CAHRV
Subnetwork 2
WORKPACKAGE 8
CZECH REPUBLIC NATIONAL REPORT
ON LAW AND POLICY ADDRESSING MEN’S PRACTICES
Iva Smidova, Iva Baslarova
1. Key points
· Since 2001, the Government Council for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men has been operating as a government counselling body. Its members are representatives of individual ministries.
· One of the important legal provisions concerning social exclusion of certain groups of men (and women) is the legislation on same-sex partnership. Despite intensive discussion, the bill on cohabitation of same-sex persons was repeatedly rejected.
· The parliament of the Czech Republic has been interested in violence committed by men or on men only exceptionally. The question of violence was more often discussed in the Senate, the Upper House of the Parliament.
· There apply two new important laws concerning work and family life in the Czech Republic. These are legislation prohibiting discrimination in the workplace (including equal pay) and also incentives supporting work-life balance and encouraging men to take their parental duties.
· At present, we are not able to state any concrete laws or policies concerning or affecting men's health in the Czech Republic, since the health measures are either focused on the whole population or specifically on women (such as issues concerning childbirth).
2. The National legal, policy and political background and context
General information
The Czech Republic is a parliamentary republic that gained its political independence from Austria-Hungarian Empire in 1918 forming the state of Czechoslovakia together with the Slovak Republic. The end of the Second World War brought Soviet influence into central Europe and created the iron curtain, and after the communist putsch in February 1948 Czechoslovakia too was drawn behind this curtain. The Communist Party, which framed the legal and political context for more than 40 years, had not made any special legal provisions concerning men or women, although it formally signed most legislation concerning human rights. The year 1989 marked the fall of the Communist rule and a gradual way to democracy. At that time, the process of harmonization of Czech law with the legal system of EU began. The Czech Republic became an independent state on January 1, 1993, three years after the Velvet Revolution of November 1989. The existence of a democratic tradition had allowed a rapid restoration of parliamentary democracy after the overturn of the totalitarian communist regime. At the same time, however, the restoration of democracy placed difficulties in the way of the dual federation. Together with the differences both in economic conditions and in the political and cultural views of the Czech and Slovak populations, these difficulties led to the split of Czechoslovakia, although without open conflict (UNPD: 2005).
During the first six years after November 1989 parliamentary democracy was rapidly restored and a stable structure of political parties was created. The political transformation thus strengthened the legal position of individual citizens and the great majority of voters have rejected popularist programmes, proposed "third ways" and extremist programmes in both elections held to date. The internal changes have also been reflected in foreign policy and in the extensive links developed with international and particularly European political structures.
The new political and social situation has also been reflected in demographic changes. Rates of marriage, births and abortions have fallen, and a rise in the general state of health has meant a rise in life expectancy for the first time in thirty years. The proportion of the population in paid employment has fallen, with this change being most marked among people over retirement age. The general level of education is relatively high but the percentage of university graduates is lower than in other developed countries. Education has been released from its straitjacket of uniformity and many private schools have appeared, particularly at the secondary level. Expenditure on research is low, representing only 0,4% of GDP in 1995. The Czech Republic is also very homogeneous in terms of nationalities, with the 170 000 Romanies the only distinctive minority. The population is stable and predictions for the next century show a slight fall in population, unless this is compensated for by immigration (Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 2005).
Legislative, executive and judicial power
Legislative power in the Czech Republic is vested in the Parliament of the Czech Republic. There are two parts of the Parliament: the Senate (the upper house) and Chamber of Deputies (the lower house). The President is elected to a five-year term of office by both chambers of the Czech Parliament.
The Government is the supreme body of executive power. It consists of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers. There are fifteen ministries of the Czech Republic:
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Ministry of Environment
Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Industry and Trade
Ministry of Informatics
Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Ministry for Regional Development
Ministry of Transport
Judicial power is exercised in the name of the Republic by independent courts. Historically, particular types of judiciary - civil, criminal, administrative and constitutional judiciary – were developed. This division which raised step by step from originally integrated judiciary, exists also in present, when we talk about the system of courts. This system has a four-instance character in the Czech Republic. It consists of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic, High Courts, Regional Courts and District Courts.
The most important legislative documents are the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution of the Czech Republic. Texts of the approved laws are published in the Code of laws.
More information on all three instances can be easily found at www.ministerstva.cz or www.czech.cz.
Political Situation
All topics of policy and laws have to pass through two chambers of the parliament. The elections into the Chamber of Deputies in June 2002 were held at the end of the current parliament's four-year mandate. Out of 200 MPs, there are 169 men (84,5%) and 31 women (15,5%), the chair of the Chamber is a man, among Vice-chairs, there are 3 men and 2 women (Parliament of the Czech Republic: www.psp.cz).
The Senate, the upper house of the Czech Parliament, was reconstituted in 1996. It has originally been a part of Parliament of the Czechoslovakia in the period of 1918-1938. The first functional period of the Senate of the Czech Republic began in 1996. The Senate has 81 members, one third of whom come up for election every two years. 71 senators are men (87,7%). Senators are elected by a simple majority system in 81 regional constituencies. The Senate can return bills to the lower house, but neither the Senate nor the President has a final power of veto (Senate: www.senat.cz).
In the Senate, there are more parties represented than in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic), but some of them are represented just by one or two Senators. Parties that are represented in the lower house of Parliament, represent the core of the contemporary Czech political parties´ scene:
Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) - 70 members (35%)
Civic Democratic Party (ODS) - 57 members (28,5%)
Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People´s Party (KDU-CSL) - 21 members (10.5%)
The Freedom Union-Democratic Union (US-DEU) - 10 members (5%)
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) - 41 members (20,5%)
Unclassified Deputies - 1 member (0,5%)
According to the latest surveys of public opinion at the end of March 2005, the next election into the Chamber of Deputies would be won by Civic Democratic Party – ODS (31,5%). It would be followed by Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia - KSCM (15,5%), Czech Social Democratic Party - CSSD (14,5%) and Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People´s Party - KDU-CSL (8,5%). The Freedom Union-Democratic Union - US-DEU has support lower than five percent necessary limit (2%).
It is possible to say that gender relations had not been dealt with considerably by Czech legislators under the communist regime and the situation after 1989 has started to change only gradually. Most of the new laws and policies with specific impact for lives of men and women concerned the establishment of equal opportunities in the sphere of labour law, which was mostly harmonized with EU standards. Ministry most connected with the legislation concerning the practices of men and gender equality is the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Even though the majority of legislators and government members are men, specific legislation concerning men or men’s issues are not being discussed often, which corresponds to the situation where men represent the norm. Only the Communist Party has quota system of representation for its MPs (one third of them should be women), but it does not seem to be reflected in their voting on new legislation.
Among the NGOs that influence policies on men’s lives, there are the most known gender and equal opportunities focused NGOs, mentioned e.g. in the last section (on violence). However, there are also some interest groups and organizations representing the rights of men and fathers and speaking in their name (Unie otců - otcové za práva dětí, The Union of fathers - fathers for the rights of children) some of them from very peculiar standpoints. One of such bodies is the Czech Men’s Union that adopts very conservative views and attacks feminist movements, while pretending to stand for the rights of all heterosexual men. Its opinions on gender equality are not compatible with promotion of democracy and with objectivity, which the union declares.
An important body with regard to gender policy is the Government Council for Human Rights (http://wtd.vlada.cz/vrk/vrk.htm), which has had an impact in equal opportunities and anti-discrimination laws.
Since 2001, the Government Council for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men (MPSV: 2004) has been operating as a government counselling body. Its chair is Anna Čurdová and its members are representatives of individual ministries at the level minister’s deputies, then representatives of women NGOs, of social partners, the vice-chair of Czech Statistical Office and a representative of academic public from the Czech Academy of Sciences. Since January 2002, there is at least one person at each ministry devoting her/himself to the issues of women’s and men’s equality within the work of the respective ministry. Each ministry has also created its own programme document for enforcement of the equality of men and women within its scope of work, so-called departmental priorities.
3. HOME AND WORK
Among important laws and policies concerning work and family life of men are especially the legislation prohibiting discrimination in the workplace (including equal pay) and also incentives supporting work-life balance and encouraging men to take their parental duties.
The policy of equal opportunities in the spheres of work and family
The policy of equal opportunities for both genders has been systematically performed in CR since 1998, when the government decree 6/1998 entrusted the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic with the coordination of this process. The other ministries are, according to the same resolution, obligated to offer necessary cooperation. They also have obligation within their concise province to infill the principle of equality of men and women. The guidelines for the process are set in government programmatic document called Priorities and Procedures for the Enforcement of Equality of Men and Women, for the first time accepted in 1998. There is a National Action Plan, which comprises more than thirty concrete aims, fulfilment of which is evaluated and measures are updated every year (Duchackova, 2003).
Among the things that follow after ensuring basic European legislation, there are several areas that want to combat the unequal distribution of family and employment workloads and power between men and women and eradicate gender stereotypes. There are policies being prepared that support men taking parental leave, working part-time, and otherwise trying to find the desired work-life balance, and the same incentives are directed at employers. Stereotypical and discriminatory perceptions of women’s and men’s roles in family and work should also be gradually removed from the school curricula to enforce equal opportunities at the very beginning of people’s career choice. Especially the NGOs have their share in promoting family friendly practices in work sphere and new manager styles, including “feminine” characteristics of leadership for men. The predominance of men in technical spheres and jobs is also to be dealt with according to state policies documents.
Labour law
The most important legislation after 1989 concerning labour law in the Czech Republic, was on the principle of equal pay and the prohibition of discrimination.
The Czech legal order does not contain any provisions contrary to the principle of equal pay for women and men, and contracts that are contrary to the law shall be null and void ab initio.
The principal of equal pay for women and men is not a direct part of the Constitution in the Czech Republic. The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which is an integral part of the constitutional order, only sets forth a very general principle in Article 28 (OSI 2002:137-8).
The key transformations in Czech labour law in this area came after 1989, more concretely in the connection of integration of main anti-discriminatory measures into labour-law regulations after January 1, 2001 – the amendment of Labour Code (OSI 2002:137-8).
Amendment to the Labour Code No. 155 of 2000
The Amendment to the Labour Code entered into force on 1 January 2001 and introduced significant changes based on Directive 75/117/EEC, obliging employers to secure equal treatment for all employees concerning their working conditions, including remuneration for work and other financial rewards, professional training, etc. Article 1(4) prohibits any discrimination against employees based on race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, belief or religion, health status, age, marital or family status or obligations towards the family, including conduct by an employer that causes discrimination in its consequences only.
Act on Wages
Article 4(a) of Act on Wages stipulates the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. This Act should among other things make the gender-based discrimination in wages illegal.