EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)
the Office of the Public Defender of Rights, the academic community, and civil society. The mission of the College is to analyse and discuss selected Court’s judgments handed down in proceedings against both the Czech Republic or other Member States of the Council of Europe in terms of their impact on the Czech legal order. 5. OTHER ACTIVITIES Admittedly, the main task of the Government Agent’s Office is to prepare the State’s defence vis-à-vis individual and inter-state applications submitted to the Court and to put forward, in cooperation with other relevant actors, any measures necessary to execute the Court’s judgments where a violation of the Convention has been found. As of 2003, the Government Agent plays a similar role in relation to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC). By its Resolution No. 155 of 27 February 2017 on the systemic solution of the representation of the Czech Republic in proceedings on individual and collective complaints before international human rights monitoring bodies, the Office’s agenda has been further extended so that it encompasses the representation of the State before other international bodies, such as the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Committee against Torture (CAT), Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED). The provisions of the Statute of the Government Agent apply mutatis mutandis to proceedings before these human rights bodies. The Office also undertakes other activities that result directly or indirectly from the Czech Republic’s commitment to abide by its international commitments in the field of human rights. Raising awareness of requirements arising from the case law of the Court and ensuring its availability in Czech language are essential preconditions for the adherence of the Convention by the Czech authorities. Naturally, the mission of the Office inevitably extends to public enlightenment and legal education, which it performs in several ways. In the form of press releases, it informs the public about recent judgments delivered in the proceedings against the Czech Republic. It also procures and publishes translations of judgments of the Court issued against the Czech Republic and certain other decisions. Since 2013, the Office has been publishing Zpravodaj KVZ, an electronic journal issued on a quarterly basis, containing annotations of the most important case law of the Court. Everyone can subscribe for free by sending an e-mail to kvz@msp.justice.cz . The Office further operates the Czech database of selected case law of the Court, which already contains over 1,500 annotations and translations of Court’s cases. The database facilitates searching in the Court’s jurisprudence by a multitude of criteria and filters that have been specifically tailored to the needs of Czech users. The legal staff of the Office also regularly gives lectures at the Czech Judicial Academy on the case law of the Court for judges, public prosecutors, and other experts.
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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION
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