Jiří Dienstbier Jr. is the son of Jiří Dienstbier Sr., former journalist and civil rights activist who became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the newly democratic Czechoslovakia, and Zuzana Dienstbierová, née Wíšová, a psychologist. His parents and his grandfather, Jaromír Wíšo, were signatories to the Charter 77 human rights declaration. Consequently, Dienstbier's family experienced intense political pressure from the communist regime during the "Normalization" period after 1969. While Jiří Dienstbier Jr was 10 years old, his father was imprisoned for his work in a movement acting parallel to Charter 77, the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (; VONS).