Czech Republic CEDAW Shadow Report     Source: http://daccessdds.un.org/ The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Gender Studies, and the League of Human Rights (hereafter the “partners”) jointly submit this shadow report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (hereafter the "Committee") commenting on the Third Periodic Report of the Czech Republic submitted under Article 18 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (hereafter the "Convention"). The present shadow report addresses a number of categories of serious human rights abuses of women, including extreme forms of abuse such as domestic violence and coercive sterilisation, as well as very problematic law, policy, and practice in a number of areas of relevance to the Convention. This submission is not comprehensive. Its sole purpose is to present several areas of problematic law, practice and policy arising in Convention areas. The present submission is structured according to relevant Convention articles. Czech authorities have recently recognized – but by no means yet addressed adequately – the problem of coercive sterilisation of Romani women. In December 2005 the Public Defender of Rights (hereafter the Ombudsman) issued a report concluding that, according to the Ombudsman's investigation, sterilisation without free and informed consent was practiced during the communist era as well as after 1989. The most recent documented case is from 2001. The overwhelming majority of the victims are Romani women. The Ombudsman recommended several legislative, methodological, and reparations measures. Despite the Ombudsman’s recommendations, few victims have yet received compensation, and without government action, most will be precluded from access to justice. No persons have yet been prosecuted by Czech authorities in connection with these extreme harms. Responses by the Czech Government to the questions of the CEDAW Committee on these matters are inadequate in the extreme. Regarding the problem of domestic violence, significant progress has been achieved especially in regard to the legal protection of victims. However, the effectiveness of legislation is compromised by insufficient training of police, medical professionals, and staff of child protection agencies; lack of an interdisciplinary approach to the problem at local level; the absence of therapeutic programs for perpetrators as well as for victims; a complete lack of services to victims in some regions and an overall lack of comprehensive services nationwide; absence of an independent mechanism for investigating allegations of crimes committed by police officers or ex-police officers; the difficult financial situation of most victims; and lack of protection against “stalking”. Legal protection against discrimination remains insufficient because, despite efforts and pressure by a number of agencies including the European Union, the Czech Parliament has to date failed to adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law. Women suffer direct and indirect forms of discrimination on the labour market, and Romani women experience particularly extreme levels of discrimination, often compounded by intense levels of anti-Romani antipathy in the Czech Republic. Few if any cases of gender discrimination have been addressed by any Czech authority and only a handful of cases of discrimination against Romani women have been positively resolved. Legal possibilities to introduce positive obligations to hire women – and in particular minority women – have not yet been used. There is deep public opposition to positive action measures for Romani women, and there are no known examples of positive action hiring of Romani women in mainstream employment in the Czech Republic. Government policy to address discrimination against women, and in particular against women from marginalised groups, has been to date ineffective where existing, and is in many areas completely non-existent. The ineffectiveness of governmental policies is influenced by government failure to prioritise gender equality to the level merited. In addition, there is a general lack of awareness among the public and a general disregard for gender equality among the political representatives. Support for gender equality by the government is neither long-term nor structured. All activities in this area are almost entirely realised by NGOs, activities that should be either developed by or at least supported by the state. At the regional level there are no activities defined so as to structurally consider gender equality issues. The government’s actions against gender stereotypes are insufficient and insignificant. Multiple or compound discrimination against Romani women is not the subject of any effective government policy, and action in this area is extremely weak. The participation of women in politics remains low. A law aiming to improve the representation of women in a number of representative bodies (including Czech Parliament and the European Parliament) has not yet entered into force, and in any case covers only a limited number of bodies. The Czech Republic has one of the lowest rates of participation of women in public life in the European Union. The government has not adopted any actions to increase the low participation of women amongst those studying the sciences and technology. Education reform has been cosmetic and formal, with little impact of desegregating Czech education so that Romani children might have equal access to education. Child support is very difficult to access in cases in which an authority has ordered child support payments be made by a parent not present in the household and the parent does not fulfill his/her obligations to pay alimony. This has a serious adverse impact on the financial situation of single mothers. A bill proposing the state cover child support for parents not fulfilling their obligations and then recover the amounts due from the parent in question (instead of leaving all actions in such matters up to the single parent caring for children) has been rejected. Finally, the Czech Republic remains the country with the highest rate of children under 3 being placed into state care in the EU. News author: Ostalinda Maya Ovalle