No.07-00-279/2015-02  Date: 14 August 2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint lodged by the RIC of B. against the Institute for Students’ Health Care of N.S. The complaint stated that the questionnaire that needed to be filled in the course of the mandatory medical check-up for students conducted by the Institute for Student Health Care N.S. contained a question about sexual orientation. The question asked in the questionnaire was: “You are sexually attracted exclusively to persons of the opposite sex”, the offered answers being “false”, “true to a lesser extent”, “true to a greater extent” and “completely true”. In the declaration regarding the complaint it was stated that the purpose of the questionnaire was to provide students with help and support if they have any problems in any sphere of life, and that, when registering at the counter, students were told that the questionnaire was optional. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality determined that that asking this question constitutes a breach of mandatory regulations on the prohibition of discrimination, because the request of the Institute for Students’ Health Care of N.S. that students, in the course of the medical check-up, should declare their sexual orientation is explicitly prohibited by the provision of Article 21, para 1, of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. For this reason the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality issued the opinion that, by asking the question in the questionnaire whereby students are required during the medical check-up to declare their sexual orientation, the Institute for Students’ Health Care of N.S. violated the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination. Besides the opinion, a recommendation was also given to the Institute for Students’ Health Care of N.S. to have this question removed from the questionnaire, and to ensure that it does not violate anti-discrimination legal provisions in the future in the course of its regular affairs and activities.