The European Committee of Social Rights has released its long-awaited decision on the merits of the complaint: European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) v the Czech Republic (No. 157/2017) concerning the institutionalisation of vulnerable children. The Committee has found the Czech Republic in violation of their rights.
ERRC and MDAC complained that the Czech Republic failed to place vulnerable children, such as children with disabilities as well as Roma children under the age of 3, in non-institutional and family-like alternative forms of care which, as confirmed by the Committee, breaches Article 17 of the European Social Charter in light of the non-discrimination principle contained in the preamble of the 1961 Charter.
The Committee unanimously found the Czech Republic in breach of Article 17 of the Charter. The decision is built on three legal grounds. The first ground concerned the State’s failure to reduce the number of young children placed in institutions, to provide young children with appropriate services in family-based and community-based services within a reasonable time, and to make maximum use of the resources at their disposal.
The second ground concerned the State’s failure to take significant and targeted steps to deinstitutionalise the existing childhood care system, and instead provide young children with services in family-based and community-based settings.
In a similar vein, the third ground concerned the State’s failure to provide any evidence or relevant information on the adoption of measures to improve the existing childhood care system, and instead provide young children with services in family-based and community-based settings.
The decision of the Committee now places an onus on the Czech Republic to row back on their failures and to introduce measures to improve the existing childhood care system.
Click here to read the full decision.