News

One million people in the country are overusing psychoactive drugs such as tranquillizers, insomnia or strong painkillers, according to Czechia's national anti-drug coordinator, Jindřich Vobořil. According to his data, nearly 200,000 people take them daily, and women are about twice as likely to take them as men. According to Vobořil, patients often go to different doctors to get prescriptions for these drugs and doctors frequently fail to check the central database to see what else they are taking. He warned that withdrawal from these drugs can be difficult to manage without medical help, as the symptoms can be life-threatening.

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of digital technologies. The resolution was initiated by the Czech Republic and submitted together with South Africa, the Maldives, Mexico and the Netherlands. This is the first UN resolution focusing comprehensively on human rights and new technologies. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky welcomed the resolution’s approval noting that while technologies can contribute significantly to the promotion of human rights and freedoms they can also be abused to suppress or restrict them. He said that the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, both offline and online, is one of the priorities of Czech foreign policy.

British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie received the Václav Havel Library Foundation's first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award in New York on Tuesday evening, writes The Associated Press agency. The writer's prize and presence at the ceremony were kept secret until only a few minutes before he accepted the award due to security concerns.

Rushdie has faced more than three decades of death threats and assassination attempts following a 1989 fatwa calling for his death issued by the former supreme leader of Iran, Rouhollah Khomeini, over his book The Satanic Verses, and was the victim of a knife attack by 24-year-old Hadi Matar at a literary festival in New York last August because of his perceived insults to Islam. He spent six weeks in hospital after the attack, having suffered stab wounds to his neck and torso, and is now blind in his right eye. Since then he has been keeping a low profile.

The Václav Havel Library Foundation was founded in 2012 with the mission to advance the legacy of Havel, Czech playwright, dissident and first president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, who had died a year earlier and was known for championing human rights and freedom of expression. The foundation annually awards the prize to a writer who has "faced unjust persecution for their beliefs" and shares Havel's determination to stand up for human rights.

The Ministry of Health has so far received more than 1,500 compensation claims from women, mostly from the Roma community, who underwent forced sterilisation between 1966 and 2012, the Czech News Agency reports. Just over half of the claims have been processed, with over 500 having been approved.

Victims have been able to apply for compensation in the amount of CZK 300,000 from the state under the law since last year. Compensation claims have to be made before the end of next year.