# data[].attributes.body
UN Commissioner has accused Czechia of violating human rights of migrants and refugees by not allowing them into the country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The UN says the Czech Republic's measures to deter migrants and refugees appear to be an integral part of government policy.

The UN human-rights commissioner has accused the Czech Republic of a systematic violation of the human rights of migrants and refugees in order to deter them from coming to the country.

Measures cited by Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein include strip-searching migrants and refugees in order to confiscate money that is then used to pay for their detention, which can last up to 90 days.

"According to credible reports from various sources, the violations of the human rights of migrants are neither isolated nor coincidental, but systematic: They appear to be an integral part of a policy by the Czech Government designed to deter migrants and refugees from entering the country or staying there," Zeid said in a statement issued in Geneva.

Many migrants and refugees are fleeing the civil war in Syria and unrest elsewhere, and are making their way to safety in Europe. Their preferred destination is Germany, which has opened its doors to those fleeing the conflict in Syria. But to get there, the migrants and refugees must first traverse Central European states, many of which have adopted policies, including border closures, that restrict the new arrivals.

In his statement, Zeid noted these restrictions, and added, "the Czech Republic is unique in routinely subjecting these migrants and refugees to detention for 40 days, and reportedly sometimes even longer-up to 90 days-in conditions which have been described as degrading."

He also expressed concern about the Czech detention facilities where the migrants and refugees are being held, particularly Bìlá-Jezovqá-a facility that Robert Pelikán, the Czech justice minister, said was "worse than a prison." Pelikán has also criticized the detention of the migrants and refugees for up to 90 days.

Zeid noted those migrants and refugees who have challenged their detention in court have prevailed, but most aren't in a position to go to court either because they lack information about their right to free legal aid or because civil-society groups that work with them are given restricted access at some detention facilities.

The center-left Czech government's practices have been criticized by its own ombudsman, Anna Šabatová, who in a report this month noted that the treatment of children at the detention centers violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Zeid's statement also said refugees and migrants were strip-searched by the authorities looking to confiscate money in order to pay the approximately $10 per day each person is charged for his or her detention. It said there were no clear legal grounds for such a step.

"The fact that people are being forced to pay for their own detention is particularly reprehensible," Zeid said.

The UN commissioner for human rights also criticized President Miloš Zeman's remarks about Muslims and the "Against Immigration" public petition started by Václav Klaus, the former Czech president.

Zeman has said the newcomers will impose Shariah law in the Czech Republic. Last week, he was quoted as saying: "We will lose women's beauty because they will be covered head to toe in burqas, with only a fabric net over the face."

His spokesman rejected Zeid's criticism, telling Reuters: "The president has long warned of the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. He stands by his opinion and he will not change it under pressure from abroad."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
European Refugee Crisis: A 'Systematic' Violation of Human Rights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UN says the Czech Republic's measures to deter migrants and refugees appear to be an integral part of government policy. The UN human-rights commissioner has accused the Czech Republic of a systematic violation of the human rights of migrants and refugees in order to deter them from coming to the country.

# data[].attributes.body
On May 15th, 1994 4 men beat a 40-year old man before throwing him into the road where he then got ran over by a truck and died

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Although the human rights situation in the Czech Republic remained generally acceptable in 1998, there were a number of notable exceptions including state-sponsored discrimination and racially-motivated violence against Roma. Though the government took steps to dismantle a communist-era statute that forbid nomadic lifestyles, a discriminatory citizenship law remained on the books, and law enforcement authorities failed vigorously to investigate and prosecute violence against Roma. A new government was elected in the spring, led by Prime Minister Milos Zeman's Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), marking the first transition of power since the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

In a case that drew international attention, the town of Usti Nad Labem, in northern Bohemia, passed plans to erect a four-meter-high fence separating thirty-nine Roma families from the rest of the town. The plan also called for round-the-clock police surveillance in the fenced-off area. Similar plans in the town of Plzen would have moved Roma residents of the city to portable cabins on the outskirts of the city. The cabins were to have been surrounded by a fence and put under twenty-four- hour police supervision. Under pressure from Roma rights groups and the international community the towns delayed implementation, but the plans had not been abandoned as of this writing.

Skinhead attacks against Roma and visiting African students occurred at an alarming rate during the year. The European Roma Rights Center reported that racially motivated crime increased sixfold between 1994 and 1996. Though statistics do not exist for1998, local rights groups believe that this trend continued. For example, on May 15, in the town of Orlova, four skinheads reportedly beat a forty-year-old Roma man before throwing him in the road where he was run over and killed by a truck. Law enforcement authorities charged the four men with causing grievous bodily harm with racial motivation.

Law enforcement authorities often failed to investigate or prosecute racially motivated violence and discrimination with the necessary vigor. Compounding this problem, law enforcement officials were reluctant to enforce the hate crimes statute, which provides for higher sentences than the standard criminal code provisions, although the evidence often warranted the more serious charge. In March, a district court judge in southern Moravia handed down more lenient sentences than the law proscribed to skinheads convicted of assaulting a Congolese doctor and shouting racial epithets. The judge defended his ruling on the basis of the skinheads' later repentance for the crime.

The atmosphere of intolerance toward Roma was further exacerbated by open expressions of hate and prejudice by political leaders, as well as private groups. The chairman of the far right Republican party, Miroslav Sladek, proposed on the floor of the parliament that "gypsies should be criminally responsible from their birth on." Several organizations openly promoted racial hatred and xenophobia, and members of minority groups were often refused service in restaurants and shops. On May 7, an appeals court overturned the conviction of a bar owner who had been charged with refusing to serve Roma, finding no evidence of a pattern of discrimination.

The government made positive moves toward protecting the rights of Roma on March 4, when the Senate repealed the "Traveling Proscription Act of 1958," a law that forbade nomadic lifestyles. However, a discriminatory citizenship law that mainly affected Roma was not amended as had been recommended by rights groups, international organizations, and members of the Czech government. The law, which was established after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, demanded that Roma, whose families had lived in the Czech Republic for generations, prove permanent residency and have a clean criminal record for five years. Under the law, many Roma were denied citizenship and were classified as aliens. As such, they were deprived of voting rights and social benefits and, if convicted of even petty crimes, could be expelled from the Czech Republic. In May, the district court of Teplice ordered that Milan Sivak—a Roma man born in the Czech city of Pardubice and who was convicted of numerous crimes—be expelled to Slovakia even though he had been granted Czech citizenship in February. Though the law was amended in 1996, several discriminatory clauses remained. Poor notification of individual rights under the law and uneven enforcement of its provisions on a local level compounded its effect on the Roma community. The government failed to amend the law — as urged by a special federal commission in its October 1997 report — to grant citizenship to those who resided in the Czech Republic when it split from Slovakia on January 1, 1993. The ruling Social Democratic party (CSSD) campaigned in the 1998 general election on a platform to amend the law but it has made no proposals to do so as of this writing.

Albania

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Republic of Belarus

Bosnia and Hercegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Czech Republic

Georgia

Greece

Hungary

Kazakstan

Kyrgyztan

Macedonia

Romania

The Russian Federation

Slovakia

Tajikistan

Turkey

Turkmenistan

United Kingdom

Uzbekistan

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Asylum Policy in Western Europe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HRW World Report 1999: Czech Republic:Human Rights Developments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although the human rights situation in the Czech Republic remained generally acceptable in 1998, there were a number of notable exceptions including state-sponsored discrimination and racially-motivated violence against Roma. Though the government took steps to dismantle a communist-era statute that forbid nomadic lifestyles, a discriminatory citizenship law remained on the books, and law enforcement authorities failed vigorously to investigate and prosecute violence against Roma.

# data[].attributes.body
Elderly patients in the treatment homes are abused by other patients who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The nurses at the treatment facility shrug off the complaints and let it go

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
ENIL - European Network on Independent Living

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This letter is based on my personal experiences and findings in the so-called "Home for the Elderly" in Hermanuv Mestec, which is under the direction of the Prague Municipality.

People are placed in these "homes" without knowing what type of institution they are going to. There is no consideration of their age, health condition or their individual needs, which would allow them to continue living, wherever possible, a full life. The leadership of these Homes replaces this with paperwork, in the form of the so-called "individual plans for the clients". By being placed in the Home for the Elderly, the person - client is deprived of their human rights.

In the Home, whether in their own room or in the common areas, the mentally healthy client is often exposed to aggressive behaviour by other clients with mental health problems. Some of them are often under the influence of alcohol, even though they are prescribed various medications.

Any complaints about the services or the overall situation in the Home are dismissed by the leadership of the Home. Well founded criticism of the employees is seen as a personal attack.

Clients who complain are offered drugs to calm them down, are threatened with going to a psychiatrist, eviction or are outright placed in a psychiatric institution. Possible witnesses are "influenced" by staff members of the Home's social department in order to change their statement.

In case of a suicide of a new client, who hasn't received enough support in the process of "group integration and using spare time", the leadership of the Home is trying to evade any responsibility by using fabricated notes about the client's behaviour, blaming the suicide on the client and their previous family situation.

The leadership is evading responsibility also when it comes to other "unusual deaths", even though a more detailed and objective investigation would show that even in such cases the Home leadership bears a part of the blame.

The Director of such Home for the Elderly, who practically cannot be fired, is therefore the master of life and destiny of possibly hundreds of individuals, including the staff, whose favour he is trying to gain by, among other, distributing donations, given by donors in good faith that they will be received only by the clients, especially those most needy.

Judging by the reactions of the trustees of these Homes, in this case the Prague Municipality, such treatment of individuals - clients falls under the Quality Care Standards in this type of "institutions".

The leadership of the Home for the Elderly is aware how difficult it is to prove these facts in such institutions and human rights violations, as well as other unacceptable behaviour, which isn't accepted in a civilised and just society, is commonly experienced in the Czech Republic by regular people, especially those with disabilities. There is no interest or pressure among our public and political representatives to prevent such things from happening.
This letter was sent to ENIL by Alojz Janiga and reprinted with his permission.
Download the letter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Human rights violations in the Czech Republic - ENIL - European Network on Independent Living

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Letter about human rights violations in the Czech Republic in the so-called "Homes for the Elderly This letter is based on my personal experiences and findings in the so-called "Home for the Elderly" in Hermanuv Mestec, which is under the direction of the Prague Municipality. People are placed in these "homes" without knowing what...

# data[].attributes.body
In 2020 a significant human rights violation was crimes including threats or violence against members Romani community and some non governmental