STATEMENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION
9 APRIL 2025
Yesterday we stood in solidarity at a press conference held by the Platform for Democracy on the law against non-governmental organizations.
Human Rights Coalition categorically rejects this proposal and call on members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic to reject it, including any amendments. This law has one goal only: to silence and persecute criticism, stigmatize financial support, obstruct assistance, and dismantle civil society.
We are organizations that believe in universal human rights. Every day we help where state does not.
- Women fleeing war, to whom we provide counseling and interpretation services when accessing healthcare
- Women seeking safe abortion access – we accompany them, provide information, contacts, and support
- Teachers fighting against the segregation of Roma children
- queer people all around Slovakia,
- young people, whom we teach to recognize injustice and stand up to it,
- children and adolescents through relationship and sex education that protects their health, safety, and bodily autonomy,
- communities building safe spaces for gathering, education, culture, and activism,
- human rights defenders who need care, professional support, and understanding,
- and those who want to take their first steps in civic engagement, fighting to make Slovakia better
This is only a fraction of our activities. We help communities, educate, network, and create safe spaces. We are where the state fails to be – both loudly and quietly.
However, our job is not only to be present where the state is not, but also to promote positive change, which cannot be achieved without criticism. This criticism is not personal or self-serving, but factual, principled, and constructive. Criticism is inevitable in the human rights defense. It protects against arbitrariness and inaction. It is the voice of those whom the powerful forget about or whose lives they seek to make worse. Attempts to silence criticism are an attack on the very foundations of a society based on respect for human rights.
Defending human rights is challenging. It is exhausting, uncertain, and frightening. Yet it brings change – it improves quality of life, increases feelings of safety, and access to justice.
That is why we need laws that protect us, not threaten us. However, this bill directly threatens our work for all people in Slovakia.
