Roma must decide on solutions to subjects that affect them! Czech Govt Roma Council adopts definition of Romani participation and discusses compensation for forcibly sterilized women
The Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs has established what the involvement of Romani people in the decision-making and the design of measures to improve their situations should look like. It has adopted a definition of participation by Romani people according to which Romani women and men should be represented in politics and on advisory bodies and should directly contribute to the creation of proposals. The council members also discussed revisions to the Framework Education Programs and compensation for the illegal sterilizations of Romani women during their autumn session.
The session was opened by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková. “I presented my work as Government Commissioner for the last year and the year before and the Prime Minister was present,” Fuková told news server Romea.cz shortly after the session ended.
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“During 2024 we have come a long way. One milestone was the adoption of a definition of antigypsyism in April, which we are now putting into practice in various areas, or the opening of the Lety u Písku Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti,” Fuková said. “We took advantage of the Prime Minister’s presence and that of the civil society members to discuss different subjects with him.”
“The Prime Minister thanked me for my work and said he is aware of the importance of the position of Government Commissioner. He confirmed the necessity of combining different subjects and making sure Romani people are actively involved in the matters that directly affect them,” Fuková characterized the Prime Minister’s reaction, adding that education is also a key theme for the Prime Minister because he believes it is exactly education that can aid Romani people with living better lives in the Czech Republic.
David Tišer: Roma must be part of the teams deciding on solutions to the issue that affect them
The main point of today’s session was the adoption of the definition of participation by Romani people. “The participation of Roma means the active, full-fledged participation by members of the Romani minority in the public, political, cultural and social life of the Czech Republic in accordance with the principles of equality, non-discrimination and partnership,” the definition reads.
According to the definition, Romani people have the right to contribute to decision-making on policy in local governments, Regional Authorities and the state itself. They should have elected representatives and proxies in various committees and councils. They should also be directly involved in the design of projects or measures about minorities that impact their housing, health care, education, employment or inclusion. Barriers to that have to be eliminated. The definition names those barriers as discrimination, segregation, insufficient education or access to information. The Council called on ministries and local authorities to involve Romani people in their working groups, advisory bodies and monitoring committees. The local and regional administrations should support the creation and work of their own Roma Councils.
“Participation is not just an appeal to the majority, but is also an appeal to us Roma to become more involved,” said Fuková, who pushed through the adoption of definitions of community organizing and community work as instruments of social transformation during the previous Council session.
The definition was designed by a Working Group focused on greater involvement of Romani people. According to its representatives, this perception of the participation of Romani people in the Czech Republic is new; until now, Romani people have been involved in negotiations just as passive participants. Their position has not been equal to that of the others involved. With the increasing number of Romani women and men who are educated, the situation is changing.
“This definition is new with regard to how participation has been understood in the Czech context so far. Frequently situations have been considered ‘participation’ when on one side of the table there have been highly educated majority-society people and on the other side, people from socially excluded localities. In such cases it is important to take into consideration the educational level of those involved,” said Romani civil society member David Tišer, who collaborated on the new definition of participation as part of the Working Group for the Collaboration and Participation of Romani People.
“Up until now we have flattened out the idea of participation to mean inviting a Romani person to a conference, or to a signature on an attendance sheet. We are calling for the participation of Romani people in the teams deciding on solutions to issues that impact Roma,” said Tišer.
According to Enrico Lakatoš, another Romani civil society member of the Council, the Czech Republic lags behind other countries when it comes to involving Romani people in politics. According to the Romani Vice-Chair of the Council, Marian Dancso, it is necessary for Romani people to get more involved and run for election.
“I personally like it that the new definition names both political life and the societal context of Romani participation. I am satisfied because I have long strived for greater participation by Romani people in political affairs. As a local politician, I have to say that I miss the deeper involvement of Romani people themselves. My wish is that more Romani people will become candidates in the local and regional elections and naturally for the Chamber of Deputies,” Dancso told news server Romea.cz.
Fuková and Dancso: The Prime Minister wants to extend the deadline for filing compensation requests for illegal sterilizations, the political will exists!
Another subject on the agenda was the compensation for those who have been subjected to unlawful sterilizations. “At this moment, we are seeking to extend the life of the compensation law, because it is possible to apply for compensation only until 2 January 2025, and the Health Ministry already knows now that it will not manage to process the hundreds of requests it has. This historic wrongdoing needs to be resolved,” Fuková said.
“The women [waiting to hear whether they are eligible for compensation] aren’t just nervous, they are desperate,” lawyer Milena Zmeškalová of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights (the ombudsman) told the Council, where 65 investigations into specific cases of compensation being delayed or rejected are underway.
The Romani Council is planning an extraordinary session in Brno on the compensation issue on 4 December at the headquarters of Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček. “We will be intensively reviewing the subject of sterilization and we hope that by 4 December we will have a standpoint or a communication from the minister on the opportunity to extend the deadline into next year for filing compensation requests,” Fuková told news server Romea.cz. “It remains to be seen whether the ministry will decide to submit a bill for a new law with the same wording and a new deadline by which to file requests. From the meeting today with the Prime Minister it was obvious he would support that step, political will does exist for it,” Fuková expressed her hope that the deadline would be extended.
Dancso is also optimistic in that regard. “Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed a positive standpoint that could facilitate prolonging the deadline for filing requests. I am very satisfied with that result,” Dancso told news server Romea.cz.
Support for the education of Romani children living in social disadvantage
Representatives of the Czech Education Ministry and the National Pedagogical Institute were also guests of the Council. They presented the results of the support for disadvantaged schools from the National Plan for Renewal, the training of pedagogues in how to recognize socially disadvantaged children (and how to differentiate them from other kinds of disadvantage), and a platform for Romani pedagogical workers. Among other matters, Dancso also mentioned the necessity of taking into consideration the ethnolect spoken by Romani people as the core of the problem for their transition from nursery schools to primary schools.
“I would like to emphasize the proposals to anchor the role of social pedagogues in the schools. Specific proposals were voiced for involving social pedagogues in the educational process and we hope their role manages to be introduced to the fullest extent,” added Dancso.
Marie Smutná of the Museum of Romani Culture summarized the process for including information about Romani people and about coexistence with minorities overall into common instruction in the schools. Specific illustrative tasks are being worked on as well as changes in the training of pedagogues and recommendations to pedagogues on how to work with bias in the classroom and in the faculty lounge.
Definition of the participation of Romani people as adopted by the Council resolution
The participation of the Roma means the active, full-fledged involvement of members of the Romani minority in the public, political, cultural and social life of the Czech Republic in accordance with the principles of equality, non-discrimination and partnership.
Such participation involves the following in particular:
Political participation: Roma have the right to be represented during the decision-making processes at the local, regional and national level through their elected representatives and through their participation in governmental and non-governmental advisory bodies such as, for example, Monitoring Committees and the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs.
Societal participation: Roma have the right to participate in the creation of policies, programs and projects which directly impact their communities, especially in areas such as housing, education, health care, employment and social integration.
Consultative processes: In accordance with Section 6 of Act no. 273/2001, Coll., “on the rights of members of national minorities”, which regulates the establishment of advisory bodies for national minorities in the Czech Republic, the participation of Roma includes consulting and co-deciding on matters which have a direct impact on the Romani community. That includes the creation of mechanisms in which representatives of the Roma will have equal decision-making powers at the given level (local, regional, national).
Inclusion and equal access: In accordance with the aims of that law, Romani people must have an equal opportunity to participate in public life and in the creation of policies which can influence their inclusion and position in society. That means barriers to their participation such as discrimination, segregation, insufficient education, insufficient access to relevant information or insufficient critical thinking must be eliminated.
The Council
– asks the central bodies of the state administration to include representatives of the Romani minority in their advisory, working and monitoring bodies in the sense of Section 6 para. 2 of Act no. 273/2001, Coll., “on the rights of members of national minorities”.
– calls on municipalities and Regional Authorities to create the conditions for members of the Romani minority to actively participate in cultural, societal and economic life and in public affairs, especially in those matters which impact the Romani minority, so as to support informal community work groups and the creation and work of local Roma Councils in the sense of Section 6 para. 1 of Act no. 273/2001, Coll., “on the rights of members of national minorities”.
