Czechia should take steps to reform the existing child justice system in a way that provides children with mandatory legal representation from their very first contact with the law, with a wide range of non-judicial solutions, said ICJ and Forum for Human Rights (Forum) in their submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). It should abandon the practice of separating children from their families and placing them in alternative care due to their “behaviour difficulties” or “behaviour problems” and ensure that a civil court order can never lead to placement of a child in a closed regime facility.
Today, the ICJ and Forum for Human Rights made a submission to the CESCR in advance of Committee’s examination of Czechia’s third periodic report under articles 16 and 17 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Forum and the ICJ raise a particular concern to the Committee for the examination of Czechia’s compliance with the provisions of the ICESCR about the right to special measures of protection and assistance (Article 10.3 ICESCR), and the obligation to provide protection to the family (Article 10.1 ICESR).
The submission focuses on three specific contexts of inappropriate provision of social protection to children in conflict with the law or society: treatment of children below the age of criminal responsibility, treatment of children in conflict with the law in the child protection system, and treatment of children whose behaviour is considered “antisocial” or “risky” behaviour.
The ICJ and Forum are of the opinion that Czechia has failed to meet its obligation to establish measures of protection for the child, under Article 10(3) ICESCR, with consequences for compliance with other ICESCR rights, such as the right to health under article 12 of the ICESCR and this regarding all three contexts. The submission includes recommendations in response to the issues of each context.