FOR THE RECORD 1997: Volume 5

Czech Republic

Date of admission to UN: 19 January 1993.

Treaties and Reports to Treaty Bodies

Land and People: The Czech Republic has submitted a core document (HRI/CORE/1/Add.71) for use by the treaty bodies. The report prepared by the government notes that upon admission to the UN the Czech Republic succeeded to all human rights instruments binding on the former Czechoslovakia.

The Constitution which was adopted in December 1992 includes a Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and international treaties ratified by the Republic are immediately binding and superior to law. In addition, the Czech Republic has incorporated into domestic law most of the civil and political rights set out in the ICCPR.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s initial report was due 30 June 1995.

Reservations and Declarations: Article 26.

Civil and Political Rights

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s initial report was due 31 December 1993.

Reservations and Declarations: Article 48; declaration under article 41.

Optional Protocol: Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

Racial Discrimination

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s initial and second periodic reports have been submitted as one document (CERD/C/289/Add.1) which has not yet been scheduled for consideration by the Committee; the third periodic report was due 1 January 1998.

Reservations and Declarations: Articles 17 and 22.

Discrimination against Women

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s initial report (CEDAW/C/CZE/1) has been submitted and is pending for consideration by the Committee at its July 1998 session; the second periodic report is due 24 March 1998.

Torture

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s second periodic report is due 31 December 1997.

Reservations and Declarations: Declarations under articles 21 and 22.

Rights of the Child

Succeeded: 22 February 1993.

The Czech Republic’s second periodic report is due 31 December 2000.

Reservations and Declarations: Paragraph 1 of article 7.

The Czech Republic’s initial report (CRC/C/11/Add.11) was considered by the Committee at its September/October 1997 session. The report prepared by the government includes information on: measures taken to harmonize national law and policy with provisions of the Convention; mechanisms for coordinating polices related to children; measures taken to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known; the definition of the child; the general principles of non-discrimination, best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child; civil rights and freedoms; family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure and cultural activities; and, special protection measures. Much of the information refers to laws relevant to areas covered by the Convention, such as the Law on the Family (1963, and 1992 amendment), the Foster Care Act (1992), the Code of Civil Procedure, the Criminal Code, and the Labour Code. Information is also provided on Commission for the Family which is mandated: in the area of education, to propose and promote comprehensive education in elementary and secondary schools on the values of life, partnership relations and responsible parenthood; in the area of legislation, to formulate back-up material for the amendment of the Family Act and identify arguments for discussions on fundamental social security legislation; and, to initiate the establishment of regional crisis centres aimed at the prevention of crime and pathological addictions.

The Committee’s concluding observations and comments (CRC/C/15/Add.81) acknowledged that the transition to a market economy has caused higher rates of unemployment, poverty and other social problems and has had a serious impact on the general welfare of vulnerable groups including children.

The Committee viewed positively a number of developments in the Czech Republic, among them comprehensive law reform which included the drafting of new legislation, such as the proposed Law on Social and Legal Protection of Children, and proposals to amend the Law on the Family, the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures. The Committee welcomed the establishment of a training programme for judges, the police and government officials dealing with children’s rights and the establishment of a “Crisis Line for Children” which provides them with a means to report cases of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Among the areas of concern addressed by the Committee were: the lack of an integrated strategy for children as well as the absence of a mechanism to systematically monitor progress in all areas covered by the Convention; the need to strengthen the government’s capacity to develop disaggregated indicators to evaluate progress and assess the impact of existing policies on all children, especially children belonging to minority groups; the need to improve coordination between government bodies dealing with child welfare at the national and local levels; failure to integrate fully the principles of the Convention on non- discrimination, best interests of the child and respect for the views of the child into legislative policies and programmes; lack of adequate measures to protect children belonging to minorities, including Roma children, and to ensure their full access to health, education and other social services; denial of citizenship to children who were not registered for lawful permanent residence and failure to inform children and their caretakers in such situations about procedures for applying for citizenship; lack of sufficient mechanisms to protect children from harmful information, including violence and pornography in the media; continued use by parents of corporal punishment and failure to prohibit corporal punishment in schools; the harmful impact on children’s health of environmental degradation; insufficient measures to ensure for children with disabilities effective access to health, education and social services and to facilitate their full inclusion in society; the insufficiency of measures to address issues of reproductive health and the incidence of early pregnancies; insufficiencies in the measures taken to address the problems of child abuse, sexual abuse within the family, the sale and trafficking of children, child prostitution and child pornography; inadequate measures to deal with the problem of children working and/or living on the street; and, the rising incidence of gambling addiction, alcohol consumption and drug abuse among children.

The Committee also expressed concern about deficiencies in the system of administration of juvenile justice, particularly in the areas of the right to legal assistance and judicial review, the need to ensure that deprivation of liberty is used only as a measure of last resort, and the stigmatization of the most vulnerable categories of children, including those belonging to the Roma minority.

The Committee recommended that the government:

  • review its reservation to article 7 of the Convention;
  • strengthen coordination between various governmental mechanisms involved in children’s rights at both the national and local levels;
  • develop a comprehensive policy on children and ensure effective evaluation of its implementation;
  • continue and strengthen its efforts to develop close partnerships with NGOs working in the area of children’s rights;
  • continue to consider establishment of an independent mechanism to monitor children’s rights, such as an Ombudsman or national commission for children’s rights;
  • make further efforts to ensure that national laws conform fully with the Convention;
  • consider incorporating the Convention into the curricula of all educational institutions;
  • take measures to facilitate access by children to information about their rights;
  • make further efforts to provide comprehensive training programmes for professional groups working with children, including judges, lawyers, law enforcement personnel, army officials, teachers, school administrators, social workers and personnel in child-care institutions;
  • undertake major efforts to reduce discrimination against the Roma population;
  • consider establishment of special programmes to improve the standard of living, education and health of Roma children;
  • take measures to facilitate applications for citizenship so as to resolve the situation of stateless children and children placed in institutions;
  • consider acceding to the 1954 Convention related to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness;
  • adopt reproductive health measures aimed at reducing the incidence of pregnancies among teenage girls;
  • strengthen information and prevention programmes to combat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;
  • take measures, including provision of support services to needy families, to prevent the abandonment of children and protect single poor mothers from child traffickers;
  • develop a broad public information campaign to protect children from abuse and mistreatment, including the prevention of corporal punishment at home, at schools or in other institutions;
  • take appropriate steps to ensure the entry into force of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption;
  • develop early identification programmes to prevent disabilities, implement alternative measures to the institutionalization of disabled children, and prepare information campaigns to reduce discrimination against children with disabilities and encourage their inclusion in society;
  • undertake more comprehensive research on the possible effects of environmental pollution on the health of children;
  • undertake a comprehensive study of child abuse and ill-treatment in the family;
  • reinforce policies and programmes to combat and prevent all forms of sexual abuse, including domestic violence and incest;
  • consider ratifying ILO Convention No. 138 (minimum age of employment);
  • strengthen efforts to provide social support to children living and/or working on the street;
  • undertake a comprehensive reform of the system of juvenile justice with particular attention to access to legal assistance;
  • organize training programmes on relevant international standards for all professionals involved with the juvenile justice system; and,
  • establish special courts for juvenile justice.

Commission on Human Rights

At its 1997 session, the Commission on Human Rights considered the situation in the Czech Republic under the confidential 1503 procedure. The Commission decided to discontinue consideration; the situation is therefore not formally on the agenda for the Commission’s 1998 session.

Thematic Reports

Mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights

Racial Discrimination, Special Rapporteur on: (E/CN.4/1997/71, para. 30)

The report notes that, in 1995, there were 181 reported attacks on Romanies. The Special Rapporteur (SR) refers to the fact that the Roma are “at the bottom of the social ladder” and daily face discrimination in housing, education and employment, are often segregated in special schools, denied residency permits and refused jobs solely because of their ethnicity. The report also notes that, following the split of Czechoslovakia, the Czech citizenship law left a large number of Roma without citizenship even though they are long-term or life-long residents of the Republic; as a consequence, some of the Roma are now stateless, while others have been deported to Slovakia. The SR refers to evidence which suggests that the law was drafted with the specific intent of removing Roma from the country.

Religious intolerance, Special Rapporteur on: (A/52/477, paras. 25, 33, 37)

The Special Rapporteur’s interim report to the General Assembly notes that cases have been transmitted to the government and states that in the Czech Republic there is a legal time limit within which conscientious objectors must declare their refusal to undertake military service or apply to do non-military national service.

Sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography, Special Rapporteur on: (E/CN.4/1997/95, para. 57; E/CN.4/1997/95/Add.1)

The Special Rapporteur (SR) visited the Czech Republic from 20 to 25 May 1996. The decision of the SR to visit the Republic was based in part on a recognition that the political and economic transition still underway there is having an impact on children, and that this impact is not always positive. The report refers to the substitution of a market economy for a rigidly planned economy, increased unemployment, substantial social adjustment, and economic and political transformations which have affected, more or less drastically, health, education and social welfare systems as factors in making children more vulnerable and contributing to an increase in the number of street children.

The report outlines issues of concern which include: a gambling addiction -- brought about by the opening of casinos and the proliferation of gambling machines, which has led to an increase in child prostitution, especially among boys, to sustain their gambling habit; criminality of children -- which rose to 20 per cent in 1995, up from 12 per cent in 1989, and involves increased brutality and criminality in gangs; drug addiction -- in part a consequence of greater freedom to abuse drugs, which may contribute to the rise in child prostitution in order to financially support the drug addiction; greater transborder freedom of movement -- enabling children, especially boys, to enter the Czech Republic and possibly resort to prostitution as a means of securing an income; the free market economy -- with greater involvement of parents in market activities intended to raise their standard of living, but leaving less time to supervise and attend to their children; changes in the educational system -- which has reduced or eliminated planned activities after classroom hours, leaving children more free time without school or parental supervision and vulnerable to questionable influences; and sexual freedom -- considered one of the new attractions offered by the market economy, with the result that boys and girls become more easily involved in prostitution and/or pornography, “most of the time without really knowing what it is all about”.

The SR considers a number of constitutional and legal protections related to the situation of children and notes that prostitution is not a crime. Each region and municipality is left to determine its own policy. Note is made of the fact that, under Czech law, child prostitution refers to children under 15. At the age of 15, a child receives an identity card and becomes qualified for many things, including sexual consent. A consequence of this provision is that a prostitute between 15 and 18 years of age is not considered as a child prostitute under the law. The SR also notes that criminal culpability also attaches to a child from the age of 15.

Within the three areas of the mandate, the report provides commentary on issues such as legal adoptions, transborder adoptions, trafficking in organs, transborder and internal trafficking in children, child prostitution, boy prostitution, child sexual exploitation, child sex tourism, prosecution of child sexual exploitation, self-regulation by the media in terms of programming likely to have a negative impact on children and child pornography. The report concludes with a number of recommendations arising from consideration of these subjects. The recommendations include that the government:

  • create a focal point to coordinate the concerns of children, including ethnic minorities, with activities of various agencies in the country;
  • revise national laws to eliminate any possibility of children belonging to minority groups being deprived of citizenship and thereby placed outside the protection of the law;
  • amend national laws to adopt a non-punitive approach to children involved in prostitution, including children between the ages of 15 and 18;
  • ensure that, especially in Prague, law enforcement officials are always visible around known places of operation involving boy prostitution to act as a deterrent toward the boys and their clients;
  • conduct “sting operations” at known places of boy prostitution in Prague and give resulting arrests wide publicity to send a strong message to prospective clients;
  • impose a strict ban on children under 18 entering casinos or places where gambling machines are available;
  • conduct periodic checks of video and amusement arcades to ensure that betting does not occur among children;
  • institute better control measures to prevent an increase in and proliferation of pornographic materials involving children;
  • place restrictions on children’s access to pornographic materials;
  • establish greater control and monitoring mechanisms in border regions to address the issue of transborder adoptions and trafficking in children;
  • impose closer supervision on government agencies involved in the operation of child care institutions to ensure that children are not re-victimized in these facilities and therefore likely to run away; and
  • review programmes and initiatives addressed to problems related to children to ensure that they do not have unforeseen effects.

On the last point, the report refers to two documentary films dealing with boy prostitution and boy pornography. The purpose of these documentaries was to denounce such practices. However, the boys who were featured in the films attained instant stardom and were thus able to command higher prices in the sex market. The report notes that, although the names of the boys were not given in the documentaries, their faces were not disguised and the places where they operated were identified in detail.

The SR concluded that the general situation in the Czech Republic was more encouraging than expected, and that the government is committed to continuing to adopt measures to deal more effectively with problems related to the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The report also noted, as a priority, the need for amendments to laws to establish an age of majority and remove the present contradiction affecting the rights and accountability of children between the ages of 15 and 18.

The Special Rapporteur’s interim report to the General Assembly (A/52/482, para. 57) reiterated regret that the two documentary films on boy prostitution and pornography had resulted in an increased demand for the services of the boys featured.

Other Reports

World Public Information Campaign on Human Rights, Report of the S-G to CHR: (E/CN.4/1997/36, para. 85)

The report of the Secretary-General refers to activities by the UN Information Centre in Prague, including participation in a round table discussion on ways to prevent the media from being misused as a promoter of child pornography. The report notes that channels of communication were established to keep the media aware of UN policy and procedures.

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