The Advocates for Human Rights, together with the Czech Women's Lobby, submitted a report on women's rights for the 92nd session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women held in February 2026.  

Although the Czech Republic possesses certain legislative frameworks to address discrimination against women, such as the Anti-Discrimination Act (ADA), they do not explicitly recognize intersectional discrimination. This lack of intersectional protection results in women from marginalized groups, such as migrant and Roma women, experiencing compounded discrimination.  

Gender equality initiatives and programming face growing disinvestment, which restricts CSOs' activities. Weak political will on gender equality amplifies existing inequalities, leading to gender-based violence. Only 19 of 39 measures under the 2019-2022 Action Plan for the Prevention of Domestic and Gender-Based Violence were fully implemented and showed no significant improvement across reporting periods. Although the Czech Republic signed the Istanbul Convention in 2016, it has not yet ratified it, with the Senate rejecting the proposal for ratification in 2024.  

The State has not introduced a national methodology for assessing the risk of repeated violence nor established unified data collection on domestic and sexual violence. The response to rape and sexual violence overall remains inadequate and fails to ensure accountability. Approximately 50% of reported cases of rape and sexual violence result in suspended sentences, suggesting that existing judicial perspectives underestimate the gravity of these crimes.  

Women also experience a lower employment rate than men, and education continues to be inaccessible for minority girls. For refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls in particular, special national residence permits in the Czech Republic rely on economic self-sufficiency, making them largely inaccessible to those facing structural barriers. Women migrants are also often at a heightened risk of violence and possess limited access to healthcare, reproductive rights, and other forms of care.  

The authors of this report suggest the following recommendations for the government of the Czech Republic:  

• Amend the Anti-Discrimination Act and related legal provisions to explicitly recognize and prohibit intersectional discrimination. 

• Ensure that anti-discrimination policies and enforcement mechanisms address multiple and overlapping grounds of discrimination, particularly as experienced by Roma women, migrant women, women with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. 

• Establish a permanent, adequately funded mechanism to monitor and address the long-term, gendered impacts of crises and to prevent backsliding on women's rights, ensuring the meaningful participation of Roma women, migrant women, and all affected groups in policy and recovery processes.   

• Ratify the Istanbul Convention and implement a coordinated communication strategy to inform legislators and the public about its purpose and provisions, actively countering disinformation narratives. 

• Ensure long-term, systemic implementation of the Action Plan on GBV. 

• Significantly increase and ensure stable, dedicated funding from the state budget for the national machinery for gender equality, including the Gender Equality Department and grant programs for CSOs and municipalities, to meet the minimum allocation stipulated in the Gender Equality Strategy 2021-2030 and account for inflation. 

• Strengthen sentencing practices for crimes related to gender-based and domestic violence by ensuring consistent application of penalties, integrating risk-assessment tools, and prioritizing victim safety and offender accountability. 

• Adopt an inclusive, rights-based transition framework that ensures continuity of protection and provides accessible alternative residence pathways for all TP holders, including those who cannot meet the criteria for the special residence permit.   

• Undertake support for social and economic inclusion for vulnerable women migrants, especially those experiencing violence, and strengthen gender-sensitive integration policies.  Complement protection and residence measures with targeted support for women at risk of violence to access services, psychosocial support, affordable and safe housing, childcare and pathways to employment or education.