The Legislative Framework for the Protection of Children and a Comparison of the Czech, Slovak and Austrian Concepts Ivana Olecká − Patricia Dobríková − Adéla Lemrová − Regina Scheitel

The aim of the text is to compare the legislative forms of child protection in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria, and to define the basic congruities and differences in the legal concepts of these countries. The methodology of the article is based on a comparative analysis of legal  documents of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Austria. The Czech and Slovak versions of the socio-legal protection of children are comparable in many aspects. Significant differences were identified in the Austrian version which is, among other things, reflected in the  statistical records of the number of people sentenced for maltreatment of a person in their charge. Differences are evident in terms of the composition (structure) of the relevant legislation: the Czech and Slovak versions are comparable, whereas Austria has formally incorporated  children’s rights into the constitution and has transferred the main competences concerning child protection and other socio-legal tools to the country’s federal states. The potential of the detailed analysis of the efficiency of the child legal protection systems in the Czech Republic and  Slovakia is limited since no statistical data is available in these countries that can be compared and that separately records maltreated adults and maltreated minors.