Czech Republic 2020: Politicians Hinder Solutions Offered

Five years ago, as part of the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, all UN member states ratified the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2017, the government of the Czech Republic ratified the strategic document “Czech Republic 2030” whose goal was to improve the quality of life across all the regions and to put Czechia on a path to development which would be sustainable in its social, economic and environmental impacts.

The goal of the Social Watch report is to evaluate the fulfillment of the Czech domestic and international commitments in the field of sustainable development and human rights, with a particular emphasis on mitigating poverty, on the rights of marginalized groups and the position of women. This year’s report is again split into five chapters based on the pre-amble of the UN resolution “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” focused on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Justice, and Partnership.

Despite the partial gains made, the report is not very optimistic. Although in the Czech Republic we have experts working both within and outside the public sector, their opinions have not been heeded. And one cannot say that the public would not be sensitive to questions of human rights and ecological problems: surveys of public opinion for example show that 84% of the public wish to further support the prevention of violence against women, and 73% of the population consider the loss of water linked to climate crisis as an essential issue. Despite what we are often told, the reason these changes are not being implemented is not the doing of a self-centered and lethargic populace, but rather that of politicians.

Implementing meaningful measures which might ease the onset of the climate crisis or social inequality among people thus continues to rely on provisory initiatives of various people and groups. The wider understanding on the part of politicians and government employees must replace the improvisational methods of civic society.

Czech Republic 2020: Politicians Hinder Solutions Offered
by Civil Society and Experts
SDG Monitoring Report
Social Watch Czech Republic 2020

Read the Report "Social Watch Czech Republic 2020" (in English) or here (in Czech).

By Magdalena Šipka, editor of the SW.

Source: Social Watch Czech Republic.