Gender Democracy

The Prague Spring ended with the Soviet Invasion in August 1968, when many had lost their faith that the regime can change, and the political representation has any degree of independency to Moscow. During the first day of occupation, 58 civilians had died as a result of shooting, explosions, or various accidental deaths. Many citizens who were abroad at that time chose to not come back. Yet there was a resistance to the events.

In January 2017, the Czech Republic introduced its first National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security (NAP 1325), adopting it as the 64th country in the world, as the 18th EU Member State and as the first country in Central Europe to do so. Notwithstanding its status as a country unaffected by direct conflict, the Czech Republic is obliged to pursue a gender, peace and security (GPS) agenda through its foreign policy, just as other EU member state signatories to UNSCR 1325 are expected to do so.

As the second decade of this new millennium pushes toward its completion, it may come as a surprise to readers to learn that the sterilization of women without their consent remains a persistent problem for public health systems worldwide. Recent efforts in Europe to address these abuses have revealed how public health administrators and justice systems have yet to learn the lessons of these abuses.

Equality for all human beings is a core principal and Leitmotif of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949 and manifested in many national constitutions. Due to the lack of equal political participation of women quotas were implemented over the last years – by developed and developing countries in order to improve women’s political participation. Empirical evidence shows that it is a powerful and successful tool.

SurVivArt has been inspired by the German Kulturstiftung’s initiative Über Lebenskunst and developed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation HQ with support from its offices around the world. By joining the “SurVivArt” initiative the Heinrich Böll Foundation Prague would like to contribute to the international mosaic with a rather different perspective. The Prague office has not approached any artists to elaborate a specific art project. The aim of the Prague project in its first phase is to provide a broader insight into contemporary artists’ practices, issues and projects in the Czech Republic and to outline whether and how they respond to current social and environmental challenges.

The primary slogan of the Czech EU Presidency is “Europe without Barriers”. However, the current political representatives of the country primarily want to remove barriers i the areas of trade and business. Equal opportunities, mainly those concerning women and men, are perceived by the main coalition party ODS primarily as “positive discrimination” that restricts the “free market”. Many non-governmental organizations are of a different opinion, namely, that the policy of equal opportunities for women and men facilitates free choice by breaking down societal prejudices and barriers.