Czech Republic: A country not for Women?
Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against women from October 2010 alerts that in the Czech Republic persists the lack of special measures improving the situation of women, including such important issues as discrimination in the labour market or domestic violence.
The Czech Republic occupies the 65th rank of Gender Gap Index 2010 which indicates not much satisfactory state of affairs and furthermore should fulfil its international commitments concerning elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Despite both these facts the Czech political representation and mainly the government itself try to persuade public as well as international institutions that the Czech Republic is nearly a paradise where no discrimination or unequal rights exist.
Instead of identifying problems and searching for appropriate solutions Czech government ignores or even depreciates all gender related issues. Due to this attitude many of such issues go unnoticed and hence persist. A good example is violence against women to which is consistently referred as to „domestic violence“ and which should be – according to prime minister's adviser – eliminated by the means of support and respect to marriage and traditional family.
The combination of indifferent (or even refusal) attitude of Czech government to gender inequalities and discrimination together with fall-outs of so called „budget-wise cuts“ on female part of the society leads us to the only possible conclusion: our male-only government tries to proof that the Czech Republic is not a country for women.
Czech Women’s Lobby will continue in its effort to promote gender equality in the Czech Republic.