A delegation of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) visited the Slovak Republic from 18 to 22 November 2019 as the first step in the preparation of a monitoring report. During the visit, ECRI's delegation gathered information on effective equality and access to rights; hate speech and hate motivated violence; and integration and inclusion.

The delegation held meetings in Bratislava and Košice and its surroundings with representatives of national, regional and municipal authorities, the judiciary, equality bodies, international organisations and non-governmental organisations. The delegation visited a school, a Roma camp and the Lunik IX district of Košice, which is predominantly inhabited by Roma.

Following this visit, ECRI will adopt a report to be published in 2020 in which it will formulate a new set of recommendations on measures to be taken by the authorities to combat racism and intolerance in the country. Of these, two follow-up recommendations will be reviewed under ECRI's interim monitoring procedure two years after the publication of the report.

In its 2014 report, ECRI recommended, inter alia, to facilitate access to pre-school education for all Roma children, to support Roma parents so they can afford to send their children to pre-school and to design measures conducive to an inclusive environment in these institutions. ECRI had also expressed its hope that the Committee on LGBT Issues, which was set up in July 2012, would become a forum for examining the problems of LGBT persons and for implementing concrete education and awareness-raising activities in favour of LGBT people.

Link to the 2014 report on the Slovak Republic