Word: czechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...French President suggested the aid should be conditional on them packing up their plants elsewhere in the E.U. and returning all production to their homeland. "If we are to give financial assistance to the auto industry, we don't want to see another factory being moved to the Czech Republic," he said, referring to Peugeot Citroen's seven-year old Czech plant. (See pictures of Sarkozy...
...Czechs, who currently hold the E.U.'s presidency, are seething at Sarkozy's threats. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has announced a special E.U. summit in Brussels for March 1 devoted to protectionism, and another in Prague in May to examine jobs and unemployment...
...Czech law has a long pedigree. Castration as punishment dates back thousands of years and crosses all world cultures. The methods have evolved from brutal knife swipes that removed entire genitalia to chemical treatments. Drugs that lower the testosterone, dampen the sex drive and inhibit erections are now available in Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and many American states, but prisoners must volunteer for the treatment before the drugs are administered...
...report, the Council of Europe also criticized the fact that the Czechs often use the punishment on first-time, nonviolent offenders, like exhibitionists. Another issue: the Czech penal system effectively forces many prisoners into accepting the procedure out of fear they will be jailed for life if they do not, according to the council. "Given the context in which the intervention is offered, it is questionable whether consent to the option of surgical castration will always be truly free and informed," it said. Investigators found five cases of it being performed on legally incapacitated offenders who were not capable...
...Civil rights groups say any kind of castration, even if reversible, could take society down the road to eugenics. A 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said that involuntary surgical castration constituted cruel and unusual punishment. David Fathi, head of Human Rights Watch's U.S. program in Washington, says the Czech methods not only defy medical convention but also are an affront to civil liberties. "Any irreversible punishment is a fundamental violation of human rights. And any kind of mutilation is barbaric," he says...