CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Slovakia: survey on human rights of seniorsWith aim to improve the quality of its services, Caritas Slovakia has recently accomplished a survey regarding protection of human rights in institutions providing social services to elderly people in Slovakia. "Seniors represent a very vulnerable group of citizens, that’s why we decided to focus on their living conditions and respect for their rights. Our aim is to improve our services, avoid problems in this area, as well as to inform and educate our employees, clients and their families", explains Radovan Gumulák, general secretary of Caritas Slovakia. As he said, the results of monitoring will also provide a solid base for discussion about preparation of the law on social services. The survey was conducted in 30 institutions of Caritas Slovakia among 700 people. "The biggest concern of the seniors was shown in regard to their rights in the area of protection of privacy and personal data, rights concerning ownership of their property and personal freedom", specifies project manager Ján Danko. According to their relatives, majority of problems have been experienced in the sphere of admission of clients by various types of institutions and right to be informed about health condition of the patients. Improvements should be made also in regard to interpersonal relations and communication between the personnel and the clients, where Caritas Slovakia has been preparing special training courses for its employees. Ukraine: roundtable on issues of migration"The Church in the Realm of Migration: ethno-cultural resources and socio-integrative potential of religious communities of Ukrainians" is the title of a new book by Oksana Ivankova-Stetsiuk presented at a round table devoted to the topic of work migrants at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University last week. It represents a summary of several research projects done by the Commission on matters of migrants of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), in collaboration with other research and charity organizations, in particular the Laboratory of Social Research in Lviv, Caritas Ukraine International Charity Fund, Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The book focuses on the role and meaning of the Church in conditions of social and global mobility, one aspect of which is the migrant process. Special attention is paid to the formation and development of Church communities within the context of the wave of Ukrainian migration which began right after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Besides the presentation, participants of the round table also discussed a draft of the proposed law on external work migration that is currently being prepared by the Ministry of Social Policy. The discussion resulted in concrete agreements about the schedule of completing the final draft with participation of experts and migration leaders. Head of the Commission on matters of migrants, Hryhoriy Seleshchuk, stressed that participation of representatives of migrant associations from European countries is a "weighty principle in working on migratory laws which will protect the rights of the migrants". In his opinion this will avoid the acceptance of nominal declarative documents. Therefore, the measures of the migrant leaders, perhaps for the first time, would be discussed directly at a high institutional level with lawmakers and politicians responsible for migration policy in Ukraine. Also a "three-way" consensus was reached among officials, migrant leaders and scholars, experts in the migration field, which can bear real, rather than simply formal, results in the further formulation of Ukraine’s migration policy. National Deputy Valentyn Nalyvayko emphasized the importance in the immediate future of holding Parliamentary hearings on the topic of migration, while Deputy Oleh Pankevych underlined the significance of forming an appropriate sub-committee of Parliament on issues of protection of the rights of work migrants.Czech Republic: exhibition on Cyril and MethodiusAn exhibition of the Moravian Museum entitled "Cyril and Methodius. Era, life and work" was opened in Brno on 27 March. Visitors are able to see top historical and archeological presentation of materials coming from more than half a century lasting research of the museum and its partner organizations, in regard to the region of Great Moravia during and after the mission of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. The exhibition, due to be opened to public until 29 September 2013, takes place on the occasion of the 1150th anniversary of the arrival of the Thessalonian brothers to the Czech and Slovak lands. Its aim – according to the organizers – is to "introduce cultural and social phenomenon of their mission, with special emphasis on its influence on formation of national community".
