Czech Republic: Romani candidate proposed for Deputy Human Rights Minister

28 January 2014

2 minute read

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav
Sobotka, the chair of the Czech Social Democrats, and Andrej Babiš, chair of
the ANO movement, have not yet reached agreement on deputy ministerial appointments
for the incoming cabinet. The names of some of the deputy ministers that ANO
intends to send to the ministries have now been revealed.

Edita Stejskalová, a political
scientist and Romani Studies scholar, is the ANO candidate for deputy to incoming Human
Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier. "In principle, we don’t want to send
party members of ANO to the ministries, we want to send experts," Babiš
said in an interview for the daily Právo, "and we would like to see the
political scientist Edita Stejskalová become deputy to the minister without
portfolio, Jiří Dienstbier."

Stejskalová, a member of the
Romani community, has long been involved in Romani issues. In 2006 she founded
the civic association Zvůle§Práva, which assisted victims of discrimination and
was involved in the "Together to School" (Společně do školy) project,
which endeavored to halt unjustified enrollments of Romani children into the “practical primary schools”, which are designed to serve children with light
mental disability.

Another interesting name on the
list of advisers to Babiš is Robert Pelikán. The attorney and legislative
expert should remain on the ANO team even after Babiš is installed in his dual
roles as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

Pelikán is currently representing
the surviving children of Ľudovít
Kašpar, who died after two police officers intervened against him in
Kynšperk nad Ohří. In the past Pelikán has represented the victims of illegal
police interventions against the anti-fascist blockades of
neo-Nazi marches in the towns of Krupka and Nový Bydžov in 2011; the aggrieved party in the case of a racially
motivated assault on a citizen of Beroun by neo-Nazis in 2009; and the aggrieved party in the controversial shooting death of a Romani youth in Tanvald in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2012.