Social Watch criticises ČR's benefit cuts, low female participation in politics

Prague, July 21 (CTK) - The Social Watch 2010 report released yesterday criticises the Czech Republic for cutting welfare benefits and the planned government reforms that it says threaten low-income and incomplete families with children who may fall into poverty.

The report also points to the low share of women in top politics, tax evasion and corruption in public orders.

The Czech part of the international report by Social Watch that monitors poverty eradication and gender justice in the world was presented by representatives of a coalition of several organisations yesterday.

The report says the government-prepared reforms of education, health care and pension actually rest in cuts and they aim at privatisation of public services, which is the biggest threat to the social peace in the country.

The report says inequalities in society persisted last year and they were further aggravated by cuts in welfare benefits that afflicted low-income people and the middle strata.

The report is also critical of the fact that no woman was on the Czech government last year. It says this is not due to female politicians or voters' disinterest, and adds that 14 more women entered the Chamber of Deputies thanks to preferential votes in the general election last year.

Women constituted 22 percent of the 200 deputies in the Chamber of Deputies last year.

The report blames the low representation of women in top politics on political parties that place male party members of merit in the top positions on their lists of candidates.

Women's share grew on local level last year, however, and they constituted 26.3 percent in the authorities of towns and villages.

This was mainly due to local associations that are based on parties.

The report says, however, the larger a town is, the smaller the chance that a woman will appear in its leadership. Only one in 24 towns is headed by a woman, the report says.

The situation is similar in the judiciary where there are more women than men, but this is not true of higher instances.

The report says the Czech system of placing public orders is entirely tragic and adds that the state loses dozens of billions of crowns annually over corruption.

The country loses further billions over tax evasion.

The international network Social Watch was founded in 1995. It roofs organisations and institutions focusing on the struggle against poverty, racism and discrimination, and on environment and human rights protection.

The Czech Social Watch coalition has nine members, including the Global Studies Centre of the Science Academy, the gender and sociology department of the Sociological Institute, the Prague Ecumenical Academy, Gender Studies and others.

($1=17.240 crowns)