Constitutional Review of the Šutar Law Confirms Serious Rule-of-Law Concerns

February 2026 -2 minutes read

The Roma Foundation for Europe has repeatedly warned that Slovenia's Šutar Law risks undermining constitutional guarantees and fundamental rights. Intervention by the Human Rights Ombudsman now brings those concerns before the Constitutional Court.

Brussels, 23 February 2026 – The Roma Foundation for Europe welcomes the decision of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia to request a constitutional review of Article 8 of the Act on Urgent Measures to Ensure Public Safety, known as the Šutar Law, and to seek its temporary suspension.

The law was drafted and rushed through Parliament under urgent procedure less than two weeks after the killing of Ales Šutar in Novo Mesto, amid a climate of heightened tension and public pressure. From the outset, the Roma Foundation for Europe warned that the legislation risked subjecting Roma settlements to intensified surveillance, warrantless entry and conditional welfare measures, effectively treating entire communities as security concerns rather than as rights-holders, and transforming a tragic act into a framework for permanent exception.

The Ombudsman’s intervention now confirms that these concerns are grounded in serious legal questions. Article 8, which enables measures affecting access to social assistance and basic subsistence, risks undermining dignity, legal certainty and the protection of children. It also raises questions regarding proportionality, retroactive application, and procedural safeguards.

Mensur Haliti, Vice President of the Roma Foundation for Europe, stated: “The Ombudsman’s action confirms that the concerns raised about the Šutar Law are not political rhetoric but constitutional questions. Security cannot come at the expense of fundamental rights, nor can collective suspicion replace individual accountability.”

The Foundation reiterates that addressing crime and violence requires proportionate, evidence-based responses. Conflating public safety with broad measures targeting areas inhabited by those already excluded from equal political participation risks deepening divisions rather than resolving tensions.

At a time when the European Union calls on candidate countries to uphold the highest ule-of-law standards, developments within a member state carry wider implications. The credibility of European conditionality depends on consistency at home. Constitutional scrutiny in Slovenia is therefore not only a domestic matter but a European one.

The Roma Foundation for Europe calls on Slovenian authorities to cooperate fully with the Constitutional Court’s review and to ensure that any public safety measures remain firmly anchored in constitutional guarantees and fundamental rights

Author(s)

Roma Foundation for Europe

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