Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Dean at Charles University standing by controversial ethnologist

6.5.2015 19:18 In February 2014, Docent Mirjam Friedová became the first female Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Friedová, who was originally the director of the Linguistics Department, came into the leadership position as Dean with a new concept of how to direct the faculty - how to make up for the university's lack of money, how to solve staffing cuts, and how to focus more on research activity.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Agency staff will either meet their obligations or leave

6.5.2015 12:21 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier convened an extraordinary press conference yesterday to respond to the "further escalation of the situation" around the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and the "media campaign by its employees". The staff of the Agency have announced they are considering going on strike.  full story

Charles University ethnology students occupy building and strike, demand director be removed

6.5.2015 8:42 Students of ethnology at Charles University in Prague are beginning a two-day occupation and strike on Wednesday, 6 May. Their protest is an expression of their disagreement with the director of the Institute of Ethnology, Marek Jakoubek, whose removal they seek.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion threatens strike

5.5.2015 17:35 The staff of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is concerned, now that its director Martin Šimáček has been removed, that the Agency will become politicized and will be incapable of fulfilling its obligations. They say they consider their negotiations to date with Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, under whose remit the Agency falls, to have been unsatisfactory.  full story

Analysis: 1 May in Brno, Czech Republic

5.5.2015 8:34 Every other year, the city of Brno becomes a place where right-wing radicals from all over the Czech Republic gather for a 1 May demonstration. In previous years, every such assembly, irrespective of its size, has produced a completely different outcome.  full story

Film about Czechoslovak experiment with Romani children wins best documentary from Olomouc Film Academy

3.5.2015 2:31 A documentary film by Czech Television, "Suppressed Letters" (Zatajené dopisy) about an experimental school for Romani children in 1950s Czechoslovakia, has won the prize for best Czech popular science documentary from the Academia Film Olomouc. At the beginning of the experiment, children attended the boarding school voluntarily, but later attended after being forcibly taken away from their families on the presumption that their ties with their parents would be broken.  full story

Czech Police acted unlawfully when intervening against activists holding Czech-Romani flag

2.5.2015 21:58 The Czech Police have apologized to Romani activist Ivana Čonková for detaining her, together with evangelical priest Mikuláš Vymětal, for holding a Czech-Romani flag together at a counter-protest in January against an anti-Islamic demonstration. Čonková's complaint in the matter has been evaluated as partially justified.  full story

Czech lower house concludes first negotiations about ombud's new powers

Prague, 2.5.2015 2:35 The Czech lower house has taken one month to complete its first reading of a Government amendment to expand the powers of the office of the Public Defender of Rights (the ombud). The delays were due to a demand from the right-wing opposition that the current Czech Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, be present during the negotiations.  full story

Czech Republic: Anarchists in Prague protest police raid and war

1.5.2015 23:25 More than 200 anarchists marched through Prague on 1 May from the Shooter's Island (Střelecký ostrov) in the Vltava River to náměstí Míru (Square of Peace). The event was a protest against a nationwide police raid against extremists this week and against war.  full story

Czech Police use tear gas, arrest 57, mostly counter-protesters of neo-Nazi march in Brno

1.5.2015 19:27 The Czech News Agency reports that approximately 1 500 people gathered in Brno today to block a march by supporters of the Workers' Youth and Workers' Social Justice Party (DSSS) called "Europe, Rise Up" (Evropo povstaň). Conveners of the blockade say the Workers' Youth is evidently linked to neo-Nazi circles.  full story

Czech Police charge six after nationwide raid against extremists, three now in custody

30.4.2015 23:45 A court has remanded into custody three of the six people charged by police in connection with their nationwide raid against extremism on Tuesday. Štěpánka Zenklová, the spokesperson for the State Prosecutor's office in Prague, which is supervising the maneuvers, told the Czech News Agency that she will not be able to provide details about the legal qualification of the crimes involved until the investigation is completed.  full story

Czech Republic: Hundreds plan to block neo-Nazi march on 1 May in Brno

28.4.2015 16:52 Right-wing extremists from the Workers' Youth (Dělnická mládež - DM) group, which is linked to the Workers' Social Justice Party (DSSS) are planning to go to Brno for 1 May. The event, called "Europe, Rise Up" (Evropo povstaň) has been announced to the Brno-střed municipal department.  full story

Poll finds most Czechs disagree with all foreigners having the right to seek citizenship

28.4.2015 0:06 The openness of Czech people toward foreigners has reached an historic low. Almost three-quarters (73 %) of respondents disagree that every person living in the Czech Republic should have the right to apply for citizenship; last year only 67 % disagreed.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry says DSSS still in crisis, Islamophobia stronger than antigypsyism

27.4.2015 20:59 Extremists in the Czech Republic convened 44 events during the first quarter of this year, 32 fewer than during the same period last year. The number of crimes related to extremism during the same period rose slightly year-on-year, from 46 in 2014 to 50 this year.  full story

Analysis: Czech PM must clarify Government's stance on discrimination in education

27.4.2015 16:37 A report by Amnesty International (AI) released last week reminded us of more than the fact that the discrimination of Romani children persists in the Czech schools. The differing reactions to the report from Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek and Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier once again showed that despite declarations of unity, the approaches taken by governing politicians to the future of inclusive education and the "practical schools" are very different.  full story

Czech court commissions evidence review in response to convicted neo-Nazi murderer's request for retrial

Hradec Králové, 27.4.2015 0:30 On 22 April, the Regional Court in Hradec Králové did not reach a decision on a motion filed by Vlastimil Pechanec to reopen the proceedings in the case of the racially motivated murder of a Romani man, Otto Absolon, at a discotheque in the Czech town of Svitavy in 2001. The court postponed the proceedings until it has received the results of its newly-commissioned expert evaluation of whether there is evidence on the murder weapon.  full story

Czech Republic: Commemorative ceremony 13 May at Romani Holocaust site at Lety

26.4.2015 20:07 On Wednesday, 13 May, a commemorative ceremony honoring the Romani victims of Nazism will take place at the site of the Lety Memorial. The ceremony is traditionally organized by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu v České republice - VPORH v ČR), which brings together Romani former prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps and relatives of the victims of those camps.  full story

Commentary: Dismissal of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion director is bad news, and not just for impoverished Roma

26.4.2015 5:30 At the end of last week, most of those "involved with Roma" were startled by the news that Martin Šimáček had been dismissed as director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. Voices were immediately raised in support of him by more than 50 employees of the Agency.  full story

Czech media outlet puts unnecessary emphasis on ethnicity in reporting public transport incident

26.4.2015 3:30 On Thursday 23 April, online news server iDNES.cz wrote about an incident that took place on 22 April on public transport in Jihlava using the headline "Gypsies fight on trolleybus". After the obcasnik.eu website drew attention to this interesting headline, the iDNES.cz editors quietly and rapidly erased the content.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Schools must educate Czech and Romani children together

25.4.2015 19:52 Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier has expressed appreciation for the activities of Amnesty International (AI) in pointing out problem areas and weak spots in the education of Romani children in the country's schools. "Understandably we are aware of the vast majority of the problem areas mentioned and we see this report as a confirmation of the fact that it is necessary to find appropriate measures to correct them," he said in his reaction to the AI report.  full story