Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms


The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms is a document enacted in 1991 by the Czechoslovak Federative Republic, and continued as part of the constitutional systems of both the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. In the Czech Republic, the document was kept in its entirety in its 1991 form as a separate document from the constitution, but imbued with the same legal standing as the constitution. By contrast, the basic provisions of the Charter were integrated directly into the Slovak constitution. Though these legal provisions articles are substantively the same, there are some differences, such as the Slovak contention that "the privacy of correspondence and secrecy of mailed messages and other
written documents and the protection of personal data are guaranteed."
The inclusion of the goals of the Charter directly into the Slovak constitution means that only the Czech Republic currently has a "Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms". This article is therefore principally about that document, and its predecessor in the Czechoslovak Federative Republic.

Comparisons with other human rights legislation

The document is somewhat analogous to the United States Bill of Rights, although its provisions tend to be more specific, and imbue its citizens with more and different rights than in United States constitutional law, which by contrast recognizes and protects natural rights rather than grant legal entitlement.