Czech Republic

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

Most of the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion staff to strike Monday

7.5.2015 19:28 Most of the staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion will strike on Monday. Of the Agency's 70 employees and sub-contractors, 59 will begin the strike.  full story

Czech Republic: Ghettofest 2015 will have less loud music, more reverence

7.5.2015 18:33 The fourth annual Ghettofest will take place on 5 and 6 June in the "Bronx" neighborhood of Brno. In addition to a full program of music and theater, the festival will focus on the tragic past of the locality and the fates of its local inhabitants.  full story

Roma demand apology from Czech Education Minister on Facebook for his insulting remarks on television

7.5.2015 15:42 Romani activist Miroslav Klempár is using his Facebook profile to call on Romani people to sign an open letter to Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek. Klempár refers in the letter to the minister's recent appearance on Czech Television, where he responded to a critical report by Amnesty International in part as follows: We are doing our best today just to get children from excluded localities into the schools. Many representatives of the schools go to their homes to drag them out of bed. They are doing their best to teach them the basics of hygiene, to speak Czech correctly, and also to teach them that it's just not normal for someone to stay in bed until noon and then smoke a pack of cigarettes - in other words, that people also go to work."  full story

Changes at Czech university revive longstanding dispute about the existence of the Romani ethnicity

7.5.2015 9:03 The Faculty of Arts of one of Europe's oldest universities, Charles University in Prague, is undergoing significant changes thanks to the leadership of its current Dean. Some members of the academic community are strongly objecting to some of those changes; a petition has been put together and ethnology students are on strike.  full story

Office of the Czech Gov't announces search for new director of Agency for Social Inclusion

7.5.2015 8:15 The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic has announced the terms for applying to its selection procedure for the position of director of the Agency for Social Inclusion. The new director will start work in June.  full story

Czech ethnology students begin strike in defense of fired teachers

7.5.2015 7:42 Yesterday morning began a two-day occupational strike by ethnology students at Charles University in Prague. The students want the director of the Institute of Ethnology, Marek Jakoubek, to be removed and hope their protest action will draw attention to ongoing changes with which they disagree.  full story

Outgoing director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion says Human Rights Minister doesn't understand the Agency's work

7.5.2015 6:34 In an interview for news server Romea.cz on 5 May, outgoing director Martin Šimáček has responded to the explanation given by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier to the press about the situation in the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. Šimáček said he believes the minister's press conference shows that he completely lacks information about the work of the Agency and that his subordinates are reporting erroneous, incorrect information about it to him.
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