Czech Republic

Commentary: Will the pig farm on the Roma Holocaust site still be part of the Czech reality in 2020?

20.5.2015 8:23 What takes place around the pig farm in Lety by Písek continues to tell us important, interesting things about Czech society, about the level of our public discussions, about the nature and purpose of protest, about communications inside the Romani community, and about pro-Romani and Romani activists here. Much has already been written about the scandal of this farm, which is located on the site of a former concentration camp where hundreds of Romani people perished and from which others were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz, and the basic arguments about and problems with the farm are absolutely clear.  full story

Czech PM: Agency for Social Inclusion will remain part of the Human Rights Minister's agenda

20.5.2015 6:56 Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka believes the situation at the Agency for Social Inclusion will gradually calm down. He has also rejected its employees' demands for the Agency to be removed from the agenda of Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier.  full story

Amnesty International campaign for equal access to education for Roma in the Czech Republic

19.5.2015 16:47 A campaign called "Letters in the Streets" (Dopisy v ulicích) by the Amnesty International (AI) organization is focusing on the right to education in the Czech Republic. Students at 10 schools from various parts of the Czech Republic will be taking to the streets with cards for people to sign asking for the assurance of equal access to education for people in the Czech Republic, Iran, and Sierra Leone.  full story

Czech Republic: Boxing club offers Roma a new start

19.5.2015 9:10 Combining a tough sport like boxing with activational social services for youth and their parents is not exactly a tradition in the Czech environment - unlike, for example, the United States. However, the unusual combination of an uncompromising commitment to boxing, a community education center, and work in the social sphere can sometimes set something in motion that is more than the sum of its parts.  full story

Gyulla Banga: The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is about Roma without them

19.5.2015 6:52 The goings-on around the Agency are genuinely embarrassing. It's a farce!  full story

Czech state removes children of Romani arson victim from her care

18.5.2015 21:40 At the beginning of May the trial continued at the Regional Court in Plzeň in the matter of the allegedly organized group that has been using the names "Blood and Honour" or "Combat 18". Some members of the group, according to the indictment, are said to have carried out an arson attack on a residential hotel occupied mostly by Romani families in the West Bohemian town of Aš in 2012.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani association ARA ART wins prize for workshop supporting the LGBT community

18.5.2015 20:40 On Sunday, 17 May, the eve of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, the Mecca club in Prague was the venue for an awards ceremony held by the PROUD organization for actions supporting the emancipation and recognition of the LGBT community. The award for Action of the Year was given to the Romani association ARA ART for a workship it held for LGBT Roma.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister informs mayors about the future of the Agency for Social Inclusion

18.5.2015 19:38 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier met today with 14 mayors of cities and towns collaborating with the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, accord to a press release from his ministry. The Agency is currently in a crisis: Most of its employees have protested the minister's dismissal of the director of the Agency and disagree with the planned changes to its work.
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Commentary: Is the fight over the Agency really about Romani integration?

17.5.2015 8:25 The dispute between employees of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier began with the dismissal of the Agency's director Martin Šimáček. By now, however, it has completely grown beyond a mere clash over who will be director - although who that is going to be is still an important issue.  full story

Seven applicants for director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion

15.5.2015 20:06 The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic has closed the application process for the position of director of the Department of Social Inclusion of the Human Rights Section of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic (the Agency for Social Inclusion). As of midnight Thursday seven people had applied.  full story

Democratic education - where every child can find his or her own way

14.5.2015 9:49 When he was going to nursery school, little Yaacov Hecht was frequently naughty. His teacher punished him more than once by locking him into an adjacent room, which was dark.  full story

Czech Labor Minister says pig farm must be removed from Roma Holocaust site

14.5.2015 8:04 On Wednesday, 13 May, the annual commemoration ceremony for the Romani victims of Nazism took place at the Lety Memorial. The gathering is traditionally organized by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (VPORH), which brings together former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps who are Romani and their relatives.  full story

Czech President supports striking social inclusion staff

13.5.2015 21:43 Czech President Miloš Zeman expressed his support today for the striking staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. Zeman also said he did not see any reason to split the Agency into two departments as has been proposed.  full story

Romani civil society members of Gov't advisory board say social inclusion staffers should leave if they are unhappy

12.5.2015 8:58 Several civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs issued a statement yesterday on the situation inside the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. "There is evidently no other solution to this situation than the departure of the employees who are unsatisfied. We are fully aware that the situation is not an easy one and that the current employees are conveyors of experience and good practice in the area of social inclusion, but we must strongly object to the statements made by Mr Šimáček and other Agency employees to the media and on social networks hinting that the civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs are behind the removal of Mr Šimáček and are attempting to destabilize the Agency. Those remarks are intentionally misleading. The aggressive, demagogic media campaign being waged by the Agency harms its good name and that of all the actors involved in social inclusion work," the statement reads.  full story

Czech Gov't social inclusion staffers striking for "autonomy"

12.5.2015 8:04 Most of the staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion have been on strike since yesterday. They are demanding "autonomy and independence" for their institution, which is currently under the purview of Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD).  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister says striking agency's aims can't be met

11.5.2015 10:18 Most of the staff of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has gone on strike today. Their demand is that their institution, which currently is part of the portfolio of Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (ČSSD), become autonomous and independent.  full story

Czech Republic: Defendants in Wotan Jugend trial say they were just selling stickers

10.5.2015 7:18 Three young men charged with supporting the ultra-right Wotan Jugend movement from Russia told a Czech court on 6 May that they have not been promoting extremism. They claim to have just been selling stickers with symbols of the movement in order to financially support a friend in prison.  full story

Czech Republic: Three left-wing extremists face life in prison for planning terrorism

9.5.2015 13:17 Three of the six people who were charged last week after the Czech Police conducted a raid against extremists are now facing the possibility of life in prison. Police say they were preparing a terrorist attack on a train.  full story

European Commission will respond to Czech Gov't plans for Romani schoolchildren within the week

9.5.2015 12:07 The European Commission should express its view of the situation of Romani schoolchildren in the Czech Republic within the coming week. Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) communicated the expected timing of the response to journalists after meeting with EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová.  full story

Czech Institute for Study of Totalitarian Regimes: Instruction of WWII subject matter needs to be refined

8.5.2015 9:12 At a press conference organized yesterday by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů - ÚSTR), representatives of eight educational organizations presented their ideas for improving how the history of the Second World War is taught in the Czech Republic. Those participating in the discussion represented the organizations Antikomplex, Collegium Bohemicum, Československo 38-89, the Terezín Institute Initiative (Institut Terezínské iniciativy), the Museum of Romani Culture (Muzeum romské kultury), the Terezín Memorial (Památník Terezín), ÚSTR and the Jewish Museum in Prague (Židovské muzeum v Praze).  full story