The committee of experts of the European Charter for regional or minority languages of the Council of Europe has highlighted the need for the Czech authorities to take proactive, structured action to promote regional and minority languages, in line with their commitments under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
In a follow-up report released today assessing the country's compliance with ten recommendations for immediate action to promote the use of German, Moravian Croatian, Polish, Romani and Slovak issued in the fifth evaluation report in March 2024, the experts welcome the authorities' intention to hold further discussions on the introduction of the teaching of Moravian Croatian, on planning measures to implement the charter with regard to German, and on promotion of the use of Romani in different domains of public life. However, it concludes that the ten priority recommendations have not yet been implemented.
More top-down direction needed to help minority languages
The committee finds that the national authorities appear not to be closely supervising the implementation of the charter by other authorities and stakeholders, including public broadcast media. The report notes that, in the field of education, the introduction of teaching in or of minority languages is left to the initiative of school principals or schools.
In 2024, the committee of experts recommended introducing teaching of Moravian Croatian, Romani and Slovak in mainstream education, and making bilingual education in German available from pre-school to technical and vocational levels in the districts of Cheb, Karlovy Vary, Sokolov, Liberec, Ústí nad Labem, Český Krumlov, Opava and Svitavy. While the committee of experts welcomes the option for municipalities to voluntarily introduce the use of place names in regional or minority languages regardless of the proportion of national minorities in the local population, it also notes that local authorities rarely take such an initiative. In addition, certain long-standing shortcomings in legislation persist, including limitations in the use of regional or minority languages in criminal proceedings.
The committee of experts underlines that Czechia's undertakings under the charter constitute obligations for the national authorities to take "resolute action to promote regional or minority languages in order to safeguard them". It also stresses that most of these undertakings require more action than allowing the use of regional or minority languages. It considers that, since the charter contains several obligations for regional and local authorities, the national authorities should involve them regarding its implementation and provide them with guidance.
The Czech authorities are expected to present their next report on the implementation of the charter by 1 March 2028.
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The European Charter for regional or minority languages is the Council of Europe's convention designed to protect and promote states parties' traditional regional or minority languages and enable speakers of these languages to use them in both private and public life. Its implementation is monitored by an independent committee of experts. The treaty entered into force on 1 March 1998 and is now in force in 25 states.
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and Czechia
