Non-Denominational Citizens in the Czech Republic<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> By Joseph Haubelt

 

According to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, part of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, all non-denominational citizens have the following rights and freedoms:

 

Chapter One, Article 1: All people are free and equal in their dignity and in their rights. Their fundamental rights and freedoms are inherent, inalienable, illimitable, and unrepealable.

 

Chapter One, Article 2 (1): The State is founded on democratic values and must not be bound either by an exclusive ideology or by a particular religion. Chapter Two, Article 15 (1): Freedom of thought, conscience and religious conviction is guaranteed. Everybody has the right to change his or her religion or faith, or to have no religious conviction.

 

Chapter Two, Article 20 (1): The right to associate freely is guaranteed. Everybody has the right to associate with others in clubs, societies and other associations.

 

The preliminary results of the 2002 census show that 32% of the population of the Czech Republic profess allegiance to some church or religious community (29% of these profess allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church). Compared to 1991, this is a decrease of 15% and, for the Roman Catholic Church, a loss of 1.2 million believers.

 

Church and Freethought in Czech History

The Roman Catholic Church has been a powerful force in the history of the country. The martyrdom of Jan Hus at the Roman Catholic Council convened in Constance in 1415 began the Czech Reformation, which reached its climax in the 17th century. The violent Counter- Reformation that followed was, to borrow the words of the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomás Garrigue Masaryk, a horrible event not just in the history of the Czech nation but in the history of mankind as well. Thus the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 meant liberation from oppression by the Habsburgs in coalition with the Roman Catholic Church. But the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church took advantage of the renewal of democracy in Czechoslovakia in 1989. One consequence was that properties formerly owned by society were transformed into private church property.

 

The Czech Republic is a state with deep Humanist, freethought, and democratic traditions. Yet, while the Roman Catholic Church functioned without interruption throughout the 20th century, the Humanist and freethinker’s associations were suppressed three times: first in 1914 at the outset of World War I, second in 1939 when Czechoslovakia was forced to split up, and for the third time in 1952, despite the protests of the Union of Non-Denominational Citizens. In all three cases, the property of these associations, including prosperous publishing houses, was confiscated.

 

The Rights of Non-Denominational Communities Today In view of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly as item No. 53/144 on 8 March 1999, a number of criticisms can be made of present state policy of the Czech Republic towards non- denominational citizens.

 

The Czech Republic ignores the existence of associations of non-denominational citizens (atheists and those indifferent towards religion) by not granting them any legal or financial support. They do not even fall under the purview of the Department of Culture, like religious groups, but under the Department of Home Affairs.

 

Yet more than two-thirds of the cost of churches and religious associations are covered by the taxes of non- denominational citizens. The state offers generous support to church schools, training of priests, running of church buildings, and activities of church representatives in the army, police, and in prisons, as well as to activities of church officials in the media. Moreover the Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly claimed a privileged place in society, above even other churches.

 

In this way the whole of society is under the pressure of state-financed religious indoctrination, found in all spheres of public life. The census figures show that nearly 70% of the country’s population is without religious confession, and therefore the majority of citizens suffer from discrimination. Moreover, this discrimination is financed by their taxes. The state authorities refuse the legitimate claims of citizens without religious confession for parity with churches and religious communities. And laws are currently being prepared that will enhance further the privileged status of the Roman Catholic Church. We believe that the situation calls for active measures to end discrimination and religious privilege. In the absence of full state- church separation, these should include legislative measures to ensure parity of representation and support for non-denominational organizations with religious groups, the ending of state funding for training of priests and church-related activities in health and social services, and the provision of education in Humanist ethics alongside religious education in schools (if not the transfer of religious education from schools to the responsibility of church authorities).

 

Conclusions

The policy of the Czech Republic discriminates against the community of non-denominational citizens, who form the majority of the population, thus contravening the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which is a part of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, as well as international law. A more detailed analysis would show that it is particularly atheists who are subject to discrimination. Such discrimination impedes the non- denominational community in maintaining and developing its cultural identity. Before the Czech Republic enters the European Union, these discrepancies between its internal legal conditions and the norms of international law should be removed.

 

Dr Haubelt is Secretary of Freethinkers of Czech Republic.