CoE committee criticises Czech Republic over children's institutional care

The Council of Europe's (CoE) European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) criticised the Czech Republic for extensive and discriminatory placing of disabled and Roma children in institutional care, such as infant homes for small children, on Monday. Anna Hofschneiderova, from the Forum for Human Rights NGO, said this problem concerned hundreds of children under three years mainly from low-income families. The CoE committee criticised the failure of the Czech Republic to adopt the appropriate strategy. The Czech Republic is thereby violating the rights of primarily Roma and disabled children under three, guaranteed in the European Social Charter from 1961, the committee said.