Civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs strongly criticize EdMin, the Czech Decade presidency, and the Agency for Social Inclusion

The civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community affairs have convened a meeting at which they have strongly criticized various steps taken by the Government toward the Roma community. In a declaration which news server Romea.cz publishes in full below, the members criticize Czech Education Minister Josef Dobeš; the choice of the J.A. Komenský Pedagogical Museum in Prague to implement the construction of a Roma Holocaust Memorial in Hodonín by Kunštát; the Government’s implementation of activities as part of the Decade of Roma Inclusion; and the activity of the Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities. The members expressed appreciation only for the recent change in the Commission’s status.

Conclusions from the strategic meeting of the civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs

We appreciate the change to the Commission’s status and the fact that the Commission is directly led by the Prime Minister and that he actively listens to it. The situation is not heading in the direction of change and better coexistence, but is leading to a deterioration in the situations both of individuals and of entire groups of people. However, the civil society members of the Commission feel their particular advisory body to the Government is one to which the Government unfortunately does not listen. The civil society members of the Commission demand that they be considered an equal partner by the chair of this Commission in resolving questions of Roma integration and part of his advisory team. The civil society members have proposed a second vice-chair of the Commission be appointed from their ranks. This proposal will be discussed and voted on at the next session of the Commission.

At the most recent session of the Commission, Education Minister Dobeš promised a whole range of pro-inclusive changes and decrees which were to have sufficiently responded to the judgment of the European Court for Human Rights in the matter of D.H. and others vs. the Czech Republic, and which were to have led to increased educational opportunities for Roma people. The civil society members hereby declare that the minister has not kept his promise – on the contrary, the current direction in which the Education Ministry is heading supports the segregation of Roma pupils.

The civil society members of the Commission feel great uneasiness over the selection of the J.A. Komenský Pedagogical Museum in Prague to implement the construction of a Roma Holocaust Memorial at Hodonín by Kunštát, on the basis of a Government decision taken on 2 March 2011. The civil society members of the Commission are convinced that the Museum of Roma Culture should at a minimum have a supervisory role over this project in order to ensure its professionalism as well as Roma participation in the entire process.

With respect to the Czech Republic’s presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015, the civil society members of the Commission feel great uneasiness over the development of this initiative. The fulfillment of the government’s Decade Action Plan is not bringing about any improvements to the situation of Roma in the Czech Republic. The Action Plan has become merely an empty document.

We call on the Government of the Czech Republic to start implementing in full its own strategic materials which were adopted for the purpose of integrating Roma into Czech society. Those materials are: the Concept for Roma Integration 2010-2013 (Koncepce romské integrace na období 2010 – 2013) and the Action Plan of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015, particularly with respect to the Czech Republic’s current presidency of the Decade.

On the basis of the results produced to date by the Department for Social Inclusion (the Agency), the civil society members declare that the department’s work is purely formal and its cooperation with municipalities has had no practical impact on the everyday situation of excluded Roma people. During the entire time the Agency has been working in the localities, the housing situation of Roma people has not improved, their employment rate has not increased, and the educational opportunities for Roma children have also not increased.

From the point of view of the Roma members of the Commission, the costs of the Agency are not commensurate with its tangible results. The financing allocated for the Agency’s work has not been used efficiently in the various localities. Localities which were accepted by the Agency have then been abandoned by it without any result and without any record of the effect on those living in socially excluded localities, and new localities are being accepted by the Agency without considering the results.

For this reason, we call on the Prime Minister of the Government of the Czech Republic to commission a review by an independent entity of the content and financing of the work of the Department for Social Inclusion in the localities the Agency is now leaving. The finances spent have had no direct impact on improving the situation of the Roma, even though society perceives them as that sort of investment. It is with bitterness that we note the lack of participation of Roma people, not only in the team managing the Department for Social Inclusion, but also as part of its partnerships at local level, where the Roma minority is not sufficiently represented.