economy has become quite liberalized, we are about to privatize banks, energy and other lucrative sectors. Interest in making foreign Investments is always welcome.

In conclusion I would like to thank you for your attention. It was an honor to stand before you and inform you about our intentions. I am grateful for your attitude of goodwill and friendship toward my country and my government. Your attention and friendship will make our metaforical building and shaping a much more pleaasurable experience.

THANK YOU

Attachment:

Presentation of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Government Pal Csáky
on the topic of "The Helsinki Final Act: A Slovak Perspective"
RFE, August 10, 2000

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be here today. I am honored by this invitation to come before you and continue the dialogue on the legacy of the Helsinki Final Act. Before I do that let me say that I find this forum the most appropriate for such dialogue. Years before the Final Act could reach out the territory beyond the Iron Curtain, reporters of  the RFE were laying the groundwork for changes brought up in 1974 by providing an honest assessment of communist reality. I am grateful for that and so are many Slovak citizens.

On Tuesday, the audience in this room had an opportunity to examine the Helsinki Final Act from a broader perspective of  a leader of the free world, presented by Assistant Secretary of State Harold KOH. As he demonstrated in his and Secretary Albright’s personal story, a robust growth of democracy around the world has happened in just over one lifetime.

Last November Slovakia celebrated its first decade as a free country. Along with successes we had to remind ourselves first of all of setbacks which cost us dearly in institutionalizing Slovakia as a standard democracy. In my Tuesday meetings with Mr. Koh as well as experts of the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress I was heartened by their support for Slovakia’s effort to this process. I was also pleased by their appreciation of work my Government has  done since 1998 to address the areas of  ethnic and racial coexistence in my country.  I will be happy to share with you the Slovak perspective of  The Helsinki Final Act and talk also about the work I have just mentioned.

Let me begin with a critical view of the Act, though. Among many welcoming statements on the occasion of the August 1 anniversary, I have found also one by a leading Russian human rights activist, Yelena Bonner. She said that "The West got nothing but an illusory promise to observe human rights that the Soviet Union got around perfectly well".

I would agree with the first part - that in 1974 it might have been just that  - "an illusory promise" for which many Russian and other activists in CEE ended up in jails. But it was definitely an "upgrade" from a category of "dreams" where notions such as "democracy", "economic liberty" or "independent media" were safely delegated by the communist regimes. Looking at the European crisis of today we can say that unfortunately, 25 years later a change for better is still a way more laborious than the one for worse.

HELSINKI FINAL ACT FROM TODAY’S PERSPECTIVE

Looking at the importance of the Helsinki Final Act from present perspective, we can approach it from two different angles. Firstly, by adopting the Decalogue of basic principles guiding relations among states, those thirty-five states involved in the Helsinki process introduced real qualitative changes in the relations between East and West. The Helsinki process contributed to European security and stability through enhanced co-operation and participation of the two blocs in confidence building measures. The primary aim was to achieve stabilization and peaceful change throughout Europe. The guiding principles, such as sovereign equality of states, refraining from the threat or use of force, territorial integrity of states, peaceful settlement of disputes, became widely recognized norms of international law.

Secondly, the far-reaching significance of the Helsinki process lies in particular in its impact on the internal development of the countries of the former Soviet bloc. By focusing on "human dimension" of international relations, the Helsinki process provided political opposition in these countries with a defined framework for developing new forms of activities. The numerous civic movements, such as the Charter 77 in what was then Czechoslovakia, were given an opportunity to attract the attention of international community to various forms of human rights violations in these countries and to develop more effective pressure on their communist leaders to observe the commitments agreed upon in Helsinki.

From this viewpoint, the Helsinki process had profoundly contributed to the gradual erosion of communism and collapse of the totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe. A decade after the signing of the Final Act Soviet regime began to crumble. It took only a half of that period afterwards to set the whole Eastern Europe on a fundamentally different path of political, economic and social transformation based on democracy and rule of law.

I would agree with Yelena Bonner that the Final Act, having been elaborated under very different geopolitical conditions, had its shortcomings. References to protection of national minorities for instance were all made within a framework of general statements on fundamental human rights and freedoms. The absence of real tools and mechanisms to influence the developments in the CSCE participating states due to the principle of non-intervention, was also characteristic for the period. It was not until the fall of communism and adoption of another CSCE documents such as the Paris Charter for a new Europe and the Copenhagen Document that these issues were addressed in a more profound way.

HELSINKI FINAL ACT - SLOVAK PERSPECTIVE

When examining our own perspective, we have to remember that the Slovak Republic did not exist as an independent state during most of  the Helsinki process period. So on January 1, 1993 the legacy of Czechoslovakia, one of the most democratic states of Europe in an inter-war period, was a plus but an independent Slovakia carried also a negative experience of four following decades of communist experiment.

These factors along with additional realities of a deeper Slovak past were the reason why the development in the Slovak Republic did not follow a more straightforward route of its neighbors toward economic and security structures of the West.

I am proud to say however, that Slovakia is a quick study. What in 1997 looked like a hopeless backwater of Central Europe showed a remarkably well developed civil society in 1998 when the Government of Vladimir Meciar was ousted in the fall elections and since then has progressed on its path of democracy and rule of law more than ever before.

In the spirit of the Helsinki principles, the Slovak foreign policy is fully committed to the strengthening of peace and stability in Europe. The Slovak Republic has managed to strengthen its human rights record to a considerable degree. While challenges remain, Slovakia has now been enjoying reputation of a country which negotiates in a good faith and strives to achieve the goals of international community as well as those of its own population.

The Slovak Republic today has ethnically the most diverse population in Central Europe. More than one fifth of the population are citizens belonging to national minorities - myself being a member of the most populous one - Hungarians. Issues of  minority rights were being addressed from the very start of independent Slovakia. In the process, we have gone through various stages of success as well as frustration and despair. At present I would say that our limits in moving the rights of minorities further are not set by unwillingness of the parties to negotiate but rather by our resources to bring the results to life.

Another limit we can talk about is the one each of us carry within. Mr. Koh on Tuesday talked about why we obey the law and internalizing these norms. And that’s a limit which needs to be worked on from inside. In some countries this process has gone further down the road, I believe we in Slovakia are not too far from the leading pack.

Recently, Slovakia and its population have passed another test of their maturity. The July decision of the OECD Council to bring Slovakia in as its 30th member confirms that Slovakia is on the right track. We hope that a faster economic growth will be a desirable side effect of this decision. For it is the need of additional resources to successfully tackle the challenge posed by the current status of our second largest minority - the Roma.

I would like to leave the details regarding this topic for the Q&A period so that you do not have to listen to what you have already heard.  I would only mention that this Government and my office work hand-in-hand with Roma activists and their organizations to lift their people from a vicious circle of little education, unemployment and poverty.

Vincent Danihel, Government Plenipotentiary for Addressing Roma Minority Problems formulated, in cooperation with Roma and non-Roma NGOs, offered a „Strategy of the Government of the Slovak Republic to Address the Problems of the Roma National Minority and the Set of Measures for Its Implementation - Stage I". It presents a long-term, systemic approach of the Government towards the issues related to Roma, measures taken by the Government in the area of education and instruction of Roma ethnic community, promotion of Roma language and culture, unemployment, housing, social and healthcare problems of the Roma population. "Stage II" of this Document was approved by the Government Resolution No. 294 of 3 May 2000. As a set of concrete tasks for implementing Stage I Strategy, it is based on a  „bottom to top" principle.

The Roma issue has earned an international spotlight by numerous cases of emigration to the countries of the EU. Hostility provoked by this largely economic migration among the populations on both sides of the issue (EU as well as the countries of origin) has not made the search for solutions any easier. Slovakia can be satisfied with the ruling of the the Commission of Law Lords of the British Parliament last month in the case of a Slovak Roma Milan Horvath denying him an asylum in the UK on political basis. Nevertheless, it will not solve a serious question posed by the situation Roma find themselves in Europe at the begining of the 21st century politically, economically and also from a perspective of their place within society.

Additional Actions adopted recently in Slovakia:

- On 3 May 2000, the Slovak Republic adopted an Action Plan to Prevent All Forms of Discrimination, Racism, Xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Other Manifestations of Intolerance for the 2000-2001 Period. Its aim is to contribute to creating an atmosphere of tolerance, mutual understanding, and good coexistence of the population of the Slovak  Republic.

Slovakia’s contribution to the World Conference against Racism was the National Conference of the Slovak Republic against Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Discrimination, held under the auspices of the President of the Republic on 18 May 2000.   Concrete official conclusions adopted at the National Conference represent recommendations for central bodies of the Slovak Republic in the area of preventing discrimination, including:
- improved access to information about international human rights documents, mechanisms for human rights protection through educational programmes for individual professional groups and training courses.
- creation of positions of assistants to the Police Corps, prison and court guard, in educational and healthcare establishments, including appointment of persons belonging to the Roma national minority to these positions
- adoption of legislation enabling the creation of barrier-free environment for disabled persons, in particular access to buildings, offices and public transportation, and amendment of the law on the compensation of victims of violent crimes with a view to removing the disproportion in the amount of compensation between the victims of bodily injury and the victims of rape
- formulation of a comprehensive program of education of children and young persons to human rights, against discrimination, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other manifestations of intolerance
- recommendation for the bodies in charge of media supervision, co-ordination of audio-visual services, adoption of measures to secure effective access to information for hearing impaired persons in public service television broadcasting, and publication of information via Internet (such as the latest conclusions and documents from official travels and negotiations of experts of the Slovak Republic at the Council of Europe and other international organisations in the field of human rights).

To conclude my remarks I would say that the Helsinki Final Act provided a good start for something I would call a very long run for all of us.  And as we develop our stamina to stay in this run and our taste for occasional victories, we should not forget that running itself  is only means but not the purpose why we’re all doing this.   Our purpose is to make our societies provide opportunities for a decent human life to all those who comprise them. And in that Help us God. Thank you.

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