In the event of death, the relevant registry office must make an entry regarding this registry event in the registry book and issue a death certificate for the deceased. A death certificate is needed to arrange other rights and obligations pertaining to the survivors of the deceased.
The following deaths are recorded in Czech registers (a ‘death book’):
- of individuals who died while in the Czech Republic;
- of Czech citizens who died while abroad.
The death of an individual in the Czech Republic.
A registry office is responsible for entering the death in the register:
1) if the individual died within its administrative district;
2) if the deceased was found in its district;
3) if the deceased was removed in its district from a vehicle in which they had died.
The registry office records the death based on a post-mortem examination certificate issued by a doctor.
Within 30 days of its receipt, the registry office will issue the death certificate.
Death of a non-national in the Czech Republic.
The registry office that registered the death of a non-national will without delay fulfil its obligation to notify the representative office of the foreign country in the Czech Republic of which the deceased was a citizen, and will send it the death certificate.
If the registry office does not know the name of the non-national, it cannot fulfil its notification obligation. The country of which the deceased was a citizen may therefore not learn of their death.
The death of a Czech citizen abroad.
Based on Article 37 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the relevant authorities of a foreign country fulfil notification obligations as part of a ‘registry exchange’. If foreign authorities know that the deceased was a Czech citizen, they should inform the local representative office of the Czech Republic of this death. The representative office will then notify a special registry in Brno of the death of the citizen, which will record the death.
The special registry will record the death within 30 days of receiving the supporting documentation.
The following may also request that the death of a Czech citizen be recorded in the special registry:
- family members (spouse, parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, great-grandchildren);
- their authorised representatives;
- an individual familiar with the personal data of the deceased.
For the purpose of recording the death of a Czech citizen who has died abroad in the registry book and issuing their death certificate, the following must be submitted to the special registry:
- a foreign registry document for the deceased Czech citizen translated into Czech with appropriate certification;
- proof that the deceased was a Czech citizen – their personal ID card, passport, certification, or confirmation of Czech citizenship.