Slovakia: the Trojan Horse in the Future Unified Europe?

by Alexander Rehák and Miloslav Ambrus

The December/January 2001 issue of International Humanist News contained a statement from IHEU denouncing the situation of non-denominational citizens and Humanists in Slovakia, asking the national and international bodies to rectify such neglect of fundamental human rights before the accession of Slovakia to the European Union. The statement was also published on the IHEU website and received considerable supporting feedback.

In the past two years, the situation, far from improving, has worsened to an unprecedented level. The neglect of the 13–16% of the population with no religious adherence is, however, minor compared to the overall strategy of the regime, apparent in the legislative steps implemented and the statements of representative politicians. This strategy amounts to enshrining religion in the legal system.

Laws Regulating Relations Between State and Church The laws initially passed in the former Czechoslovak Republic, and subsequently in the Slovak Republic following the overthrow of the communist regime in November 1989 were unequivocally directed at transforming the state into a truly democratic civil society. Yet this goal was soon compromised. In July 1991, a law concerning freedom of religion and the status of churches and religious communities was passed in the Czechoslovak Federal Republic (CSFR) which ignored the existence of non-denominational citizens in the population. In March 1992, another law concerning registering churches and religious communities in the newly formed Slovak Republic included the condition that new churches can only be registered with a petition of at least 20,000 signatures by citizens permanently resident in Slovakia. The intention was clear: to secure the dominant position of Catholicism in the state. The Catholic Church has also gained considerably financially and in terms of real-estate through the restitution law of 1993.

The state supports the Catholic Church morally and institutionally, and the Church is the recipient of a large proportion of the budget earmarked for developing the national culture. With such support, and the propaganda emanating from the mass media, non-believers, especially in rural areas, find themselves intimidated. This may explain the statistical (though not necessarily real) increase in those declaring themselves religious in the 1999 census. Such trends have only served to increase the confidence of the religious political lobby.

Concordat with the Holy See

A second landmark on the route to a religious state was the Concordat with the Holy See ratified by the Slovak parliament without opposition. The Concordat contains provisions constraining substantially the democratic principles of the Slovak legal system. Some articles formulate the right of the Catholic Church to enforce the rules of Canonical law on all Slovak citizens, irrespective of their own position on religion. Most notably, Article 7 states: “The Slovak Republic acknowledges the right of everyone to carry out his/her stipulations of conscience

in accordance with the teachings of creed and moral principles of the Catholic Church. The extent and conditions of implementing that right will be declared in a special international treaty concluded between the contracting parties.” The draft of this international treaty has now been made available and has provoked some reaction despite the overall growing apathy. It covers the following sectors of public life: (a) activities in the armed forces; (b) heath services (abortions, contraception, experimentation with manipulating human organs and embryos and with reproductive cells, cloning and euthanasia); education (the right to refuse to teach matters which are not consistent with Catholicism, despite the officially approved curricula); (d) lawsuit verdicts made by the judge at courts of justice (refusal of divorces, etc.). In all these cases, the citizen can refuse his or her participation without bearing legal responisibility by claiming stipulation of conscience, as declared by the Catholic Church.

Special Legal Supports for Slovakia’s Deviation from the European Norm

In January 2002, the Slovak Parliament passed a ‘Declaration about the sovereignty of the Slovak State in cultural and ethical issues’. It was immediately evident that this declaration stipulates preserving ‘Christian values and ethical tenets’, a point later confirmed by the Interior Minister, V. Palko. He also disclosed that similar declarations are under consideration in Poland and the Czech Republic. Is this a conspiracy by the candidate countries against pluralist and civil society that the EU is prepared to overrule?

In mid 2002, the Slovak Parliament discussed a new anti-discrimination law, one of the conditions to be fulfilled in order to bring the Slovak legal system into line with those of EU countries. Besides prohibiting discrimination against various philosophical life stances, the draft included a ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The draft was swept off the agenda by MPs of the Christian Democratic Party, who argued that Christian morals do not allow the passing of such a law. Clearly, in its present form, the Slovak Parliament does not make decisions based on fundamental human rights, but rather only those that do not contradict the dogma of the church.

Why should we draw attention to this situation in the official bulletin of the international Humanist movement? Because it is no local problem for Slovak Humanists only. After its accession to the EU, the Slovakian situation would threaten the democratic and pluralist principles of the whole community. It would erode these principles from within, and seek to bring other nations back to the sheep-pen of the Holy See. Slovakia’s problems are imminent problems for all European Humanists too. Humanist organizations in the member states should approach their governments demanding strict observance of human rights and the securing by legal measures of equal status for non-denominational citizens in countries aspiring accession to the EU.

Alexander Rehák and Miloslav Ambrus are members of the Prometheus Society of Slovakia.