Report on the Situation of National Minorities in the Czech Republic in 2019 Report on the Situation of National Minorities in the Czech Republic in 2019 Issued by: Office of the Government of the Czech Republic [email protected] 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. International commitments .......................................................................................... 6 2. New findings in the field of support for the rights of national minorities and current issues pertaining to national minorities......................................................................................... 7 2.1. Research and professional publications in 2019 ......................................................... 7 2.2. Life of national minorities in the Czech Republic in 2019 (successes, current challenges, problems) ................................................................................................. 8 3. Institutional guarantees ensuring enforcement of the rights of national minorities and participation of national minority members in resolving national minority affairs in 2019 ..22 3.1. Government Council for National Minorities ...............................................................22 3.2. Government Council for Roma Affairs........................................................................26 3.3. Committees for National Minorities in the Regions, including Prague, in 2019 ...........26 3.4. Committees for National Minorities at the Statutory Cities and Municipality Level ......35 3.5. Participation of national minority members in the activities of central government bodies and other forms of cooperation .......................................................................37 4. Legislative and other changes regarding the rights of members of national minorities in 2019 ................................................................................................................................39 4.1. Legislative changes regarding the rights of members of national minorities ...............39 4.2. Non-legislative changes regarding the rights of national minorities ............................41 4.3. Compliance with Government resolutions on the rights of members of national minorities ...................................................................................................................43 5. Use of language of national minorities in regions with regard to the implementation of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages ......................................................45 6. Education in national minority languages .........................................................................47 6.1. Polish national minority ..............................................................................................48 6.2. German national minority ...........................................................................................51 6.3. Roma national minority ..............................................................................................51 7. National minority press, publications and national minority broadcasting .........................52 8. Financing activities to the benefit of members of national minorities from the state budget, local budgets of the regions and international sources .....................................................59 8.1. Grant programmes of Ministry of Culture ....................................................................60 8.2. Grant programmes of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports ............................63 8.3. Grant programme of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic .................65 8.4. Grant programmes of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs ..................................67 8.5. Grant programmes of Ministry of Defence ..................................................................68 8.6. Grant programmes of Ministry of Regional Development ...........................................68 8.7. Activities beyond the grant programmes of the state budget ......................................68 8.8. Grant programmes of regions for support of members of national minorities ..............70 8.9. Foreign sources of financing activities of national minorities ......................................75 9. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................79 3 List of Tables Table 1 Committees, commissions and working groups in the regions .................................27 Table 2 Overview of advisory bodies in the area of national minorities at municipal districts Prague 1 – 22 .......................................................................................................................33 Table 3 Committees, commission and working groups in statutory cities ..............................35 Table 4 Committees for National Minorities or other advisory bodies at the municipal level in 2019 .....................................................................................................................................36 Table 5 Overview of grant programmes and drawing on finances for activities of national minorities in 2019 .................................................................................................................59 Table 6 Total financial support in CZK for the year 2019 for the individual national minorities in the grant selection proceedings for the support of cultural activities of members of national minorities ..............................................................................................................................60 Table 7 Number of selected types of social services that explicitly present national minorities in the target group in the register of providers as at 7 January 2020 .....................................70 Table 8 Foreign sources of financing for Association of Germans and Friends of German Culture in the Czech Republic ..............................................................................................76 Table 9 Foreign sources of financing for Assembly of German Associations in the Czech Republic ...............................................................................................................................76 Tabulka 10 Foreign sources of financing for PZKO in 2019 ..................................................76 4 1. Introduction Based on the Statute of the Government Council for National Minorities approved by Government Resolution No 1034 of 10 October 2001, as amended, the Government of the Czech Republic receives the Report on the Situation of National Minorities in the Czech Republic (the “Report”) each year. The text of the submitted Report has been drawn up by the Office of the Government Council for the Roma Minority and the Secretariat of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic for National Minorities, which is part of the Department of Human Rights and Protection of Minorities of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, based on the supporting documentation provided by ministries, local and regional governments and the representatives of national minorities who are members of the Government Council for National Minorities (the “Council”). The basic rights of national minorities stem from the Constitution of the Czech Republic, the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, by which the Czech Republic is bound, and Act No. 273/2001 Coll., on the rights of national minorities and on amendments to some related acts, as amended by later versions and some other acts. Act No. 198/2009 Coll., on equal treatment and legal means of protection against discrimination and on amendments to some acts (the Antidiscrimination Act), is another important legal instrument that provides protection to national minorities. The objective of the Report is the same as in previous years: to map the activities and changes that occurred in the past year and that directly pertain to the situation of national minorities living in the Czech Republic. The 2019 Report has not identified any fundamental changes to the status of national minorities. As in previous years, 14 national minorities were represented in the Council: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Roma, Rusyn, Russian, Greek, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. In 2019, the Czech Republic continued discussions with international bodies, particularly within the Council of Europe, which monitor the Czech Republic’s observance of its commitments in this area. These commitments are described in Chapter 1.10. Current national minority issues, drawn up based on the experience of the national minority members represented in the Council, are set out in Chapter 2. The other chapters provide information about the institutional framework in place to uphold the rights of national minorities and about possible and already executed legislative changes related to the rights of national minorities. The use of national minority languages, including education in these languages, and the issuance of national minority publications are addressed in Chapters 5, 6 and 7. In line with Section 12 of Government Regulation No .98/2002 Coll., establishing the conditions and methods of provision of subsidies from the state budget for the activities national minorities and for promotion of integration