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1. Intercultural awareness

2. Young people's rights

3. Key initiatives to safeguard democracy and prevent radicalisation leading to violent extremism

In the Czech Republic, the implementation of the Paris Declaration objectives concerning inclusion, civic education and democratic values is ensured through a combination of curricular measures, national youth strategies and security-related policies. The main responsible authorities are the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with other public institutions and civil society organisations.

Paris Declaration from 2015 set a path for future development in inclusion and civic education of young people in Europe.

Eurydice publication might invoke an impression that the Czech Republic is rather inactive, since the Czech Republic did not start with implementation of any measures since the Paris Declaration approval. However, this impression is partially caused by the data collection method, where only changes after March 2015 were taken into consideration. Changes are taking place in the long-term and implementation is already ongoing. However, these ongoing changes were not taken into consideration by the Eurydice report. 

Intercultural awareness

Intercultural awareness among young people in the Czech Republic is supported through both formal and non-formal education. Youth are a key target group of curricular measures, mobility programmes and intercultural dialogue initiatives at national and European level. The following overview outlines how these measures address young people in schools as well as in out-of-school settings.

We can find in the multicultural education in Framework educational programmes (FEP) for basic education, and the FEP for high school, where it is one of the cross-cutting issues. FEP is a a key pedagogical document according to which teaching takes place at a specific primary, secondary or preschool school in the Czech Republic. These are to be implemented by institutions providing basic education in the Czech Republic as their own school educational plans; these institutions handle them depending on the above FEP. The FEP for vocational education also contains the term multicultural competence, however, this does not appear as a separate cross-cutting theme, but as one of the minor topics listed under other thematic units. The FEP referred to above also considers methodological materials, published on the website of the National Institute of Education. The term intercultural learning is aslo used in documents originating from the European level, or in the context of the initiatives of NGOs.  

Monitoring is carried out through the Czech School Inspectorate, reach is national reach.

In the past, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports supported a specific grant programme focused on:

• training of asylum seekers,
• integration of immigrants.

This programme allowed schools to obtain additional funding to cover specific costs related to the education and integration of foreigners. The last such subsidy programme was opened in 2012.

Overall, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports:

• provides the basic legal framework for educational curricula in the Czech Republic, including multicultural education at certain levels;
• provides methodological support through directly managed organisations;
• targets school institutions as a whole, as well as teachers.

In the field of non-formal youth education, the Youth Strategy 2014–2020 contributes to intercultural awareness through:

• Strategic Goal 5 – raising cross-border mobility of young people;
• Strategic Goal 7 – supporting intercultural dialogue.

The responsible state authorities are the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Culture. Cross-border mobility is also supported within European programmes for young people in the Czech Republic, implemented at the national level.

Out of school environment

There are several NGOs and Youth NGOs dealing with intercultural awareness, activities and programmes. Among those leading we can name People in Need and its programme Varianty and One World at Schools, Multikulturní centrum Praha, AFS Mezikulturní programy, INEX-SDA.  

In the Czech-German environment there is also the Tandem - Coordination Centre for Czech-German Youth Exchange, which introduced in 2016 an approach on diversity education in cooperation with other NGOs partners.

Young people's rights

The promotion of young people’s rights is directly relevant to youth, as they are both the main beneficiaries and active participants in shaping related policies. Through formal education, youth policy measures and consultation processes, young people are supported in understanding, exercising and enforcing their rights. Recent initiatives, including the Structured Dialogue with Youth and the Child Guarantee implementation, further strengthen their participation, equal access to rights and social inclusion.

The rights of young people in the Czech Republic are addressed through formal education, national youth policy and consultation mechanisms. Youth are both the main beneficiaries and active participants in shaping rights-based policies. The following overview summarises how children’s and young people’s rights are promoted in education, policy frameworks and recent strategic initiatives.

Young people's rights are one of the topics covered by FEP for preschool, elementary school, high school and higher school education with schools and teachers as target groups. This topic is not supported by methodology materials or subsidy programmes, it is up to the teachers what information they teach. Usually the methodological materials cover the Human Rights point of view.

The Youth Strategy 2014-2020 reminds us that the state Youth Policy should 'support equal access to rights for children and youth'. Measures to fulfil this policy objective are:

To raise the awareness of society in general of the rights of children and youth

• To promote public education on the rights of children and youth, with emphasis on mutual respect and dignity
• To support the creation of simplified texts relating to the rights of children and youth, making them user-friendly for them
• To support the development of pedagogical procedures to teach children and youth about their rights
• To support and motivate children and youth towards the active enforcement of their rights
• To raise awareness in children and youth of the existing forms of legal counselling and the options for their use

The Authorities responsible for implementation of these measures are the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.

In 2023-2024 during the European consultation within the Structured Dialogue with Youth, young people were consulted on the theme based on Youth Goal #3 Inclusive Society. The have produced a report for the Czech Republic that summarises the views of young people and youth workers on barriers, working examples of good practice and needs in the areas of formal and non-formal education, leisure activities, access to social services and health care, and quality work.

Structured Dialogue with Youth funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

Rights in general are promoted by many NGOs, but there is also the Civic Education Centre, an independent scientific-pedagogic centre formerly established by MEYS, now operated by Charles University which produces both methodological and scientific materials in the field of civic and citizenship education and Rights. 

Over the next years, one of the main drivers in the area of rights of young people will be the National implementation plan of the Child Guarantee (an EU initiative ensuring that all young people receive a quality offer of employment, education, training, or a traineeship within a short period after becoming unemployed or leaving formal education). It was approved by the Government without any significant communication on 16 November 2022 and so far hasn't been made public and presented. It defines 18 categories of "children in need" and comes up with 27 recommendations and 125 detailed goals to improve their lives. Many of these recommenations deal with child rights, such as participation. 

Key initiatives to safeguard democracy and prevent radicalisation leading to violent extremism

Safeguarding democracy and preventing radicalisation is directly relevant to young people, as they are a key target group of both preventive education and online safety initiatives. Youth-focused measures include anti-extremist educational programmes in schools, projects addressing misinformation and radicalisation on social networks, and awareness campaigns promoting tolerance and democratic values. Through these initiatives, young people are supported in developing critical thinking, resilience to extremist narratives, and active participation in a democratic society.

Safeguarding democracy and preventing radicalisation in the Czech Republic involves several public authorities and combines security, legal and educational measures. Young people are an important target group of prevention efforts, particularly in the areas of education and online safety. The following section outlines the main institutional responsibilities and key initiatives addressing extremism and radicalisation, including those specifically focused on youth.

In this regard it is hard to point out one responsible state Authority, however, the Ministry of the Interior (MI) has the competence over citizenship issues and the legal matters are in the competence of the Ministry of Justice and independent courts. Radicalisation and extremism are then in the direct competence of the Ministry of the Interior. 

It regularly publishes reports about the extremism in CZ, either alone or in cooperation with the Security Information Service, and its annual evaluation is based on the Evaluation of the Fight against Extremism Concept. The Czech Republic works with national (The Concept of Countering Extremism
and Prejudice Hatred) and European strategies (The EU Counter Terrorism Strategy) and implements both preventive and reactive measures.

Radicalisation prevention of both youth and adults is a top priority of the issued documents and they are addressed to both MI and Czech Policy. Measures to safeguard democracy in contrast to extremism and radicalisation contain 3 main components: 

1. anti-conflict team activities (a police communication unit deployed at public events to prevent aggressive behaviour through dialogue, explain security measures, and mediate between citizens, including extremist sympathisers and other groups, in order to avoid unlawful actions and de-escalate tensions)

2. implementation of new police strategies to battle extremism 

3. joint initiative between the Ministries of the Interior, and Education, Youth and Sports and the NGO People in Need - Programme Varianty named “Can I understand it? Threats of neonazism”, aiming at anti-extremist education, publishing didactical materials and realising further education for teachers on these matters. 

The Czech Council for Children and Youth is implementing a project on misinformation and radicalisation of youth on social networks in the period 2024-2026. The project aims to better understand the needs of today's young people in relation to the risks of hoaxes, disinformation and radicalisation content in the online environment.

As a key governmental initiative, we can name a campaign  'Hate free Culture', organised since 2014 by the Social Inclusion Agency (department of the Governmental Office). This Information campaign via web pages and social media is sharing verified information about endangered population groups like immigrants, LGBT or minor religious groups, verifying and disproving false information, supporting victims of violent crimes with extremist subtext, publicising spots with open support of peaceful coexistence and allowing them to mark themselves as 'hate free zones', and promoting the culture of tolerance, respect and democracy. The target group is the general public, however, youth is one of the primary target groups, especially via social media. 

HateFree Culture is funded by Norwegian funds as part of the project.