LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution provides for freedom of religious belief and affiliation as well as the right to change religious faith or to refrain from religious affiliation. It prohibits discrimination on religious grounds. The constitution states the country is not bound to any particular faith and religious groups shall manage their affairs independently of the state, including in providing religious education and establishing clerical institutions. The constitution guarantees the right to practice one’s faith privately or publicly, either alone or in association with others. It states the exercise of religious rights may be restricted only by measures “necessary in a democratic society for the protection of public order, health, and morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

The law prohibits establishing, supporting, and promoting groups dedicated to the suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms, which courts have interpreted to include Nazis and neo-Nazis, as well as “demonstrating sympathy” with such groups. Violators are subject to up to five years’ imprisonment.

The law requires religious groups to register with the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Church Affairs to employ spiritual leaders to perform officially recognized functions. Clergy from unregistered religious groups do not have the right to minister to their members in prisons or government hospitals. Civil functions such as weddings officiated by clergy from registered groups are recognized by the state, while those presided over by clergy from unregistered groups are not, and these couples must undergo an additional civil ceremony. Unregistered groups may apply to provide spiritual guidance to their adherents in prisons, but they have no legal recourse if their requests are denied. Unregistered groups may conduct religious services, which the government recognizes as private, rather than religious, activities. Unregistered groups lack legal status and may not establish religious schools or receive government funding. The law exempts registered groups from the duty to notify public authorities in advance of organizing public assemblies but does not allow this exemption for unregistered groups.

Under the law, organizations seeking registration as religious groups must have a minimum of 50,000 adherents. The 50,000 adherents must be adult citizens with permanent residence in the country and must submit to the Ministry of Culture an “honest declaration” attesting to their membership, knowledge of the articles of faith and basic tenets of the religion, personal identity numbers and home addresses of all members, and support for the group’s registration. All groups registered before these requirements came into effect in 2017 remained registered without having to meet the 50,000-adherent requirement; no new religious groups have attained recognition under the revised requirements. According to the law, only groups that register using the title “church” in their official name may call themselves a church; there is no other legal distinction between registered “churches” and other registered religious groups.

The 18 registered religious groups are: the Apostolic Church, Baha’i Community, The Brotherhood Unity of Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Church of the Brethren, Czechoslovak Hussite Church, Church of Jesus Christ, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, Evangelical Methodist Church, Greek Catholic Church, Christian Congregations, Jehovah’s Witnesses, New Apostolic Church, Orthodox Church, Reformed Christian Church, Roman Catholic Church, Old Catholic Church, and Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities. Registered groups receive annual state subsidies. All but the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, Greek Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Reformed Christian Church, and Roman Catholic Church have fewer than 50,000 members, but they registered before this requirement came into effect.

The Department of Church Affairs oversees relations between religious groups and the state and manages the distribution of state subsidies to religious groups and associations. The ministry may not legally intervene in the internal affairs of religious groups or direct their activities. Under the law, state subsidies to registered groups are based on the number of adherents reported in the most recent census. The state adjusts these annual subsidy payments based on inflation.

A group lacking the 50,000 adult adherents required to obtain status as an official religious group may register as a civic association, which provides the legal status necessary to carry out activities such as maintaining a bank account, entering into a contract, or acquiring or renting property. In doing so, however, the group may not identify itself officially as a religious group, since the law governing registration of civic associations specifically excludes religious groups from obtaining this status. The group must also refrain from carrying out activities related to practicing religion, which from a legal perspective are reserved for registered groups only, such as teaching religion at schools or providing spiritual services; violators face possible dissolution by authorities. To register as a civic association, three citizens must provide their names and addresses and the name, goals, organizational structure, executive bodies, and budgetary rules of the group.

A concordat with the Holy See provides the legal framework for relations between the government, the Roman Catholic Church in the country, and the Holy See. Four corollaries cover the operation of Catholic religious schools, the teaching of Catholic religious education as a subject in public schools, the service of Catholic priests as military chaplains and police, and the exercise of conscientious objections. A single agreement between the government and 11 of the 17 other registered religious groups provides similar status to those groups. The 11 religious groups may also provide military chaplains. The unanimous approval of all existing parties to the agreement is required for other religious groups to obtain similar benefits.

All public elementary school students must take a religion or ethics class, depending on personal or parental preferences. Schools have some leeway in drafting their own curricula for religion classes, but these must be consistent with the Ministry of Education’s National Educational Program. Representatives of registered religious communities are involved in the preparation of the National Education Program. Although most school religion classes teach Roman Catholicism, if there is a sufficient number of students, parents may ask a school to open a separate class focusing on the teachings of one of the other registered religious groups. All schools offer ethics courses as an alternative to religion classes. Alternatively, parents may request that teachings of different faiths be included in the curriculum of the Catholic classes. There are no clear requirements as to course content when teaching about other faiths in the Catholic classes. Private and religious schools define their own content for religion courses and may teach only their own religion but are required to offer ethics courses as an alternative. Registered religious groups approve textbooks used for religious classes, and the state finances their production. In both public and private schools, religion class curricula do not mention unregistered groups or some of the smaller registered groups, and unregistered groups may not teach their faiths at schools. Teachers at public schools normally teach the tenets of their own faith, although they may teach about other faiths as well. The Roman Catholic Church appoints teachers of Catholic classes. Depending on the registered religious group and the school, other religious groups may appoint the teachers of their classes. Religious groups also appoint theology lecturers at public universities. The government pays the salaries of religion teachers in public schools and of university theology lecturers.

The law requires public broadcasters to allocate program time for registered religious groups but not for unregistered groups.

The law criminalizes the issuance, possession, and dissemination of materials defending, supporting, or instigating hatred, violence, or unlawful discrimination against a group of persons on the basis of religion. Such activity is punishable by up to eight years’ imprisonment.

The law prohibits the defamation of a person’s or group’s belief, treating a violation as a criminal offense punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. If such crimes are committed with a “special” aggravating motive, which includes hatred against a group or individuals for their actual or alleged religious beliefs, the defamation and incitement crimes are punishable with sentences of up to five and six years in prison, respectively.

The law prohibits Holocaust denial, including questioning, endorsing, or excusing the Holocaust. Violators face sentences of up to three years in prison. The law also prohibits denial of crimes committed by the Nazi-allied, World War II-era fascist and postwar communist regimes.

The public defender of rights (ombudsperson) and the Slovak National Center for Human Rights, the country’s national human rights and equality body, are independent public institutions that consider complaints of religious discrimination and infringement on religious liberty.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Abuses Involving Violence, Detention, or Mass Resettlement

Media outlets reported that on March 1, the Specialized Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica sentenced Sheila Szmerekova to three years in prison for extremism and for making dangerous threats in connection with a video she recorded and posted on social media in 2017. In the video, Szmerekova made derogatory comments against Islam, pledged to hunt and kill all Muslims, including children and women, and urinated on a copy of the Quran, which she then tore apart and burned. During her trial, Szmerekova denied that her actions constituted a crime and expressed her dislike of Muslims, whom she called “parasites.” Szmerekova appealed her conviction, and the case remained pending as of the end of the year. According to the Islamic Foundation in Slovakia, the conviction was the first involving a hate crime against Muslims in the country.

On February 28 in the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, the trial began of Marian Magat, a former LSNS candidate labeled by media as a far-right extremist and admirer of Adolf Hitler who had been indicted for “extensive and long-term extremist criminal activity.” During the opening day of the trial, Magat refused to enter into a plea agreement with the prosecutor and the court case remained pending as of the end of the year. The Specialized Criminal Court placed Magat in pretrial custody in January 2022 after the National Criminal Agency arrested him and charged him with more than 30 counts of various extremist crimes, for which he faced a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. These included founding, supporting, and promoting a movement suppressing basic rights and freedoms, possessing, producing, and disseminating extremist materials, such as Nazi paraphernalia, and promoting Holocaust denial in a book, Jewocracy, that he authored in 2020.

In May, the Specialized Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica acquitted neo-Nazi singer Jaroslav “Reborn” Pagac and overruled its 2021 conviction of Pagac for extremism for the production and distribution of clothes and other items bearing extremist symbols. In justifying the decision, the judge stated that the Supreme Court, in overruling the lower court’s verdict and remanding the case in 2022, mandated that symbols be assessed for their extremist meaning objectively in isolation from the defendant’s personal belief and actions. According to expert testimony, the symbols Pagac used were not exclusively used by extremist groups, and thus they were not illegal. The prosecution’s appeal of the Specialized Criminal Court’s May verdict remained pending at year’s end. Pagac had been arrested by the National Criminal Agency in 2018 along with former LSNS district chairman Michal Buchta, who took a plea bargain in 2021, and Jakub Skrabak, head of the neo-Nazi Slovak Togetherness (Slovenska pospolitost) civic association, a successor to an eponymous political party founded by LSNS leader Kotleba and banned in 2006 by the Supreme Court for violating the constitution. A few months before the Specialized Criminal Court issued its new verdict, Pagac had to replace his defense attorney after the Bratislava District Court took the attorney into pretrial custody in March based on charges related to the neo-Nazi group killing of university student Daniel Tupy in 2005.

In a separate trial, the Specialized Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica in November found Skrabak guilty of producing and possessing extremist material and sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence. When justifying the suspended sentence, the court determined that the materials Skrabak had produced and possessed only carried the logo of the Slovak Togetherness association and not the logo of the banned Slovak Togetherness political party. The court also found Skrabak not guilty of the third criminal charge, disseminating extremist materials, because the judge determined that the symbols on items he had disseminated, such as a black sun and runes, were not unquestionably extremist.

In November, the Supreme Court upheld a separate Specialized Criminal Court 2022 ruling and sentenced David Kurnava to 16 months of prison for extremism, including crimes of expressing sympathies toward a movement suppressing basic rights and freedoms and of possessing extremist materials. Although reducing the Specialized Court’s sentence by four months, the Supreme Court justified the prison time given Kurnava’s recidivism, including two previous extremism convictions. Before the 2022 conviction, Kurnava served three years and 10 months in prison after violating conditions of a suspended sentence he received in 2016 for multiple counts of extremism, including Holocaust denial, inciting racial and ethnic intolerance, and offering to pay €25 ($28) to anyone killing an undocumented migrant at the height of the 2015 European migration crisis.

Abuses Involving the Ability of Individuals to Engage in Religious Activities Alone or In Community with Others

In July, media outlets reported that police had opened a criminal investigation into mandatory religious practices employed at a government-run orphanage in the city of Trnava. According to the institution’s employees and foster parents who had notified the authorities for nearly a year, the orphanage’s director implemented a strict “spiritual program” for the children that compelled lengthy evening prayers and regular church attendance and threatened punishment in case of refusal. In addition to media reports, a former politician and a children’s rights activist reported that the director also forced the children, including those under the age of six, to complete a pilgrimage barefoot, had an exorcism performed on a boy who likely suffered from a mental illness, organized a mass baptism of more than 30 children, and forced the employees to bless the orphanage building with holy water on a daily basis. The activist also criticized the Central Office of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family, a government agency in charge of children’s homes, for allegedly ignoring the employees’ complaints and Children’s Commissioner Jozef Miklosko, to whom several of the children personally protested, for inaction. After the case became public, the General Prosecutor’s Office inspected the institution and concluded that the practices were illegal and interfered in an “unacceptable way” with the children’s freedom of religion. On August 1, the prosecutor ordered the Central Office of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family to terminate the spiritual program immediately. While the program ended following the prosecutor’s order, the criminal investigation remained ongoing as of year’s end.

Unregistered religious groups, including the Old Catholic Mission of the Union of Utrecht in Slovakia and the Islamic Foundation in Slovakia, expressed disappointment that President Zuzana Caputova invited only representatives of registered groups to a New Year’s roundtable meeting with religious organizations in January.

Also in January, the Old Catholic Mission petitioned Caputova to challenge legal provisions that require an organization to have a minimum of 50,000 adult adherents to register as a religious group at the Constitutional Court, citing a 2022 statement by the Slovak National Center for Human Rights saying the provisions were in breach of the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The group announced in March that in her formal response to its request, the President agreed the registration requirements were “unreasonably high,” but decided not to submit a motion to the Constitutional Court. Caputova stated the court had not changed its position on the issue since ruling in 2010 that the constitution ensured fundamental rights and freedoms of members of both registered and unregistered religious groups equally and that lawmakers were entitled to set a registration threshold.

In March, parliament failed to pass a law enabling registration of religious groups with fewer than 50,000 adherents. Some MPs who opposed the law argued it would allow “obscure dangerous sects” and Muslims to operate and would help “destroy and weaken” Christianity in the country. Submitted by the former government plenipotentiary for freedom of religion or belief Anna Zaborska and several other coalition MPs, the draft law proposed to create a new, lesser registration category of religious association that would provide smaller groups with a legal status but no other rights belonging to legacy religious groups. Representatives of unregistered groups criticized the draft law for providing them with an inferior status, similar to the one they already had, and for not addressing the problems they faced.

In April, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the Grace Christian Fellowship’s appeal of the Bratislava Regional Court’s 2020 decision that dismissed the group’s legal action contesting the Ministry of Culture’s 2018 decision to reject its 2007 registration application. In its decision, which could not be appealed, the Supreme Administrative Court validated the ministry’s third and final refusal to register the group and the ministry’s finding that it promoted hatred toward other religious groups.

A religious freedom rights violation case that Jan Figel, a former deputy prime minister and former EU special envoy for promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU, had submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in 2021 remained pending as of year’s end. According to Figel, measures the government implemented in 2020 and 2021 to stop the COVID-19 pandemic were illegal and disproportionate and in practice prevented individuals from exercising constitutionally protected rights to religious freedom and to manifest their religious beliefs publicly.

According to a representative of the Muslim community, authorities generally tolerated Islamic burial customs, such as ritual washing and draping of the deceased and burial without a coffin.

Representatives of the Muslim community continued to state that Muslims faced increasing difficulties in finding suitable burial grounds for their adherents, since a cemetery they had used for these purposes in Bratislava was close to reaching its maximum capacity and the city council had not provided a new suitable location that would allow funeral services and burial according to Islamic traditions. Although the community had registered as a civic association, it continued to state that the lack of recognition as a religious group made it difficult to obtain the necessary construction permits for establishing a mosque or other sites for religious worship, such as prayer rooms. The group said officials in the past had cited technical grounds, such as zoning regulations, to reject their applications or fail to act on them. In June, the mayor of Bratislava, Matus Vallo, met for the first time since assuming office in 2018 with representatives of the Muslim community to discuss their grievances, including hate crimes against the community, inability to establish a mosque, and issues with burial grounds. During the meeting, Vallo stated that Bratislava, home to the country’s largest Muslim community, must be a city for all and expressed a commitment to supporting all vulnerable communities.

The government allocated approximately €57.6 million ($63.4 million) in annual state subsidies to the 18 registered religious groups, compared with €52.8 million ($58.1 million) in 2022 and €52 million ($57.2 million) in 2021. As in prior years, up to 80 percent of each group’s subsidy was used to pay the group’s clergy and operating costs. Some members of religious groups continued to state their groups’ reliance on direct government funding, which constituted approximately 50 percent of their income, limited their independence and religious freedom. They said religious groups self-censored potential criticism of the government on sensitive topics to avoid jeopardizing their relationship with the state and, consequently, their finances.

The Ministry of Culture continued to fund upkeep for religious monuments and cultural heritage sites owned by religious groups under its cultural grant program. During the year, the ministry allocated approximately €4.2 million ($4.6 million) for these purposes, compared with approximately €5.7 million ($6.2 million) in 2022 and €4.2 million ($4.6 million) in 2021.

Abuses Involving Discrimination or Unequal Treatment

Many political parties continued to express anti-Muslim views in their public statements. In messaging ahead of the September parliamentary election, leaders from across the political spectrum, including Smer-SD, Hlas, Republika, and LSNS, engaged in rhetoric portraying undocumented migrants, predominantly from Muslim-majority countries, as a serious and imminent threat to security and public order, and demanded urgent, resolute action to prevent their influx in society.

In a September 3 press conference following a visit to a provisional migrant processing site in the town of Velky Krtis, chairman of the Smer-SD party Robert Fico suggested that some of the undocumented migrants there, an overwhelming majority of whom had arrived from Muslim-majority countries, could come from a “terrorist” background. Party deputy chairman Lubos Blaha stated on his Telegram account the same day that the migrants could be criminals, spread diseases, and rape local women. Media outlets reported that during a small September 13 protest against police plans to set up a temporary migrant processing site in the village of Gajary, LSNS party leader Kotleba declared the ongoing migration wave was part of a plan to “replace our faith with theirs.” At the end of the protest, during which Republika chairman Uhrik also encouraged local residents to continue to oppose undocumented migrants, a local protestor recited lyrics of the “Cut and Slash to Blood!” song, notorious for its use by the fascist Slovak state’s “Hlinka Guard” militia during World War II. Media outlets reported that in response to what they stated was politicization of the migration issue and the parties’ antimigrant statements, police leadership repeatedly warned against disinformation and fearmongering that portrayed undocumented migrants as a security threat.

In October, the new Fico government conducted a police operation on the Slovak-Hungarian border that included an increased police presence, and which government leaders declared to be a show of force to deter undocumented migrants, most of whom were from Muslim-majority countries, from attempting to cross into Slovakia. In his statements following the operation, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj-Estok said undocumented migration was a security and terrorism risk and pledged to prevent migrants from forming “ghettos and no-go zones,” which he said was the situation in in some other European countries.

Representatives and supporters of the LSNS party, which failed to retain any seats in parliament in the September 30 parliamentary election, and the Republika party, which split off from LSNS in 2021 and also failed to retain any seats in parliament, continued to make statements deemed to be antisemitic or glorifying the World War II-era Nazi-collaborator fascist government and downplaying the role of that regime in wartime atrocities.

On March 14, the 84th anniversary of the founding of the wartime Slovak state that deported more than 70,000 of its citizens to Nazi extermination camps, LSNS chairman Kotleba posted a video of the Slovak national anthem playing during an opening ceremony of parliament’s session that day on his social media account. Kotleba said it commemorated the creation of the fascist state in 1939 and added, “This warms my heart, and the memory will never fade!” The same day, a group of LSNS party representatives and supporters visited Nazi-era President Jozef Tiso’s symbolic grave in Bratislava to pay their respects. In May, a LSNS regional chairwoman, Kristina Lassakova, announced on Facebook that she and other party members had filed a criminal complaint against an unknown vandal who spray painted “Nazi” on Tiso’s tombstone.

During the September 30 parliamentary election campaign, representatives of the Republika Party continued to downplay the actions of the Nazi-collaborationist Slovak state. Party chairman Milan Uhrik and deputy chairman Milan Mazurek, both former members of the LSNS party, refused to denounce the fascist Slovak state and Tiso during televised pre-election debates in September. According to Uhrik, Tiso made “mistakes and negative things” but “did what he could” to protect the territorial unity of Slovakia, an achievement that, according to Mazurek, was at that time possible only thanks to the existence of the Slovak state, despite the “bad, unpleasant things” that happened under the regime.

In July, a group of activists and intellectuals published a joint statement criticizing the new leadership of the Slovak Union of Antifascist Fighters, an independent civic association with a legal mandate from the government to protect the memory of the anti-fascist struggle in Slovakia, for increasing collaboration with members of the Republika party, whom the activists characterized as extremists espousing “neo-Nazi ideology” and Holocaust denial.

In September, the chairman of the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities, Richard Duda, publicly criticized the government’s children’s commissioner, Jozef Miklosko, for officially meeting with Republika party chairman Uhrik, and disinvited Miklosko from a local Holocaust commemoration event. In addition, 21 human and children’s rights organizations demanded Miklosko step down for this action, but he refused.

Experts on extremism and watchdog organizations criticized the leaders of Smer-SD and the Slovak National Party for repeatedly participating in online and in-person conversations with Daniel Bombic, a United Kingdom-based far-right extremist and antisemitic blogger operating under the alias “Danny Kollar” with more than 110,000 followers across social media platforms, during the months ahead of the September election. The critics said that by engaging with Bombic, who faced three international warrants by Slovak authorities over suspected online harassment and extremism, the parties helped legitimize and amplify his rhetoric, including antisemitic statements and conspiracy theories.

In February, parliament failed to pass a law requiring municipalities to rename streets named after representatives of the World War II and communist regimes, including in the village of Varin, where a street bore the name of Slovak World War II fascist state President Tiso. During the debate on the law, several MPs defended the Slovak state and individuals who collaborated with it. Republika party deputy chairman Mazurek, who voted against the bill, called it a “disgusting, cruel attack” and an attempt to erase a “major part of Slovak history.” Milan Kuriak, member of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party (subsequently renamed the Slovakia party), who also voted against the bill, said the proposal would force renaming streets named after individuals who “did a great deal of work for the people,” including Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Spis Jan Vojtassak. According to historians, Vojtassak, who was imprisoned by the communist regime, held antisemitic views, collaborated with the Slovak fascist state, and actively engaged in the expropriation of Jewish property. Chairman of the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities Duda expressed disappointment that the law did not pass and called on MPs who voted against the bill or abstained not to attend Holocaust commemoration events in the future, saying, “They have lost the right to do so.”

As of year’s end, the 2022 criminal complaint by the Prosecutor General’s Office against the village council of Varin for naming a street after Tiso in 2011 remained pending before the Supreme Administrative Court. The prosecutor said the council’s action violated the law that bans naming streets after representatives of the Slovak fascist regime of 1939-1945.

The Council for Media Services, an independent government media regulator, continued to address what it deemed to be illegal and harmful content on social media, including content the law defines as extremist, such as Holocaust denial and incitement of national, racial, or ethnic hatred. The council reviewed content reported by users or identified by itself as breaking social media rules or laws. The council had the power to alert platforms, start legal actions for illegal content, order its removal, and impose fines if platforms did not comply. Additionally, it forwarded illegal content to the police for investigation when needed.

In January, President Caputova, then Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollar, and then Prime Minister Eduard Heger, along with several cabinet ministers, commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Holocaust memorial in Bratislava. Caputova used the occasion to emphasize the importance of continuing to learn from history, since there still was “open hatred, both verbal and physical, toward Jews and other minorities,” while Prime Minister Heger called the Holocaust a historic reminder of how easy it was for hateful words to turn into “despicable acts.” During commemoration of the country’s Holocaust and Ethnic Violence Remembrance Day in Bratislava in September, President Caputova expressed dismay that politicians who refused to denounce actions of the World War II-era Slovak collaborationist state participate in mainstream political discourse; she warned of the dangers of hateful thoughts and hatred in the public space.

In his remarks at the end of a Roman Catholic Mass in Trnava in November, then State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Stefan Kuffa pledged the ministry would initiate the recognition of Jesus as king of Slovakia, and called on Catholic bishops attending the Mass to join the effort so that the country would be “consecrated to King Jesus” in the shortest possible time. After his remarks elicited widespread criticism, including from Catholic theologians, the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia distanced itself from Kuffa’s statements and Minister of Culture Martina Simkovicova denied the government had such plans.

Other Developments Affecting Religious Freedom

Media outlets reported the caretaker government in July dismissed Anna Zaborska from her role as government plenipotentiary for freedom of religion or belief. Then-Prime Minister Ludovit Odor cited Zaborska’s candidacy in the September election as a reason. In November, the government formally eliminated the plenipotentiary position entirely, stating it no longer considered the position “justified and effective.” The opposition Christian Democratic Movement party criticized the decision as equivalent to the government “turning its back on persecuted Christians and other believers.”