More than 50 experts have left the Government Office’s advisory boards due to the transfer of responsibilities to various ministries, former government commissioner for human rights Klara Simackova Laurencikova said today in a debate in the Chamber of Deputies on the future of the human rights agenda.
She said others were also considering leaving. According to the Government Office website, there are about 150 expert advisers across the government’s advisory boards.
Another former commissioner for human rights, Monika Simunkova, expressed fears that these experts would not be able to work fully independently after they start working under individual ministries.
“Their recommendations are often critical of individual ministers or the government’s actions,” she said. “The officials were placed under the authority of the commissioner [for human rights] precisely so that they would have a certain degree of independence from individual ministers.”
“The commissioner had a bit of a struggle with every government,” Simunkova added.
Laurencikova left her post last June, shortly before the end of the government of Petr Fiala (ODS). Current Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) appointed ANO MP Tana Mala as her successor.
The government recently approved the split of the responsibility for the human rights and drug policy agenda to four ministries, at the suggestion of Babis and Government Office head Tunde Bartha.
The offices of eight government councils are also scheduled to be transferred as of 1 July. Only the offices of Human Rights Commissioner Tatana Mala and Mental Health and Addiction Commissioner Dita Protopopova will remain at the Government Office.
The cabinet justifies the plan by citing cost savings and better coordination of their work. The plans have prompted the government office’s unions to go on strike alert.
According to Simunkova, Bartha argued that the human rights agenda places an extremely heavy burden on the office.
Laurencikova said the European Commission was aware of the planned changes and viewed them as a serious problem. UN member states must regularly defend their human rights records and the next session will take place in Geneva early next year, she added.
