Czech Republic

Czech school opens "special" first-grade class, only Roma assigned to it

8.9.2015 19:57 The principal of a primary school in the town of Krásná Lípa in the Šluknov foothills has created a "special" class only for Romani first-graders. Their parents are complaining that they did not know their children would be attending a class that would be separate from the other children.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister proposes illegally sterilized women receive CZK 300 000 compensation

7.9.2015 17:10 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier will submit a proposal to the Government this month for women who have been illegally sterilized to receive compensation. The amount he is proposing is CZK 300 000 (EUR 11 000).  full story

Czech right-wing extremist proposes refugees be "concentrated" at Terezín

7.9.2015 15:41 Adam B. Bartoš, chair of the National Democracy (ND) political group, which is not seated in the Czech Parliament, posted yet another remark about refugees to his publicly accessible Facebook profile after midnight today. "Why create camps of tents for the aliens near Břeclav (and elsewhere) to stress and terrorize local residents? After all, we have the beautiful fortress town of Terezín (safer than any little tent city) where the aliens could be concentrated before the trains take them home..." he wrote.  full story

Czech Christian Democrats strip local councilor of party membership over his racist remarks about refugees

6.9.2015 23:58 Daniel Kalenda, a local councilor in the town of Liberec and member of the Czech Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL) who made hateful, pejorative remarks about the refugees who recently perished in a truck in eastern Austria near the Hungarian border, has been stripped of his membership by party leaders. Kalenda posted the following remarks, among others, to social networking sites: "God, 71 dead on a highway in Austria... And should we be crying? They say they ran out of air the minute the doors were closed. What do you expect? You shouldn't be so stupid as to get into a truck like that. The very best thing of all would be for them to stay home. They say the world is crushed [by this news]... I am not mourning them, I'm not sorry for them... Not at all! This element doesn't belong here, they are filth and scum."  full story

Former Czech President Klaus launches new petition against immigration

5.9.2015 20:50 Former Czech President Klaus has initiated a new petition against immigration. The document, which he presented today at a briefing at the exhibition grounds in the town of Lysá nad Labem, calls on the Czech Government to ensure national security and the external inviolability of the state's borders by any means necessary, including deployment of the Army and Police.  full story

Czech counter-intelligence says number of anti-Romani events fell in 2014, extremists agitating against Islam instead

4.9.2015 22:23 Last year right-wing extremists in the Czech Republic focused on anti-Islamic themes instead of on anti-Romani invective. The radical scene there continues to be fragmented.  full story

Czech Police stop marking refugees' arms after critics call it reminiscent of the Holocaust

3.9.2015 20:07 The Czech Aliens Police has been using markers to write identification numbers on the arms of refugees detained in Břeclav in a way that critics say recalls practices used during the Holocaust. "The published footage does not represent the standard procedure of the Czech Police, this procedure occurred due to the time pressure under which the police were at that moment, primarily because they did not want children to become separated from their parents in such a large group," the Czech Interior Ministry explained today.  full story

Amnesty International petition against discrimination of Roma in Czech schools signed by 38 000

2.9.2015 16:40 A petition against the discrimination of Romani children in the Czech schools was signed by 38 334 people from 94 countries between April and August of this year. Amnesty International closed its online campaign yesterday by organizing a "happening" outside the Czech Education Ministry.  full story

Czech town's "zero tolerance" policy generates police abuse

1.9.2015 1:12 A reporter for news server Romea.cz is mapping the current situation at the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov. The estate is an excluded locality that experienced one of the first big anti-Romani actions organized in the Czech Republic by right-wing extremists seven years ago.  full story

Commentary: Czech media mock UN recommendations on racism and Roma

31.8.2015 1:24 The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its reports on the situation in several countries from around the world last week. The otherwise serious news server Aktuálně.cz reported the news with the headline "UN: Czechs should stop Romani ghettos, the Dutch should stop Black Pete", and I think that by so doing they quite knowingly indicated to the reader that all of the Committee's recommendations are to be seen as absurd.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court says verdict in housing discrimination lawsuit must be reviewed

29.8.2015 2:30 The Czech Constitutional Court instructed the High Court in Prague on 14 August to review a lawsuit filed by a Romani couple against the town of Kladno and the Czech state over alleged discrimination in the allocation of housing. Originally the Regional Court in Prague awarded the plaintiffs an apology and CZK 40 000 (EUR 1500 ) from Kladno, especially because the property owner had never addressed the poor state of the couple's apartment.  full story

Czech gathering commemorates 72 years since Roma prisoners transported from Hodonín to Auschwitz

29.8.2015 0:18 On Sunday, 23 August 2015, people gathered in Hodonín by Kunštát to commemorate 72 years since Romani inmates were transported from the concentration camp there to the death camp at Auschwitz. On that day 72 years ago the Nazis sent the largest transport of Romani prisoners from the so-called "Gypsy camp" to Auschwitz.  full story

Czech event brings atheists, Christians, Jews and Muslims to the same table

28.8.2015 6:06 On 18 August, 30 people of various minority and religious backgrounds gathered in Prague to eat breakfast together. Those participating in the event wanted to show that people from different backgrounds, cultures and religions are able to understand one another.  full story

Czech PM and Deputy PM warn against the "fascisization of society“

28.8.2015 0:20 Czech Finance Minister and Deputy PM Andrej Babiše (ANO) remarked on Tuesday that the external borders of the Schengen area must be immediately closed, prompting a reaction from his fellow cabinet members. Pavel Bělobrádek, Deputy PM for Science, Research and Innovation, who chairs the Christian Democratic Party, called the Finance Minister's remarks irrational and populist.  full story

Commentary: Correct language in the USA isn't sparing anyone's life

27.8.2015 19:48 Neither a correct nor a "hypercorrect" vocabulary, in and of itself, is enough to get rid of any problem. Petra Gelbart, who has commented on her shock that the Prague Transit Authority is telling its passengers "amusing" anecdotes about the history of the slang expressions used by drivers, certainly knows this.  full story

Petra Gelbart: "Black Mugs" in the Prague metro

27.8.2015 18:53 I was on my way home from a successful Romani event here recently at the Prague Pride festival, full of impressions, feeling happy and proud. My own children and some others whom I had taken there, including a girlfriend in a long colorful skirt, had participated in a program organized by the ARA ART association.  full story

Czech research finds teachers support educating all children together

26.8.2015 18:42 Research performed as part of a project called "Systemic Support for Inclusive Education in the Czech Republic" has found that teachers are inclined towards educating children with disabilities together with healthy children. However, they condition that agreement on receiving more support for their work.  full story

Two Romani families not allowed to board flight from Prague to Canada, no explanation given

24.8.2015 17:34 During the past two months approximately 20 Romani people from the Czech Republic have not been allowed to board flights to Canada. They were informed that they would not be let on board by airline private security staff at Václav Havel Airport in Prague.
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Czech media outlet publishes interview with detained migrant

23.8.2015 20:21 Online news server Aktuálně.cz published an interview on 18 August with a Pakistani citizen who spent half a year en route to Germany only to be intercepted by the Aliens Police in the Czech Republic and detained in the Bělá-Jezová camp there. "I don't understand why the Czech Republic is holding us here. I do not want to remain here. I have never committed a crime. During my six months fleeing Pakistan I traveled through many countries, but only in the Czech Republic was I imprisoned. After I am released I want to go to Germany... I am not seeking asylum in the Czech Republic. Moreover, I am afraid that I will not be treated well in this prison," the migrant says in the interview.  full story

Czech Council on Radio and TV rejects critique of public broadcaster's reality show about Romani schoolchildren

22.8.2015 23:30 Nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic have received an answer from the Council on Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) to the open letter in which they criticized the television series "Class 8A" (Třída 8.A.). The nonprofits believe the series has not fulfilled its intended aim of pointing out the problem of segregation of Romani pupils in the Czech schools.  full story