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Czech regional elections: Romani ODS candidate Milan Horvát says small-town schools need good educators

6.10.2016 18:02 On Friday, 7 October and Saturday, 8 October, citizens of the Czech Republic will vote for regional councilors and in some regions also for the one-third of the Czech Senate whose electoral terms are expiring. Political parties have also sent several candidates to the regional elections who are of Romani nationality.  full story

Czech children's sports team called "Cyklon B" played a Romani team last weekend, organizers apologize

6.10.2016 16:14 The first Saturday of October in the Ládví neighborhood of Prague saw a sports tournament held for children living in state-run children's homes. Second place in the category of children aged 13 and older went to a team from the Dolní Počernice Children's Home who called themselves "Cyklon B", the Czech translation of Zyklon B, the brand name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s and infamous for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately one million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.  full story

Romani Rose tells German Chancellor his parents, who survived the Holocaust, would have approved of her

6.10.2016 14:51 At the end of September the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, with the support of various foundations and the German Government, celebrated the 70th birthday of its longtime president, Romani Rose, in Berlin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union gave a speech during the celebration, and Rose also received congratulations in person from Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) of the state of Thuringia, MP Claudia Roth (Greens), who is the vice-chair of the Bundestag, and Hartmut Koschik of the Christian Socialist Union, the Government's rapporteur for national minorities.  full story

Czech regional elections: Roma Democratic Party says job opportunities needed

6.10.2016 11:36 On Friday, 7 October and Saturday, 8 October, citizens of the Czech Republic will vote for regional councilors and in some regions also for the one-third of the Czech Senate whose electoral terms are expiring. Political parties have also sent several candidates to the regional elections who are of Romani nationality.  full story

William Lazarus Bila: Roma joining the bandwagon on anti-refugee campaigns

6.10.2016 10:27 I am angry and disappointed. Despite the recent Hungarian Migrant Quota Referendum being deemed invalid and not succeeding in obtaining enough voter participation to have any significant meaning, the Hungarian Prime Minister and his followers have already begun spinning this failure into a success story for the delusional and uninformed. We need to stop this, for Europe.  full story

Czech Republic: TODAY Václav Havel's 80th birthday to be marked by assembly on Wenceslas Square

3.10.2016 9:14 Wednesday, 5 October 2016 will mark 80 years since the birth of Václav Havel, and the occasion will be marked by a big assembly and concert on Wenceslas Square in Prague. The aim of the event is to remind people of Havel's life philosophy, his positions on various issues, and the values that he stood for.  full story

NGOs meet with Czech EdMin about the state hiring Roma and support for Romani students

5.10.2016 17:06 Deputy Education Minister Václav Pícl met with representatives of a National Working Group of 11 Romani nonprofit organizations from all over the Czech Republic on 3 October in his office at the ministry. "The aim of the meeting is to establish a constructive collaboration between established Romani nonprofit organizations and the Education Ministry. The coalition works with as many as 8 000 Romani people around the country and can be a bridge between the Romani community and the state administration," said Jelena Silajdžić, director of the Slovo 21 organization.
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Czech inspectors issue discrimination fines: Foreigners charged more, Roma refused service

5.10.2016 16:38 The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA) undertook 257 inspections during the second quarter of this year focused on discrimination in restaurants and shops, confirming suspicions of discrimination against consumers in five cases, or almost two per cent. Violations of legal regulations, such as dishonest sales, were found in 129 situations, i.e., at every other business that was inspected.  full story

Martin Dudi: I want to become a teacher or work with children from poor families

5.10.2016 14:52 Martin Dudi is a 22-year-old Romani student from Písek who comes from a family that does its best to uphold Romani customs and traditions and even still speaks the Romanes language. Until the age of three he only spoke Romanes at home, and he did not begin to use Czech until he went to preschool.  full story

Commentary: Corporal punishment at the "inclusive school"

4.10.2016 15:12 Recently I have been repeatedly asked to write something about inclusive education. The debate about this topic has become extremely polarized and I have not been able to figure out which end of the spectrum to start from if I want to avoid repeating arguments I have heard 100 times and adding fuel to the fire already burning around this subject.  full story

Amnesty International: Just 10 countries handle most of the world's refugees, wealthiest doing the least

4.10.2016 13:47 According to a report published today by the human rights organization Amnesty International, the burden of the global refugee crisis on various countries is disproportionately distributed, with most of the world's refugees living in just 10 states. The report called on wealthy states to increase the aid they are providing and to receive the number of refugees that corresponds to their capacity to provide protection.  full story

Czech town "celebrates" 10th anniversary of Romani evictions and creation of ghetto with fireworks

4.10.2016 12:14 Romani tenants of "container housing" in the locality of Poschlá on the outskirts of the Czech town of Vsetín would like to move away, ideally back into town. "We are from Vsetín, we want to remain living there and we would like to have the same conditions as everybody else," Marián Tulej, who administers the housing units, told journalists yesterday.  full story

Czech Police say activist's burning of Quran was neither a crime nor a misdemeanor

3.10.2016 7:49 Martin Konvička, the college instructor who used to represent the now-defunct Bloc against Islam, did not commit a criminal act when he set pages of the Quran on fire in front of a mosque in Brno this July, according to police. The situation was investigated after Brno city councilor Svatopluk Bartík filed a crime report against Konvička.  full story

Czech Republic: Islamophobes demonstrate in four towns with ultra-nationalist party

30.9.2016 14:45 Roughly 250 people, according to Czech Police estimates, assembled for a "Saint Václav demonstration" in Prague on 28 September, a state holiday officially called the Day of Czech Statehood. The event protested the alleged "Islamization" of Europe.  full story

Germany: Two bombs exploded in Dresden, one in front of a mosque, no physical injuries

29.9.2016 14:36 Reuters reports that German Police announced on 27 September that two improvised explosive devices were detonated in Dresden, in the eastern part of Germany, on the evening of 26 September. One was planted in front of a mosque and the other in front of an international conference center.  full story

videoLIVE WEBCAST: OSCE conference reviews the rights of the child today and will touch on the discrimination of Romani children in education

29.9.2016 10:13 Today the OSCE human rights conference continues in Warsaw. The morning session is dedicated to the rights of the child and will also touch on discrimination against Romani people in education. The opening remarks will be given by Beáta Oláhová of the Budapest-based Roma Education Fund. The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting - HDIM is regularly held by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE. You can follow the live webstream on Romea.cz.  full story

videoOSCE meeting on human rights includes session on Roma and Sinti

28.9.2016 12:28, (UPDATED 17:25) The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights has been holding its traditional Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will focus on Roma and Sinti today. You can follow the session live on news server Romea.cz.  full story

First-ever European Roma Spirit 2016 award nominations include news server Romea.cz

28.9.2016 7:02 This year for the first time the European Roma Spirit Award (ERSA) will be given to express appreciation for activities, individuals and projects supporting the integration of Romani people in Europe and contributing effective, functional solutions to the problems the Romani community faces. The award is administered by the Association for Culture, Education and Communication (ACEC) together with the Open Society Foundation under the auspices of the Slovak Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family Ján Richter and the Slovak Government Council on the Romani Community.  full story

Germany: Racist assaults increasing

27.9.2016 10:56 The number of violent attacks with a racist subtext has increased in Germany. From January until mid-September, police recorded 507 such assaults, almost double the number for the same period last year, according to the magazine Spiegel.  full story

Czech court reopens trial of promotion of neo-Nazism, now in its sixth year

27.9.2016 10:31 Three of the eight people who face charges of supporting and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms stood in a renewed trial today before the District Court for Prague 1. They claim they are innocent.  full story