Last September, at the UN General Assembly meeting, the Slovenian Foreign Minister, Dimitrij Rupel, welcomed the document produced by the summit as ”an important step towards an effective reform of the UN”. He nevertheless added that Slovenia needs “clearer solutions about how to cope with the challenges and threats of the 21st century”. A definition of terrorism, for example, would provide clarity and thus a better insurance policy for human rights. The UN cannot be successful in dealing with the terrorist threat if it is confused as to the very definition of terrorism. Secondly, bemoaning the fact that the Human Rights Council was bereft the necessary vision, Rupel said that Slovenia would like it to be a standing Council, a kind of a principal UN body capable of dealing with all human rights in all countries.

 

Since, as he said, human rights and the rule of law are of the highest importance to Slovenia, the country welcomes the Responsibility to Protect principle as a conceptual breakthrough, which should prevent the repetition of tragedies like Srebrenica, Rwanda or Darfur. On the other hand, he added, Slovenia is ”rather disappointed” that the summit document contains no provisions about disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

 

Furthermore, Rupel welcomed the establishment of a Democracy Fund, a Peacebuilding Commission and the proposed strengthened role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He also referred to a dialogue of civilisations, stressing that any differentiation between “us” and “them” was unacceptable. As the current chairman of OSCE, he hoped for a strong foundation for permanent cooperation between the UN and the OSCE.

 

Oddly enough, the UN reform process has not generated much interest either in public debate or in the media in Slovenia. There was not a single public opinion survey performed that we could quote on the matter. This is particularly surprising for a number of reasons. Firstly, when Slovenia first gained its independence 15 years ago, nobody expected it to last for more than ten days. Today, every citizen above the age of 30 well remembers that dramatic period when all anyone hoped for was some kind of foreign aid. The forces we all had in mind were the UN “blue helmets”.

 

Secondly, as newly independent country Slovenia regards its chairmanship of the OSCE in 2005 as its diplomatic highlight to date. NATO and EU integration was our goal and we believe that the EU presidency (which Slovenia will assume in 2008), and OSCE presidency last year demonstrate that Slovenia has become an important state. Therefore, one would expect the topic of the UN Human Rights Council and its credibility, the question of an EU seat in the UN Security Council and other such issues would attract broad public interest; but it is not the case. Minister Rupel’s agenda used to make headlines daily in the Slovenian media during the term of Slovenian presidency, but recently it was not even mentioned when the OSCE handed the UN Secretary-General a report concerning his initiative to overcome the clash of cultures.

 

Last but not least, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations has launched an initiative for an Alliance of Civilizations, co-sponsored by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey, historian Tomaž Mastnak, a Slovenian, was named as Director of the Office. This is yet another issue that should have arouse more public interest than it did – particularly so given that the initiative was created as an attempt to overcome the clash of cultures and should therefore respond to a broad consensus across nations, cultures and religions that all societies are interdependent; bound together in their development and security, and in their environmental, cultural, economic and financial well-being.

 

Slovenia is perhaps not a very ambitious country – in fact, here, to say of a person that he/she is ambitious is anything but a compliment. So one possible explanation  for this lack of public debate on UN issues might be that once Slovenia had achieved full membership, her ambition was sated. It is enough to belong to the group, more than that would be too much for such a small country. Another explanation may lie in the fact that Slovenian media have become increasingly introspective, subject entirely to the owners’ interests and those of the advertisers, with the result that Slovenia is slowly becoming a place of a splendid isolation for its citizens. A few numbers to illustrate the phenomenon: The public broadcaster “TV Slovenia” has just six foreign correspondents (Brussels, Rome, London, Moscow, Washington and, recently, Jerusalem), the biggest daily newspaper in the country even less, while other media are merely using agencies, and primarily the Slovenian one, as their source of information.