Czech Human Rights Minister: Help, not populism, for the socially excluded
Jiří Dienstbier is slated to become the next Czech Human Rights Minister. He says he would like to change the fact that same-sex couples are discriminated against in the Czech Republic.
"I would be in favor of making it possible for couples to adopt irrespective of their sexual orientation," Dienstbier told news server iDNES.cz in an interview that also covered questions of equal treatment for both genders in politics and other professions. The incoming minister is of the opinion that a discussion of the eventual introduction of quotas is definitely part of that topic.
News server Romea.cz will be publishing its own interview with Dienstbier in the future. Below is a translated excerpt from the iDNES.cz interview:
Q: You’re going to be Human Rights Minister. What do you see the priorities in that area as being?
A: I’d start with symbolic matters. I’d propose that the government back away from its demand to negotiate an exemption for itself with respect to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Lisbon Treaty – the government wants to exempt itself from Chapter IV of the Charter, which is entitled "Solidarity" and governs fundamental rights like the right to access health care, the right to environmental protection. If the Czech Republic wants to approach human rights protections seriously, the Charter is very important.
Q: From time to time right-wing extremists have been marching through the streets of towns in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Other people have been joining them who are dissatisfied with the fact that the state is incapable of addressing problems with the Romani minority. What would you like to do with that issue as Human Rights Minister?
A: As minister it will be hard to offer an answer that could resolve that situation within a couple of months or even a year. Any meaningful process will take several years and will be comprised of a wide variety of matters. If you want to resolve the problems of socially excluded localities, which do not concern the Romani minority alone, then you need to address many different topics – the topic of social housing, the question of loan-sharking and over-indebtedness, collections procedures…
Q: What would you start with?
A: This must be addressed as whole. It solvable not by focusing on particulars in isolation, but through a long-term, strategic approach to addressing these topics as interrelated. The question of education belongs there, so that children from socially excluded families can achieve an education according to their abilities, so that they won’t be handicapped by their lower level of social skills, which is to say, by the background they come from.
Q: You’ll have to approve these things one at a time, though, so you’ll have to start with something.
A: I can’t single out one thing that is the most important. What is definitely urgent is the lack of a law on social housing, there is a need to reach agreement between the municipalities that need support for this from the state, including financing, and the state itself on this issue. The municipalities will not be able to handle this otherwise. It is possible to quickly solve the problems in the areas of collections procedures, in particular, a fundamental reduction to the charges and costs involved with debt recovery. The government will also definitely get involved with how to reconnect the disbursal of welfare to social work in the field. Without that link, the system is dysfunctional.
Q: Are you aware that your handicap in these matters will be that the majority population is not in a completely friendly mood towards people from socially excluded localities?
A: I am aware that the mood is not completely friendly. I understand that in those places where there are problems related to social exclusion, tensions are being sparked. However, populist steps are not what we need. There must be help both for the people in socially excluded localities and for their neighbors, who are also paying a price for this situation.
