Slovakia has one of the more progressive anti-discrimination laws in the EU, yet it has not been sufficiently implemented. Discrimination prevails as a paramount cross-sectional social problem identified by practitioners in human rights advocacy NGOs. Especially alarming is the near absence of discrimination monitoring and equality data collecting, precluding any action from having the potential to bring a positive and sustainable change in the status of disadvantaged groups. For generally poor institutional compliance with EU human rights norms, researchers placed Slovakia among countries of ‘dead letters’, with equality chronically not delivered on the ground. The present research draws on the rich experience and suggestions of 22 human rights advocates from NGOs working on behalf of those at risk of discrimination on a diverse array of grounds. Methodologically, the research bears elements of participatory action, as it originates from my collaboration with one of the NGOs with expertise in anti-discrimination. Its purpose is to examine anti-discrimination non-implementation patterns of public institutions from the perspective of civil society. Subsequently, it explores which concept and methodology of anti-discrimination monitoring could bring public institutions to compliance, and how NGOs as change agents could be best involved in it. Findings from qualitative semi-structured interviews revealed the incapacities of public institutions to adapt to anti-discrimination requirements, as well as significant anti-equality bias, which ought to be overcome before institutional change can be realized. Furthermore, research participants described various offensive and defensive strategies institutions use when reacting against bottom-up pressure. To counter institutional resistance and simultaneously empower rights-holders in claiming the fulfillment of their rights, a discursive shift is proposed towards the Duty-Based Approach with Anti-Discrimination Compliance Monitoring as its central instrument. Institutions as duty-bearers are mandated to take a series of particular steps in order to implement anti-discrimination and move towards the compliance world of law observance.