The Office of the Czech Government has announced through its spokesperson Michal Schuster that it is preparing for possible changes in its organization. One of them might even be the closing of the Human Rights Section there and the transfer of its advisory bodies to various ministries. News server Aktuálně.cz quotes the daily Insider’s previous reporting on this issue and says Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková has confirmed it is a possibility. The Government is arguing that the step would increase the efficiency of the state administration and reduce operational costs.
"The only aim and reason for these changes is to eliminate unnecessary duplication in the state administration," Schuster told Aktuálně.cz. Human rights matters are said to be already handled by other ministries.
The Government’s coalition partners, however, are letting their disagreement with the idea be known. Czech Foreign Minister and Deputy PM Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) said the proposal is an unfortunate one.
"If the PM wants to send the signal that he doesn’t give a damn, if you’ll excuse me, if he wants to signal his indifference to human rights, then this is certainly the correct step," Aktuálně.cz quotes Schwarzenberg as telling the daily Insider.
Advisory body members are also against the move. The chair of the Czech Council on Children and Youth (Česká rada dětí a mládeže), Aleš Sedláček, is preparing to send the PM a letter of disagreement.
Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková has also expressed her fundamental disagreement with the move. Her team would be dispersed in all directions by the proposed changes. In an interview for Aktuálně.cz she expressed the concern that the change would destroy years of effort in the area of promoting and protecting human rights and that no financial savings would occur. She evaluated the proposal to close the section as illogical, saying it could even lead to a loss of independence for the advisory bodies reassigned to the various ministries.
Aktuálně.cz reports that Šimůnková is also concerned that even though the Government’s proposal would still preserve the Commissioner position, it would be reduced to a mere formality and the office holder would not be able to fulfill the role of defending the human rights of vulnerable groups as previous Commissioners have. Šimůnková said such a position would not accord with her own convictions.
