Right of the elderly to social protection through the supranational and regional European lenses - case-study of the Czech Republic

• Authors: Roman Zapletal
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The contribution focuses on the issue of the right of the elderly to social protection in the CEE countries, with a special focus on the Czech Republic, and the most significant impacts of relevant international instruments on the domestic legal milieu. Apart from the national (Czech) level, the named right has also been guaranteed on both the supranational (EU) and the European (Council of Europe) level. As concerns the latter, the text accentuates especially the latest conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights (of March 2022) concerning the Czech Republic, noting in particular that the level of the minimum pension was inadequate. Notwithstanding that the right to adequate pension has been anchored in the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, one cannot overlook the taken legislative steps in the arena of national old-age benefits which happened to cause even decrease in the original claim as regards the amount of the pension benefit. In the light of the Czech Constitutional Court’s decision of January 2024, this article scrutinizes the persisting resistance of the national political representation to guarantee the right to adequate pension to its anticipated extent, as presumed also by the binding supranational as well as European legislation.

Keywords

EN

Rights of the elderly; right to social protection; right to adequate material security in old age; old-age benefits; pensions; European Social Charter; EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms; Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Czech Republic

Discipline

• LAW_&_ADMINISTRATION: LAW & ADMINISTRATION

• Publisher: Institute of State and Law, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: The Lawyer Quarterly
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 207-220
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Roman Zapletal

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