VARIABLES POBLACIONALES

10.4.1. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs proceeded in 2000, in cooperation with many state and non-state providers of social services and with the representatives of their

41 _{Provided that the valorization condition stipulated by the law, which is still in force, will be met, a valorization}

users, in the preparation of the factual intent of the Act on Social Services. The prepared act was to be based directly on the European Social Charter. It presumes

• on the part of service providers, full equalization of the state and non-state providers as to the access to financial funds provided by the state budget, the application of quality standards (including the ethical ones) in their assessment process based on the registration and accreditation system, and the introduction of a system of professional training of social workers, which will include education in the observance of human rights;

• on the part of the users, the right to social assistance and a significant strengthening of the position of the user in the decision on the form of such assistance;

• as to users who are foreigners, the draft factual intent of the act defines the terms „citizen“ a „legal residence“, thus opening to the foreigners access to social services.

10.4.2. In cooperation with British partners, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs proceeded in the preparation of a three-year project of „Formation of Social and Economic Solidarity through the Improvement of Fair and Perceptive Social Policy and Practice of Social Service“. The project intends to ensure that the social services assist the people threatened by social exclusion and are based on the cooperation with representatives of the civic society who develop the rights of the citizens and protect their dignified life. Pilot projects are currently carried out in the area of community planning (District of Písek) and in the area of setting and application of quality standards (District of Olomouc). The interrelation between the project and the act that is currently under preparation is evident. 10.4.3. By its Resolution No. 28 of 3 January 2001, the government ordered the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs to prepare in coordination with the Minister of Education, Youth and Physical Training, the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice a draft concept of continuous education of social workers who are employees of public service and organizations managed thereby, which will include human rights education, and to submit such concept to the government until 31 August 2002. At the same time, the government ordered to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs to ensure ongoing creation and supplementing of good quality programs for further education of social workers who are public servants so that such programs are available not later than 1 March 2002.

10.5. Housing

10.5.1. According to the estimates of non-state organizations, there are still approximately 100,000 homeless people living in the Czech Republic. They include people who have left social care facilities, have been thrown out of their families, but also people who have left their place of abode by their own. Major part of the homeless depends on the assistance provided by charity organizations, which establish asylum homes for them. Such solution is insufficient in the long run, but the state administration has not undertaken any measures that would allow to provide effective assistance to those groups of the population.

10.5.2. The Constitutional Court issued on 21 June 2000 a finding published under no. 231/2000 Coll., which cancelled the Decree of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic No. 176/1993 Coll. on Apartment Rent and Payments for Performance Provided with the Use of the Apartment. Thus, the court granted the complaint raised by 14 senators. In this respect, the Constitutional Court identified the breach of several articles of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the

European Social Charter. This matter is dealt with in another finding of the Constitutional Court, published under no. 167/2000 Coll., in which the court stated as follows: The state (public) regulation, based on considerations regarding important factors, must take into account, in the determination of the price, also the possibility to attain profit. The competent

ministries, i.e., the Ministry of Finance and to a considerable extent also the Ministry for Local Development, have been preparing a bill on the regulation of rent (at the time when this report was submitted, the bill as approved by the government and submitted to the Chamber of Deputies). The bill cannot resolve all problems of the housing sphere, particularly the problem of social housing, but might become one of the prerequisites for the establishment of a functioning housing market.

10.5.3. The so-called bare apartments are rather disputable in the light of human rights (see also 9.2.1.4.). This denomination is not accurate, because this term applies to two different types of housing – rental apartments of the third and fourth category and lodging facilities. Construction and technical standards should be preserved on both those types of housing, which is not always the case; on the other hand, modest housing should not be degrading to human dignity. Moreover, the location of lodging facilities or apartments for tenants defaulting on rental payments on the city outskirts, out of reach of services and with poor transit connections (or even as isolated facilities outside the city or town) is evidently inappropriate. In addition to that, the lodging facilities have problematic house rules, which allow very significant interference in the private and family life of the persons living there (presentation of a certificate of absence of contagious diseases, the necessity to obtain the consent of the manager with visits, etc.).