Czech Helsinki Committee report for European Network against Racism

On the occasion of the prestigious International Day against Racism (21 March), the Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor – ČHV) has published a Shadow Report on the Czech Republic for European Network against Racism (ENAR). Two reports have been issued: The first, entitled “Racism and discrimination in the Czech Republic” ,concerns the Czech Republic and was authored by Selma Muhič Dizdarevič and František Valeš of ČHV. The second ENAR Shadow Report covers all of Europe.

Racism and discrimination in the Czech Republic

In addition to Roma people, the group most vulnerable to discrimination and racism in the Czech Republic is that of foreigners with various residency statuses. The economic crisis, combined with an inadequate and repressive integration policy, has contributed to overall rising unemployment, In the case of migrant workers, job losses cause them to become immediately illegal with respect to residency.

The Czech state is still not able to effectively respond to the activities of agencies brokering the import of workers from abroad. These agencies often exploit the labor of migrants, both during their efforts abroad to acquire entry visas to the Czech Republic and during their stay in the country. The agencies often control these migrants through the debt they incur in order to live and work in the Czech Republic.

In order to improve the position of Third-Country Nationals (non-EU citizens) in the Czech Republic, the following recommendations must be taken into consideration:

1) Legal ordinances regulating the various residence statuses of foreigners should be made more stable, and information regarding upcoming changes to the ordinances should be disseminated in a timely fashion. The constant changes being made to foreigners’ legal conditions are confusing and restricting.

2) In order to prevent foreign employees from becoming immediately illegal should they lose the job which was the basis for their residency, the current deadlines by which such persons must find new jobs should be extended . The legal system should prosecute and punish agencies exploiting foreign workers and operating illegally in the Czech Republic.

3) Health insurance should be expanded for all foreigners under the age of 18 who have been granted visas for longer than 90 days. Such persons should be automatically assigned to the public health insurance system.

Social exclusion in education, employment, health care and housing continues to affect Roma people. Foreigners are most affected by lack of access to employment and health care. The following recommendations should therefore be taken into consideration:

1) Discrimination in housing, particularly on the basis of ethnic or social affiliation, should be sanctioned, and the central authorities should more thoroughly follow whether the regulations governing rental housing assigned by municipalities are being upheld. A campaign should be implemented to spread awareness of the fact that discrimination in housing and employment is illegal, as well as how such discrimination can be reported to the authorities.

2) Representatives of migrants should play a much more significant role than they have to date in the National Plan for Social Protection and Inclusion (Národní plán sociální ochrany a inkluze).

In the area of the fight against discrimination, fundamental progress was made at legislative level during the period under observation (2009-2010) with the adoption of an anti-discrimination law to implement the EU Anti-Discrimination Directive into the Czech domestic legal order. However, the current law cannot be considered optimal. Legal professionals have strongly criticized several aspects of it. At the level of practice, including the implementation of systemic measures, discrimination – particularly of Roma people – remains a significant problem.

In the areas of employment and housing, as well in access to goods and services, Roma people are regularly confronted with discrimination, and this problem is especially tangible in the country’s socially excluded localities. In the case of employment, this is a complex problem closely related to Roma people’s low levels of qualifications, which are the result of their being discriminated against in their access to education. Despite the recent judgment of the European Court for Human Rights in the case of D.H. and others vs the Czech Republic, the Czech Republic has not yet succeeded in preventing the systemic discrimination that occurs when Roma children are disproportionately assigned to special schools for children with light brain disorders.

The state has also not implemented the systemic measures required with respect to past instances of the forced sterilization of Roma women. Even though the government has “expressed regret”, it has also told the victims of these harms that their claims for compensation must be handled as individual cases through the courts.

The following recommendations to the government are therefore also necessary:

1) The anti-discrimination law should be amended to strengthen the competencies of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights (the ombudsman) as an Equality Body in particular and to include instruments of actio popularis (actions to obtain remedy in the name of the collective interest).

2) The effective implementation of those systemic measures in the various areas of the fight against discrimination that were previously initiated should be continued.

3) Non-governmental organizations working in the area of the fight against discrimination should be supported, including financially.

In the area of racist violence, the state approach to the neo-Nazi movement was strengthened and made more effective during the period under observation (2009-2010) with respect to both criminal and political activities, including the dissolving of the neo-Nazi Workers’ Party (Dělnická strana – DS). A newly re-codified Penal Code has taken effect and includes more forceful penalties for hate crimes. In practice, the outstanding remaining problem is the weak position of crime victims, including the victims of violent hate crimes, both with respect to legislation and with respect to the practice of the criminal justice authorities. There is also a problem with the authorities not collecting sufficient data on hate crime.

The fundamental recommendations in this area are:

1) To re-codify legal regulations so as to strengthen the rights of crime victims.

2) To improve the approach taken by police officers towards crime victims so as to prevent their secondary victimization by the criminal justice authorities.

3) To support the independent monitoring of violence motivated by hatred and to disaggregate official hate crime statistics by the victims’ ethnicities and other criteria.

The entire ČHV report (in detail) on the Czech Republic is available for download in English at http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/publications/Czech%20Republic.pdf

The report on the Europe-wide situation concerning racism and discrimination can be found in English at http://www.helcom.cz/dokumenty/FINAL.pdf