Strengthening the Public Defender of Rights’ activities in human rights protection (Towards establishing NHRI in the Czech Republic)
Published
Updated 26-1-2023
- Information update
- Information update
| Region | National coverage |
|---|---|
| Title of the Programme | Human Rights |
| Title of the Project | Strengthening the Public Defender of Rights’ activities in human rights protection (Towards establishing NHRI in the Czech Republic) |
| Number of the Project | LP – PDP3 - 001 |
| Project Promoter | The Office of the Public Defender of Rights |
| Project Partner from Donor State | Norwegian National Human Rights Institution (Norgesnasjonaleinstitusjon for menneskerettigheter) |
| Status | Estimated project duration: 1.12.2019 - 31.12.2023 |
| More Information | Target group: Relevant stakeholders in the public administration sector (active in human rights) and general public Web pages and social media:
|
| Grant | 1 500 000 EUR |
Project description:
The Public Defender of Rights (hereinafter the “Defender”) protects individuals against acts of selected public authorities and institutions in order to carry out his or her explicit statutory role of contributing to the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. The Defender is active not only within the framework of maintaining basic lawfulness; in addition to protecting the principles of good governance, the Defender also monitors the observance of rule of law to the extent in which it is inseparably linked with the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in modern democratic countries. In the years that followed the establishment of the Defender’s institution, new responsibilities closely linked with human rights were added to the Defender’s portfolio, including e.g. protection of persons deprived of liberty, equal treatment and protection against discrimination.
At the present time, the Defender, i.e. the Office of the Public Defender of Rights (hereinafter the “Office”), which provides for the professional, organisational and technical support of the Defender’s activities, has sufficient resources to fund its basic roles and responsibilities. However, the Defender lacks resources to cover a broader range of activities with a society-wide impact aimed at promoting systemic changes.
The project aims to address this situation by hiring new staff for four of the Office’s departments:
- The secretariat of the Defender and her/his Deputy, with the objective of consistent and systematic application of international and constitutional standards of human rights protection in the Defender’s work,
- The Department of Supervision over Restrictions of Personal Freedom, to strengthen prevention of ill-treatment,
- The Department of Family, Healthcare and Labour, to strengthen the protection of vulnerable children and their families and to promote the rights of children,
- The Department of Equal Treatment, to boost the exercise of the right to equal treatment and protection against discrimination.
The project will enable to carry out analytical, research and awareness-raising activities helping to improve the situation of vulnerable and marginalised groups, both in terms of protection of their rights and in terms of obtaining the competences necessary to exercise these rights.
Bilateral activities:
The Office will forge a new partnership with the Norwegian National Human Rights Institution, (i.e. the Norwegian NHRI), which is experienced in promoting human rights approach within its activities. Employees of the Office will visit the Norwegian NHRI in order to obtain know-how and familiarise themselves with best practices and working methods of their Norwegian colleagues. It allows identifying new methods and approaches that can be implemented so that he can effectively, innovatively and comprehensively implement human rights approaches in his work. The effectiveness of the adopted measures in the implementation of the human rights approach will be assessed.
Another result of the cooperation will be an internal analysis of the NHRI Office in the Czech Republic. Subsequently, there will be created a Czech article and an English article (co-authorship by the Norwegian NHRI) on the same topic.