3. července 2026
As of the beginning of this month, the human rights agenda has been transferred from the Office of the Government to individual ministries. We stand by what we have said from the outset: this is a change that threatens the structures, cooperation, and trust that we have spent years building together.
For this reason, our Director, Jitka Poláková, has confirmed her resignation from her positions in government advisory bodies. Specifically, she has resigned from her role as Vice-Chair of the Committee for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women under the Government Council for Gender Equality, and from her role as Chair of the Committee for the Rights of Victims under the Government Council for Human Rights.
Full statement by proFem Director Jitka Poláková:
At the beginning of this week, responsibility for the human rights agenda was transferred from the Office of the Government to individual ministries. In my view, this change weakens the existing system of interministerial coordination and was introduced without sufficient expert discussion of its potential impacts. For this reason, at the end of May I publicly announced my conditional resignation from my positions in government advisory bodies. Many colleagues from the expert community took the same step. My hope was that this would lead to a substantive discussion about the systemic risks involved and about how to preserve what has been built together over recent years.
Although some adjustments were made to the original proposal during the past few weeks, meaningful expert dialogue did not, in my experience, take place. Maintaining my resignation was not an easy decision. For a long time, I considered whether leaving would amount to giving up ground and whether it would simply create space for someone more aligned with the current government. At the same time, I felt solidarity with colleagues who chose to remain and continue their work despite these changes, both within the advisory bodies and among civil servants. Ultimately, my concern prevailed that even if I remained in these positions, I would no longer have a genuine opportunity to influence the content of adopted policies and documents, while my continued presence could serve to legitimize them. Therefore, effective 30 June, I resigned from my position as Vice-Chair of the Committee for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women under the Government Council for Gender Equality, as well as from my position as Chair of the Committee for the Rights of Victims under the Government Council for Human Rights.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to systemic changes in the field of victims’ rights and protection since 2010. I have had the privilege of working alongside many outstanding experts across public administration, the non-profit sector, and other institutions, and I would like to sincerely thank them. I also deeply appreciate the colleagues who have chosen to continue their work within councils, committees, and working groups, as their efforts will be especially important in the period ahead.
My resignation does not mean resigning from the issue itself. At proFem and at the PORT Centre, we will continue working with survivors of sexual and domestic violence, bringing insights from daily practice and closely monitoring future developments in this area. I firmly believe that evidence from practice and the lived experiences of victims must remain the foundation of effective public policy.
If, in the future, there is an opportunity for meaningful professional cooperation based on mutual respect and genuine dialogue, I will be happy to become involved again.
