Meeting with Scholars in Prague
On March 18-22, 2019 in the framework of the project "State policy on national minorities rights protection: experience of the Visegrad Group countries" (project coordinator – Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Studies of Lviv Polytechnic National University, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Turchyn Ya. B.) a working visit supported by the International Visegrad Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea took place.
The members of the delegation collected and analyzed the information on the study of the state policy of the Czech Republic and Hungary on the protection of the rights of national minorities. The scholars agreed on research methodologies, analysis of regulatory and legal framework, the activities of central and local governmental structures on national minorities, and the functioning of national minority organizations.
18.03.2019 The representatives of Lviv Polytechnic National University met with Ms. Andrea Baršová, Director of the Department for Human Rights and Minority Protection at the Office of the Czech Government. At the meeting, Ms. Andrea Baršová talked about NGOs representing national minorities in the Czech Republic, their role in the social life of the country, the social integration of national minorities in the country’s politics and economy. Ms. Andrea Baršová presented reports of the Czech government concerning the situation of national minorities in the Czech Republic, emphasized on the historical features of national minorities living in the Czech Republic with other countries, cultures. At the meeting, representatives discussed the opportunities for financing organizations of national minorities in the Czech Republic. The Director of the Department for Human Rights and Minority Protection spoke about new national minorities who came from the territory of Southeast Asia, as well as the ethnic minority of the Roma. The peculiarities of functioning of the largest national minority in the Czech Republic - the Polish minority, that lives in the east of the country, and also regional features of the functioning of the organizations of national minorities in the Czech Republic were discussed.
19.03.2019 The scholars visited the House of National Minorities in Prague, where offices of national minorities are located: Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Gypsy, Russian, Rusyn, Greek, Slovenian, Serbian and Ukrainian. They became acquainted with the work of associations of national minorities, the press issued by national minorities in the Czech Republic, met with heads of individual national societies, in particular, the Director of the Polish Society in Prague Michał Chrząstowski. The Polish minority has a Polish-language school, which is fully funded by the Czech government.
German national minority in the Czech Republic have private schools (partly funded by the German government and private entities).
At the legislative level, the issue of national minorities is coordinated by the Committee on National Minorities of the Chamber of Deputies. There is also the Government Council for Roma Community and the Governmental Council for National Minorities. At the level of local government, committees on national minorities can be set up in the settlements where representatives of national minorities live compactly,
In the Commission on National Minorities, the Ukrainian community in the Czech Republic is represented by Bohdan Rajčinec, Head of the Ukrainian Initiative in the Czech Republic. Ukrainian Saturday School "Erudyt" successfully operates in the Czech Republic. The Czech government supports the activities of Ukrainian public associations and the publication of the magazines "Porohy" and "Ukrajinskyi zhurnal" in Ukrainian.
19.03.2019 – meeting with The Director of the Polish Institute in Prague Maciej Ruczaj. The Polish Institute is a cultural and educational institution, represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, which promotes Polish scientific and cultural life and supports the Polish national minority.
