Regulation of national minority rights in the Czech Republic
The basic legal framework for the issue of national minorities in the Czech Republic is provided by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the “Law on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National Minorities”.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (Constitutional Law No. 2/1993 of the Official Journal amended by Constitutional Law No. 162/1998 and Constitutional Law No. 295/2021) also regulates the rights of national and ethnic minorities at the level of a constitutional act. According to Article 24 of the Charter, “belonging to a national or ethnic minority shall not be to the detriment of any person”. Article 25 provides that “citizens belonging to national or ethnic minorities shall be guaranteed full development”. Rights are mentioned in three areas in particular: the development of their own culture together with other members of the minority concerned, the dissemination and reception of information in their mother tongue, and association in national associations. The details of the content and exercise of these rights must be laid down by law. In addition, “citizens belonging to national and ethnic minorities shall be guaranteed, within the limits set by law: (a) the right to education in their language, (b) the right to use their language in official relations, (c) the right to participate in matters concerning national and ethnic minorities”.
The Law on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National Minorities (Law 273/2001 of the Legislative Assembly) regulates the rights of persons belonging to national minorities and the powers of ministries, other administrative authorities and bodies of regional self-governments in relation to them.
The law defines the concept of a national minority as “a community of citizens who differ from other citizens in general by their common ethnic origin, language, culture and traditions, constitute a numerical minority of the population (objective condition) and at the same time express their will to be considered a national minority for the purpose of a common effort to preserve and develop their own identity, language and culture, while expressing and defending the interests of their historically established community (subjective condition).”
At the same time, the law guarantees that persons belonging to national minorities, individually or collectively, may exercise their rights, which may not be restricted or prevented.
The rights regulated by law include the freedom to choose one’s identity, the right of association, the right to participate in public affairs affecting them, the right to use their surname and first name in their own language, the right to multilingual signs in the settlements they inhabit, the right to use minority languages in official contacts and before the courts, the right to use their mother tongue in electoral matters, the right to education and cultural development in their mother tongue, and the right to information in their mother tongue. In the Czech Republic, in order for a national minority to be officially recognised, a sufficient number of citizens of that nationality with Czech citizenship must have lived in the Czech Republic for a long period of time. Officially, recognised minorities have representatives in the Government’s Minority Council and are entitled to funding for the development of their culture. The list of officially recognised minorities is Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Roma, Ruthenian, Russian, Greek, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. In the 2021 census in the Czech Republic, 83.8% of respondents to the question on nationality declared themselves as Czech, 5.0% as Moravian and 0.2% as Silesian, with Slovak (1.3%), Ukrainian (1.1%) and Vietnamese (0.4%) being the most common among the other nationalities. Completion of the nationality question was voluntary, with 31.6% of people leaving it blank, compared to 25.3% in the 2011 census. Out of a total population of 10 524 167, 6 033 014 declared themselves Czech, 359 621 Moravian, 12 451 Silesian, 96 041 Slovak, 26 802 Polish, 9 128 German, 4 458 Roma, 25 296 Russian, 78 068 Ukrainian, 31 469 Vietnamese, 3 321 058 did not answer the question.