The ban against discrimination is based on a principle fundamental to every democratic state, that of the equality of all people, which is a basic condition for the existence of justice. Even today, in the 21st century, many Romani people in the Czech Republic encounter explicit violations of this principle when seeking employment, access to services, and when looking for housing that is not a residential hotel.
If you have ever encountered advertisements or behavior of this nature, do not ignore them – these are forms of direct discrimination that are illegal. Call our free hotline, 800 307 307, to report them.
One week ago, a Romea.cz reader drew our attention to an advertisement offering an apartment for rent near the Palmovka metro station in Prague on the Bazoš.cz website, including the clearly formulated condition that only Czechs should apply. The advertisement literally read "only Czechs, Roma please do not call!"
The person placing this ad did more than violate a key article of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. She also violated the Anti-Discrimination Act now in effect which defines the right to equal treatment and the ban on discrimination in matters of access to housing (and others).
Naturally, no one can instruct the owner of an apartment to whom he or she must rent it, but that is not the purpose of the ban on discrimination. The aim of the ban is to ensure equal access to all interested in housing so that such decisions are not made on the basis of ethnic criteria.
More than 40 000 rental listings are posted to Bazoš.cz on any one day and it is therefore not realistic to review them all, but when a ROMEA, o.p.s. staffer warned the administrators of the advertisement with the discriminatory content, their response was professional and the advertisement was rapidly erased. The woman who had placed it introduced herself only as the broker of the property and told us that while she did not see anything illegal about her behavior, she would not tell us the name of the real estate office she was representing.
"I don’t have to explain anything to you. Out of 30 telephone calls we get, 20 are from Roma, so I added that sentence at the wishes of the apartment owners. I don’t believe there is anything discriminatory about it," she said when asked by a staffer of Romea.cz why the ad contained the condition that applicants not be Romani.
When asked whether she knows that Romani people are also citizens of the Czech state – that they are Czechs too – she was unable to respond. "They are, but I won’t explain this any further," the broker said.
