News

European Commission launches infringement proceedings against Hungary over discrimination of Romani children

28.5.2016 9:50 On 26 May the European Commission (EC) called on Hungary to stop discriminating against Romani children in education and to adjust its laws accordingly. The Commission made the announcement within the framework of its regular review of transgressions committed by Member States against EU legislation.  full story

Germany: British neo-Nazis tweet photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute at Buchenwald

28.5.2016 8:36 Two members of a British neo-Nazi group have tweeted a photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute during a visit to the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. German media drew attention to the case on 26 May and report that authorities are investigating.  full story

Czech Republic's well-loved RefuFest begins in Prague

27.5.2016 23:40 RefuFest, a favorite festival in the Czech capital, began today. The 11th annual multicultural gathering will last until the end of next week.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani members of LEV 21 party disapprove of it partnering with ultra-right in fall elections

27.5.2016 22:28 On 25 May, the National Socialists-LEV 21 party announced it would be holding a press conference to announce its collaboration with the Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS), an idea that was first announced during the 1 May demonstration by the DSSS in Ústí nad Labem this year. In addition to Petr Benda, a former MP and former chair of the North Bohemian cell of the Czech Social Democratic Party, who is currently vice-chair, Tomáš Vandas, the chair of the extremist DSSS, was scheduled to attend the press conference.  full story

Timea Junghaus: Roma art as an act of resistance

27.5.2016 21:27 On May 16, Europe’s Roma commemorated the 1944 uprising in the so-called Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy Camp”) in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, the idea of Roma resistance is understood as the Roma people’s perseverance in fighting different forms of oppressions, now and in the past.  full story

Czech Interior Minister says migrants are "not an issue" in the Czech Republic

27.5.2016 7:41 Czech voters are mainly interested in parties that address the full spectrum of political issues, not in those that are narrowly focused just on the topic of migration, for example. That is the assessment of Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD), who made his remarks during a discussion about democracy.  full story

Czech Police arrest 16 activists from the Autonomous Social Center Klinika, charges being pressed

26.5.2016 6:24 Police intervened Tuesday at the Klinika building on Jeseniova Street in Prague and took a total of 16 activists from the community center there into custody after they refused to obey police instructions to leave the building. The activists are suspected of committing misdemeanors against public order because they refused to cooperate with officials, Prague Police spokesperson Tomáš Hulan posted to the police website.  full story

Austrian neo-Nazi massacres festival-goers

24.5.2016 22:46 At the beginning of the week the Czech media briefly reported on an incident in the small town of Nenzing, Austria, where on Sunday morning a 27-year-old man, after a seemingly banal argument with his girlfriend, shot randomly into a crowd of people. Two men died on the spot and more than 10 people were injured.  full story

Czech Republic: New handbook advises foreign nationals on how to respond to hate

24.5.2016 10:31 Foreigners who become the target of hateful assaults in the Czech Republic can find advice on how to address their situations in a new handbook. Instructions on how to report a crime and what a criminal investigation and trial entails are described there.  full story

Czech Culture Minister: Govt, stockholders of pig farm negotiating to remove it from Romani Holocaust site

23.5.2016 17:06 The Czech weekly RESPEKT has published an interview by Kateřina Šafaříková with Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman today. The former Catholic priest, MP for the Christian Democrats and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes discusses the topic of the pig farm on the site of the WWII-era camp for Romani prisoners at Lety by Písek, the issue of refugees, and his long personal friendships with military official Jiří Komorous and musician Daniel Landa.  full story

Romani hockey player listed in Czech edition of Forbes "30 under 30"

23.5.2016 9:12 Dominik Lakatoš, the 18-year-old hockey talent, has been chosen by the Czech edition of Forbes magazine as one of 30 young people who have reached the top of their professions before the age of 30. "At the age of two his parents put a football and a hockey stick in front of Dominik Lakatoš, he reached for the hockey stick and began his career in Kolín. In the seventh grade he began a series of big steps: Joining Liberec, playing as an adult, and his White Tigers uniform marked another jump to playing as one of the best forwards, thanks to which Liberec dominated the extraliga. Possibly the most important such advance happened at the end of last year, when the 18-year-old became the first Romani man on the Czech Republic's hockey team and played in the World Junior Championship for those 20 and younger in Finland," the Czech edition of Forbes writes about the young Romani hockey player.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: Relatives of the Romani victims of Nazism and survivors disagree with anti-refugee sentiment

20.5.2016 13:26 Čeněk Růžička, chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust in the Czech Republic (VPORH), has criticized the absence of any systematic research into the causes and consequences of what happened to Romani and Sinti people during Nazism and the sharing of such information with the public. "For example: How did the arrest of the Romani families by the individual stations of the gendarmerie take place during the Protectorate era? What exactly was confiscated from each family, never to be returned? How did the collaboration of the Czech Protectorate’s Interior Ministry with the Nazis work when it came to the persecution of the Roma?" he asked during last week's commemorative ceremony, during which he also clearly spoke out against xenophobic populists.  full story

Members of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union distance themselves from national chair in petition, leadership defends his speech at Terezín

19.5.2016 15:27 The Central Committee of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) has expressed its agreement with the speech given by its chair, Jaroslav Vodička, at this year's commemorative ceremony at Terezín. Critics of the speech have called him xenophobic because of the remarks he made about refugees.  full story

Analysis: Refugees, the past, Chairman Vodička, and the Russian path of the Czech Fighters' Union

19.5.2016 13:03 Jaroslav Vodička, chair of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) caused a certain amount of disarray - as well as an engaging, spontaneous reaction of rejection from Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon - when he gave a speech at Sunday's commemorative assembly in Terezín that included generalizing, xenophobic blather about refugees. Because Mr Vodička echoes [Czech President] Miloš Zeman (whom he supported during his presidential campaign and with whom he has exchanged medals), and because recently the ČSBS has been joined not just by the President, but also by several other bizarre figures in public life here (the group's cell in Lidice is led by Jana Bobošíková, presidential spokesperson Ovčáček has joined, etc.), the impression might arise that the Union has only now, during these new conditions of rule by [Czech
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister] Babiš and Zeman, been infiltrated by nationalist/populist "elements" who have stolen it from the anti-Nazi resistance fighters and are now abusing it.  full story

KHAMORO 2016 in its 18th year - concerts, exhibitions, seminars, theater and much more

18.5.2016 19:10 The world's biggest and most famous Romani festival in the world, KHAMORO, is heading to Prague for the 18th time. It will run from 29 May to 4 June 2016 and, as in previous years, offers a broad range of cultural events.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum expresses support for Czech NGOs seeking to fly the rainbow and Roma flags at Terezín

18.5.2016 16:47 The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has sent Jan Munk, the director of the Terezín Memorial who also chairs the Commission for the Preparation of the Terezín Commemoration, a letter expressing its agreement with the 14 nonprofit organizations who asked that both the LGBT community's rainbow flag and the international Romani flag be flown during the commemorative ceremony at Terezín this year. Munk rejected the request at the beginning of May for the flags to be included alongside state flags during the 15 May event.
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Opponents of Czech President reserve historically significant location to honor the democratic transition this November

18.5.2016 11:47 There is great interest in holding public events in Prague this year on the 17 November state holiday. On the very first day that it was possible to announce such events, Prague City Hall has recorded an enormous number of them, according to spokesperson Vít Hofman.  full story

Czech Republic: Canadian education expert says only an inclusive school is a really good school

18.5.2016 10:25 "Good teachers who get enough support can achieve even better results with their pupils than special educators in special schools can," said Gordon Porter, a leading expert on inclusive education, during an event on 16 May at the Canadian Embassy in Prague. Porter was invited to the Czech Republic by Open Society Fund Prague to share his many years of experience with inclusion in Canada.
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Statement of the Alliance for the European Roma Institute on the 72nd Anniversary of the Romani Uprising in Auschwitz-Birkenau

18.5.2016 9:50 Today, May 16, 2016, marks the 72nd anniversary of the uprising in the so-called zigeunerlager, “Gypsy Camp,” in Auschwitz-Birkenau. On May 15, 1944, the SS ordered the extermination of the 6,500 women, men and children imprisoned in the zigeunerlager. On the evening of May 16, as the SS trucks surrounded the camp, ordering its inhabitants outside, the Roma and Sinti prisoners refused to come out of the barracks. With stones, work tools, sticks and crudely made weapons, they fought off the SS guards. Such refusal, such resistance, was unprecedented; after a tense face-off, the SS command was ordered to leave the camp and, for the moment, its inhabitants were saved.  full story

Member of Czech Freedom Fighters' Union says chair did not speak for her during the Terezín commemoration

17.5.2016 15:02 As a member of the Founding Organization of the Czech Freedom Fighters' Union (ČSBS) in Kladno, I must respond to the speech given by the chair of the ČSBS, Jaroslav Vodička, on behalf of all the members of the ČSBS during the official speeches at the Terezín commemoration on 15 May 2016. Speaking as a representative of the ČSBS, Vodička called for protecting our borders against refugees and for the protection of our culture.  full story