Covering events from January - December 2003

There were reports of ill-treatment of members of the Romani community. Police officers convicted of assault in one case received a light sentence. "Cage beds" were used to restrain patients in psychiatric hospitals and residents of social care homes for people with mental disabilities.

Discrimination against Roma

Roma continued to suffer discrimination in several areas of life in spite of some positive government measures. In January the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed regret that some of its recommendations had not been sufficiently addressed. These included the development of awareness-raising campaigns aimed at reducing discriminatory practices against the Roma and the implementation of special programs to improve the standard of living, education and health of Romani children. The Committee was also concerned that Romani children continued to be over-represented in schools for children with learning difficulties, the so-called "special schools", and that illegal migrants and some refugees suffered discrimination in access to education.

In August the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern "at continuing acts of racially motivated violence, incitement to hatred, the persistence of intolerance and de facto discrimination, in particular with regard to the Roma minority" and at the disproportionately high unemployment rate among the Roma. It recommended that existing legislation be implemented more effectively.

There were several reports that Roma had been ill-treated by the police. Very few such incidents were investigated independently and impartially. The system for investigating complaints against police officers did not meet international human rights standards for independence and impartiality, or fulfil recommendations by the UN Committee against Torture and the UN Human Rights Committee. Even when officers were convicted of serious offences, they received light sentences.

  • In June a court in Cheb, west Bohemia, gave three police officers a suspended prison term for severely beating Karel Billy, a Romani man. Two other officers were acquitted. The officers had reportedly stopped him for an identity check, then taken him to a nearby forest where they beat him severely, urinated on him and racially abused him. Only when the doctors who treated him intervened did the Police Inspectorate investigate. Even then, the officers were initially charged only with "abusing the authority of a public official". The Commissioner of the Government of the Czech Republic for Human Rights was reported as describing the court's verdict as "truly sad", particularly as the offence had been committed by police officers.
  • On 12 May in Popovice u Jičin, northeast Bohemia, five officers from the special riot police allegedly broke into the home of the Romani Daniš family shouting racist insults. They reportedly beat Lubica Danišova, her 17-year-old son Marcel and her pregnant daughter, and accused the family of stealing from a restaurant owned by one of the officers. On 20 May the Police Inspectorate opened an investigation into a "violation of freedom of the home" without any reference to the racial motivation of the offence.

Cage beds as a method of restraint

Cage beds were used in psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions as a method of restraint, according to reports by local non-governmental organizations. The Centre for Mental Health Care Development found that 60 out of 600 beds in Jihlava Psychiatric Hospital were caged and that 416 patients had been restrained in them in 2002. In another institution, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center found around 17 cage beds and two cots "with netting, to prevent children from falling out". A cot with metal bars and a padlock contained a sevenor eight-year-old boy with severe intellectual and physical disabilities, apparently unsupervised and receiving no therapy.

The use of cage beds and the denial of appropriate rehabilitation and care to children with disabilities amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in breach of international law and best professional practice. The Czech Ministry of Social Affairs acknowledged that cage beds are used, also noting that no legislation explicitly forbids this form of restraint and citing budgetary constraints on hiring enough qualified staff.

Disclaimer: © Copyright Amnesty International

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.