International conference on combating racism and discrimination

The Czech Republic and Slovakia were criticized at an international conference on combating racism, xenophobia, and discrimination that was organized by the OSCE in Vienna on 4-5 September. The agency CTK cited reports by the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) and the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights as saying that the Penal Code is not applied strictly enough in the Czech Republic in the case of racially motivated crimes whose victims are Roma. The reports also said Slovak authorities do not punish severely enough perpetrators of murders of Roma. They also stressed that Slovakia lacks the political will to approve anti-discrimination legislation. The Slovak parliament, they said, has rejected an anti-discrimination law without approving any other legislation in its stead.