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News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Czech PM chairs Roma advisory body, says Human Rights Commissioner to stay

22 October 2012
4 minute read

On Tuesday 23 November, the newest incarnation of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs met for the first time in Hrzánský Palace in Prague. The Council’s newly appointed members had been waiting for this first session with great impatience, as the government has not yet appointed a new Human Rights Commissioner. It was not clear until the last minute whether the meeting would actually be attended by Czech PM Petr Nečas, but in the end the PM made it and, according to several Council members, participated quite actively.

The new Council’s composition, operation and statutes were significantly influenced by the former Czech Human Rights Minister (who then became the country’s last Human Rights Commissioner) Michael Kocáb. It was his proposal that one half of the Council be comprised of Roma representatives and one half of ministerial representatives – not lower-level officials, but the actual ministers of the most relevant ministries.

Another innovation is that the Prime Minister chairs the Council. In addition to 15 Roma members, there are five ministers and other deputy ministerial representatives of the state administration, as well as representatives of the Association of Regional Administrations and the Union of Municipalities and Villages in order to facilitate greater participation by local and regional governments in the creation of national-level Roma integration policy. The new statutes also bring the Council’s work closer to the activities of the Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities. Czech Education Minister Josef Dobeš personally attended the meeting, the agenda of which was dominated by the issue of education.

Dobeš described the ministry’s plans for including Roma pupils in the school system. Czeslaw Walek, director of the government’s Human Rights Section, said the minister would be quickly amending various decrees and would be regularly reporting to the Council on the various steps taken. Walek expressed the belief that the decree which now makes it possible to directly assign Roma children into “special education” would soon be amended and told news server Romea.cz that as of 2011 it should no longer be possible for “practical elementary schools” operating under the special education regime to directly organize registration into first grade as is done today. In future, children will only be assigned to such schools on the basis of a diagnosis requiring such assignment. According to sociologist Ivan Gabal, who also attended the meeting, both Education Minister Dobeš and PM Nečas were in agreement that the number of children attending “practical elementary schools” should be reduced by 40 % in the near future.

Mr Gabal also raised the benefits of making inclusive education a priority of the government’s conceptual approach toward Roma integration. This view was supported by Vít Schorm, the Czech Republic’s rapporteur to the European Court of Human Rights, given the state’s obligations flowing from the Court’s judgment in D.H. and others vs. the Czech Republic. Education will become a regular agenda item on future meetings of the Council.

Dobeš also presented his plays for changes to preschool education to the Council members. According to Walek, “The Council evaluated the plan which was debated in detail as one which might produce results.”

According to Gabriela Hrabaňová of the Counci’s secretariat, another sensitive area is employment. As far as the Roma community is concerned, this is their dominant social problem, one which conditions the subsequent exclusion of Roma from other areas of life. Effective resolution of the unemployment of socially excluded Roma and their economic dependence on the social welfare system will have a positive impact not only on the socioeconomic situation of the Roma, but also will improve relations between the majority and members of Roma communities. Deputy Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Šimerka presented the basic outlines of changes to the social welfare system which will later be discussed with Council members and municipal representatives at a meeting of a working group on the Roma Integration Concept scheduled for 1 December 2010. The Council also resolved that by 31 May 2011 the Labor and Social Affairs Minister should evaluate the impact on excluded Roma localities of the recently adopted package of savings measures in the area of social expenditures and includeRoma civil society representatives in the development of further reforms.

The Office of the Council has also scheduled a conference on employment for 1 December at which ministerial officials will describe to Council members and the regional Roma coordinators the changes in the social security system to take effect after 1 January 2011. The package of measures aiming to reduce mandatory state expenditures was signed into law by Czech President Václav Klaus this week.

Roma representatives on the Council asked PM Nečas whether the post of Human Rights Commisioner will be preserved and when a new commissioner will be appointed. According to Czeslaw Walek, the PM has not yet communicated the name of his appointee, but he has promised to preserve the post. NGOs have criticized the PM for leaving the post empty for several months and it is unlikely a new commissioner will be appointed before the end of the year. The Council will meet again in 2011; no specific date has been set for the next session.

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