Child certificate in Czechia: why lawyers criticize the new law

The law on the so-called child certificate, due to take effect in Czechia in January 2027, has drawn criticism from lawyers. They support the underlying idea of better protecting children from people convicted of serious crimes, but argue that the law is poorly drafted and will create problems for schools, sports clubs, children’s camps and employers.

The author of the amendments, Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Barbora Urbanová (STAN), said on the social network X in September 2026 that lawyers had analyzed about seventy cases involving criminal records and professional bans and had not found a single one pointing to a legal problem in the design of the certificate.

Who will end up in the register

The register may also include people convicted of crimes in which a child was not the victim: murder, grievous bodily harm, rape, abuse of a person in their care. Critics point out that the link to child protection is not always obvious. Supporters of tough regulation respond that serious violent crimes point to risky behavior on the part of a person, regardless of the victim’s age.

The biggest dispute concerns the entry of old convictions. The register will include final convictions from 2005–2026, including those that have been expunged and those in which the person is considered not to have a criminal record. The Union of Defense Attorneys of Czechia proposes removing these retroactive entries and calls the approach “contrary to the constitutional order.” Attorney Petr Toman objects that an entry will be made automatically, without a court decision and without the possibility of appeal. For serious crimes, its duration is 100 years from the person’s birth. For new crimes committed from January 2027, a court decision is provided for. Urbanová counters that similar indefinite bans without automatic review exist in Poland, Norway and Switzerland, where the child certificate is enshrined directly in the constitution and local courts have found such measures permissible.

Vague wording

The law refers to activities involving “direct and regular contact with children”: teachers, educators, some medical staff, children’s home employees, camp counselors, coaches and volunteers. At the same time, it allows only those with no entry in the register to work at an outdoor education trip or a health-and-recreation event. According to Toman, it is unclear what “operating at” means: for example, the staff of the guesthouse itself could be caught by it.

The attorney also points out that the problem lies less in issuing the document than in its constant checking by schools, clubs and organizations, and then by the state. “Who will check whether a summer camp has a counselor without a valid certificate? In theory, the public health service could do it, but it inspects camps only occasionally,” he said.

A certificate every three months

The certificate is valid for only three months, yet hundreds of thousands of people will need one, which means millions of documents a year will have to be presented. Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc (ANO) also disagrees with this arrangement. As early as July 2026, he proposed changing the information systems so that a certificate would need to be presented only once, with a new one required only after notification of a change in the Criminal Records Register. The minister wants to get the amendment in before the law takes effect in January 2027.

A ban only on working with children?

According to Toman, that does not follow from the law. A person with an entry faces what amounts to a ban on all business activity, even if they serve only adults. A masseur would not be able to massage anyone at all, and a coach would not be able to train even adults. The Union of Defense Attorneys proposes limiting the law to those who, by the nature of their work, “genuinely come into direct and regular contact with children.”

Another objection: the drafters say it is merely a register, while the Union of Defense Attorneys believes it is in fact a new kind of punishment, a ban on working with children. The Union proposes acknowledging this openly and placing the provision in the criminal code.

Unequal conditions and scant data

The law does not apply to everyone equally. Entrepreneurs face immediate closure of their business, while for current employees no deadline for presenting the certificate has been set. “If a teacher refuses to bring a certificate, the principal cannot legally dismiss them, because there are no grounds for it,” Toman explained. It will also be difficult to check the clean records of hundreds of native-speaker teachers and foreign specialists, which will put them in a more favorable position than Czech employees.

Finally, critics say, an employer may not learn the most important thing: what exactly the person was convicted of. They will see only the fact of an entry and will not understand whether it concerns the rape of a child or an assault on an adult. The Union of Defense Attorneys proposes supplementing the extract with information on whether the crime was committed against a child or was of another kind.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz