The Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic

Security and prevention

Extremism

The Czech Republic ranks among the countries that pay an increased level of attention the issue of right- and left-wing extremism. The fight against extremism and its manifestation is part of the Governmental programme declarations. Thanks to the long-lasting efforts of the Ministry of Interior, Police, intelligence services and other bodies of the state administration the issue is now well looked after - the measures taken and procedures for putting them into practice are comparable to the mechanisms in other EU member states. The Czech Republic together with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia belongs to the minority of the ten new EU member states that gather and assess the information on racially motivated violence and criminality related to it. As a whole, the anti-extremist policy of the Czech Republic focuses on minimizing the emergence of this phenomenon in society, especially by means of prevention. This does not mean that the MoI would be falling short on its efforts to find new ways how to prevent the manifestation and behaviour of individuals with racist, xenophobe or other extremist underlying aspect. Since extremism is a supranational phenomenon ignoring national borders the Ministry of Interior considers the international collaboration to be very valuable.

The Security Policy Department of MoI deals with the issue of extremism on a continuous basis and analyzes it in detail. Since 1998 and based on the Government resolution No. 198 of 19 March 1998 the Department annually describes the developments of the situation in periodic government reports. Since 2004, the subject is reported in the Information on the Issue of Extremism in the Czech Republic, which is put forward for approval to the Chamber of Representatives of the Czech Parliament. These “Reports” or now “Information” provide balanced information both about prevention and repression and cover the activities of the whole state administration in the past year. The Department initiates the intra-ministerial procedures and measures to fight extremism and proposes steps to be taken by the Government. The medium-term objectives and strategies to fight extremism draw upon the Government Resolutions No. 198 of 19 March 1998, No. 720 of 14 July 1999, No. 684 of 12 July 2000, No. 903 of 12 September 2001, and No. 994 of 14 October 2002.

The Security Policy Department of MoI plays a role of the Secretariat of the Interministerial Commission for the fight against extremism, racism and xenophobia, which is an advisory body at the disposal of MoI. At the same time it provides professional background to the Czech liaison officer for contacts with the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). On the international level, the Department is responsible for the Working Group on Extremism of the Visegrad countries (“V 4”) and Austria

On the whole issue of extremism the Security Policy Department cooperates with institutions such as Security Information Service, Office for Foreign Relations and Information (Czech foreign intelligence service), Czech Police Presidium and police experts dealing with the issue of extremism on regional or district level. Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, Government Council for human rights, academic circles and some nongovernmental organisations can be named as well. The extremism is not to be fought by means of criminal repression that deals only with the consequences of this phenomenon and can neither cover nor eliminate the root causes of extremist criminality. General, broad-spectrum prevention is thus of the primary importance.

Within the overall efforts to prevent potential unlawful conduct the Security Policy Department took part in the drafting of the example of a generally binding bylaw regulating events such as techno parties. This legal instrument makes it possible for the municipalities to prepare a sufficiently unambiguous legal framework within which such party can take place, thus both protecting the rights of uninvolved persons living close to the venue and prevent a possible unlawful conduct of participants.