On Friday 10 March, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published an assessment of the priority measures it had recommended to the Czech and Slovak Republics in 2020.
These concerned the protection of LGBTI people and the schooling of Roma children.
They have only been “partially” implemented.
The Czech Republic has been working on the development of a national strategy for the equal treatment of LGBTI people, but it has not yet been adopted, ECRI notes.
And while they have allocated financial resources to address the segregation of Roma children in schools, this has not yet translated into significant changes on the ground.
In terms of the Slovak Republic, ECRI notes that no action plan or related legislation aimed at advancing the equality of LGBTI people has been adopted.
It also highlights that the attack on 12 October 2022 in Bratislava, which claimed the lives of two LGBTI people, was seen “at the highest political level” as “the result of the long-term use of anti-LGBTI hate speech in political discourse”.
As regards Roma children, ECRI notes that pre-schooling has become compulsory for all those who have reached the age of 5 and that measures are planned to further develop this.
However, it says, “Roma children continue to suffer from the consequences of the current insufficient capacities of kindergartens, the lack of proper territorial coverage, understaffing and persisting segregation, especially in smaller towns”.
Link to the “Conclusions” on the Czech Republic: https://aeur.eu/f/5qd
Link to the “Conclusions” on the Slovak Republic: https://aeur.eu/f/5qe (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)