The Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively participated in a range of international actions and consistently presented relevant information concerning the Czech Republic at such international forums. Simultaneously, the Ministry continued enforcing the Roma issues to be made ”European”.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on an on-going basis the measures adopted to increase protection of national minorities, Roma integration into the society and combating racism both within bilateral visits abroad and in the Czech Republic. The required information was also provided in the course of 2000 by the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and through the embassies and consulates of the Czech Republic. 107
The relevant adopted measures were also presented in multilateral forums held by international organisations such as the UN, the OBSE and the European Council. The need for more information on corresponding measures taken emerged especially in connection with an increase of Roma applications for asylum abroad as well as with an on-going dissatisfactory position of the Roma population in the Czech Republic, occurrence of racially motivated attacks, ”echoes” of the Matiční Street case, or criticised work of bodies involved in criminal and penal proceedings while investigating racially motivated crimes, so these were the factors perceived as a consequence of manifestations of racism, intolerance and hate in Czech society.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided its foreign counterpart with information on the aforementioned issues both within bilateral visits of the Czech constitutional executives abroad and or with foreign constitutional representatives in the Czech Republic, and in multilateral forums held by international organisations.
Through Czech embassies and consulates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs monitored the issues and trends in manifestations of extremism, racism and intolerance in the Central European geopolitical area. 108
An important step towards the eliminating of racial discrimination in the Czech Republic was a proclamation in accordance with Article 14 of The UN International Convention on Eliminating of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (11 October 2000), which acknowledges the authority of the Committee for Eliminating Racial Discrimination to adopt and discuss information provided by individuals or groups of individuals under the jurisdiction of the Czech Republic who complain that they have become victims of a breach of any of the rights declared in the International Convention on Eliminating All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Government of the Czech Republic approved this proclamation under Article 14 by its Resolution No. 796 dated 28 July 1999, and this proclamation was deposited with the General Secretary of the UN in October 2000. Furthermore, the Government expressed by its Resolution No. 1056 from 23 October 2000 its approval with the signature and proposal for ratification of the 12th Protocol to the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms. 109 This Protocol was signed on 4 November 2000 in Rome at the European Ministerial Conference on Human Rights held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms. A no less important step was the signature of The European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages that was approved by Government’s Resolution No. 1029 dated 16 October 2000. 110 This document was signed on 9 November 2000 in Strasbourg on the occasion of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Within the UN, the Czech Republic initiated the Roma issues presented within the preparation of the document called ”Human Rights Issues and the Protection of Roma”. The Czech Republic presented its opinion both prior to drawing up this material and in the course of its development requiring international conception of this document. The document should briefly outline the problem areas of the lives of Roma with additional comparison of individual measures taken to mitigate them. At the 52nd meeting of the Sub-commission for Support and the Protection of Human Rights Mr. Sik Yuen, an expert in this field, was required to develop a study dealing with this topic. The Czech Republic intends to continue participating in the development of the contents of this study.
The Czech Republic also took part in preparing the European Conference Against Racism, which was held on 11 – 13 September 2000 as one of the regional conferences preceding the World Conference. 111 At the end of the European Conference a political declaration was adopted. The Czech Republic participated in preparing its draft through its work in the Technical Working Party. The draft was then submitted to the Committee of Reporters for Human Rights. The content of this political declaration is, besides obligations concerning the fight against racism and extremism, formed, e.g. by commitments to ratify or implement documents dealing with human rights and fighting against racism, to adopt and implement the national legal regulation concerning the aforementioned issues, to prosecute any manifestations of racial hate, to pay special attention to the treatment of persons ranking among vulnerable groups and persons who are discriminated for various reasons, or to adopt strategies of the national struggle against such phenomena. In this forum, the Czech Republic asked to pay attention to education towards multi-culture and stressed a role of mass media in this education, required more consistent application of penal sanctions for visible manifestations of racial intolerance and more consistent application of national legal provisions which regulate procedures that could be used against legally existing political parties and associations actually promoting racism and extremism.
A proposal to supplement the points of the draft Declaration and the Action Plan of the above-mentioned UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and related Intolerances ranked among the other activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The proposal was as follows: accentuated actions against organised extremist groups, including criminal prosecution of their members who breach the rules of law, to assess an option of penal punishment for membership in such structures, positive forms of struggle through the education of judges and police officers or teaches with the aim of strengthening the multicultural climate, to strengthen the role of the mass media in combating racism by presenting the benefits of ethnical, cultural, language and religious identity of persons belonging to minorities of the whole society, to adopt and implement legal and administrative tools and to exchange experiences related to the measures which were proven right in terms of facilitating the full equality of persons endangered, particularly the members of national minorities. 112
In 2000, the Czech Republic continued to use in relation to the European Union, forums within the bodies established on the basis of the Agreement on Accession to be able to implement foreign policy, including human rights, as a part of it. At the meeting of the Council for the Accession of the Czech Republic in September 2000, it was stated that its society, brought up for many years as mono-cultural, was now facing the challenge of building a tolerant, multicultural society within which minorities would be perceived as en element enriching the society by their cultural variety. Regarding this, the Czech Republic suggested opening an All-European discussion focused on exchanging experience, including any successful measures adopted, mainly in relation to Roma. The sense of such a discussion should be a formulation of further measures taking into account individual problems such as racial discrimination, housing, education or political participation of Roma. In terms of the aforementioned problems, the Czech Republic stressed again that the solution of Roma issues is not the task of candidate countries only. It required wider co-operation both by the member states and the candidate countries, which could consequently contribute to a larger coherence of European society.
On 7 and 8 August 2000, the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Czech Republic on meeting its obligations arising form the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination were discussed (CERD). While discussing these reports, the interest concentrated mainly on the general issues, then on the history of Roma in the Czech Republic, education of Roma in terms of special schools, issues of assimilation and integration, the situation in Maticni Street, the problems of constructing a mosque in Brno, the position of refugees and applicants for asylum, punishment of racially motivated crimes and proceedings of state authorities against extremist groups. The Delegation of the Czech Republic reported on the actual approach to the solution of the aforementioned topic (termination of the dispute in Maticni Street, the conception of Government’s policy towards the members of Roma community, assisting their integration to the society, the course of some medially discussed cases of attacks against Roma citizens, dissolution of an extremist association – the National Alliance, etc.).
The Committee for Eliminating Racial Discrimination appraised the efforts of the Czech Government but at the same time also presented some critical comments. It required the Czech Republic to devote its attention to factual discrimination of Roma in the area of housing and education. Moreover, it recommended adopting effective measures against the excessive sending of Roma children to special schools and to include information in the following report on the efficiency of measures adopted for real improvement of the position of Roma population. Simultaneously, it required the efficient implementation of provisions of criminal law in cases of incitement of national and racial hatred and support of the movementsuppressing citizens’ rights and freedoms and implementation of the provisions regulating the dissolution of their organised forms. The Committee also called the Czech Republic to focus its attention in order to assure the full utilisation of economic, social and cultural rights determined in the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by all members of the society including the right for duly compensation in the case of racial discrimination. The criticism of the Committee was also focused on the small amount of trust in the work of the police and justice in the event of punishing racially motivated crimes, including the humiliating treatment minority members receive from the Czech Police. The centre for the further procedure combating racism should consist in educating towards tolerance and a multiethnic society.
On 16 and 18 October 2000 the Czech Republic was visited by the advisory Committee of the Ministers of the Council of Europe, Advisory Committee for the Framework Convention on Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe for the purpose of monitoring how the obligations arising from the Framework Convention, to which the Czech Republic is a contracting party, are met. In the course of a meeting with the representatives of the executive, legislative and non-governmental bodies, attention was paid mainly to the scope of protection of national minorities in the Czech Republic and its insufficiencies, the relationship of the majority and minority (Roma), a prepared Draft Act on the Rights of Minority Members, the adopted legislative and executive measures for solving the position of minority members in the Czech Republic.
Within the implementation meeting of the OBSE on the human dimension held between 17 –27 October 2000 in Warsaw, the Czech Republic was mentioned several times by participating states as well as non-governmental organisations in connection with its policy towards Roma, both negatively and positively. The amendment to the Act on National Citizenship, the establishment of functions of Roma advisors working for the District Councils, an exceptional position of the Czech Republic among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe participating in the inflow of seekers for asylum (the Czech Republic accepted more applications for asylum than is the number of its citizens seeking asylum in other countries) were evaluated positively. On the other hand, the Czech Republic received a negative evaluation for its ongoing occurrence of racially motivated attacks against Roma. 113
Another assessment of the Czech Republic was included, e.g. in the Report by the High Commissar for National Minorities on the Situation of Roma in the OBSE Member States, which also dealt with, especially in its recommendations, issues of extremism, racism and intolerance. At the special seminar which was held in connection with the Report on 14 and 15 June 2000 in Bratislava, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented the latest procedures taken by the Czech Government to mitigate insufficiencies in the position of Roma in the Czech Republic, which in certain cases corresponded with the recommendations contained in the Report. The Czech Party in the course of the meeting called for organising similar seminars relating to particular problems such as racial discrimination or political participation, the level of education and housing of Roma, etc. The Bratislava initiative resulted in a seminar organised under the name ”The Political Participation of Roma” in co-operation with ODIHR/OBSE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic on 30 November and 1 December 2001 in Prague. The participants expressed their satisfaction with the mobilisation of the Roma community stating, however, that the success of political participation depends on the balance between the requirements of Roma and the possibilities given by the political system. The Czech Republic declared its efforts in creating a model of cooperative relations between the Roma community and the majority society, at both the national and international level. At the same time it was said that the successful achievement of these objectives depends on the ability of Roma to set up their political aims and strategies and on their responsibility during their integration into the society.
The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), 114 an advisory body to the Council of Europe, in its second report evaluating the situation in the Czech Republic indicated the need to solve long-lasting problems of racially motivated violence and Roma discrimination in terms of education, access to services and employment. 115
The Report of the U.S. State Department on Human Rights Practices 2000 mentioned, as in 1999, the long-lasting problems of the Roma ethnic community. Such comments included unemployment, a low education rate and interethnic violence, poverty, the higher disease rate Roma have faced. 116 In terms of interethnic violence, the Report focused on some cases discussed in the media. Furthermore, it also mentioned, e.g. the dissolution of the National Alliance or the sentence passed on the publisher of Hitler’s ”Mein Kampf”, M. Zítko, etc.