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Czech High Court upholds breakthrough verdict: Media must compensate victim of online racist discussion

18.10.2015 2:46 The High Court in Prague upheld a breakthrough verdict on 13 October by a first-instance court that sentenced the publisher of Parlamentní listy, the OUR MEDIA company, to pay compensation of CZK 150 000 to plaintiff Jaroslav Suchý for the fact that it did not delete racist discussions conducted beneath three articles published online. JUDr. Milena Opatrná said the news server "did not respect the moral or physical integrity not only of the plaintiff, but of ethnic Roma generally" when, despite repeated calls to remove the racist, xenophobic posts from its online discussions calling for the physical destruction of Romani people and for violence, it left them online for three years.  full story

SocDems in EP may suspend Slovak ruling party for a second time over refugee crisis

18.10.2015 0:07 In a blog post for the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Bernard Rorke, who teaches a course on "Roma Rights" at Central European University in Budapest discusses the recent proposal from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) faction at the EP to suspend Slovakia's SMER party from the S&D Group. Rorke says Gianni Pitella, President of the S&D Group met with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to discuss his attitude about the Syrian refugee crisis on 9 October and was quoted as saying the PM's position had embarrassed the "whole Progressive family".  full story

German Police: Xenophobe stabs mayoral candidate

17.10.2015 23:42 One day prior to tomorrow's local elections an assailant has stabbed Henriette Reker, a candidate for Mayor of Cologne, at a marketplace. The online version of the daily Die Welt reports she has been seriously injured but that her life is not in danger.  full story

Trial of the Czech cell of Blood & Honour enters its final phase

17.10.2015 15:27 A nine-member group of alleged neo-Nazis from various parts of the Czech Republic has been on trial before the Regional Court in Plzeň since February. From 12-13 October, closing arguments in the case were made by the prosecution, the attorney for the victims, and two of the defendants gave final statements.  full story

Europe's human rights watchdog disturbed by Czech Republic's segregated schools and treatment of asylum-seekers

17.10.2015 0:05 The Czech Republic has not yet managed to eradicate the reprehensible segregation of Romani children in its schools - despite its integration strategy many educational institutions continue to exist that are "only for Roma" where children are taught according to reduced curricula. The Council of Europe has published this criticism in a recent report.  full story

Czech Republic: Homegrown Romani funeral procession mistaken for refugees

16.10.2015 21:08 In recent months a tragicomic scenario has played itself out more than once in which ordinary inhabitants of the Czech Republic have been mistaken for refugees. Last Sunday this scenario repeated itself in Znojmo, when a funeral procession by local Romani people accompanying a deceased relative to her final resting place was mistaken by a bystander for a group of refugees.  full story

Belgium charges French comedian over racist remarks

15.10.2015 19:59 The Belga press agency reports that controversial French comedian Dieudonné has been charged with using anti-Semitic, discriminatory speech during a performance in Belgium and faces prison time of up to six months without parole should he be convicted. "His performance is full of so many defamatory, offensive expressions that it makes one want to vomit," said Damien Leboutte, the prosecutor in Liège, when reading the indictment.  full story

Czech Deputy PM: Responsible politicians go against the "voice of the people" to do the right thing

15.10.2015 19:01 Disadvantaged children should attend "normal" schools, people should not live in residential hotels in ghettos but in normal apartments, women should be paid the same as men and more must be done to protect women from violence, and society must learn how to avoid an energy crisis. These are interrelated topics, but we are not used to considering them as such.  full story

Canadian airline could be sued for not honoring tickets purchased by Romani passengers

14.10.2015 23:54 CBC News reports that a human rights group based in Hungary wants Canadian-based Air Transat and other airlines that have rejected Romani passengers travelling to Canada to refund their fares. The group says as many as 50 passengers have been prevented from boarding flights to Canada recently because they either actually were or appeared to be Romani and their fares have not been refunded.  full story

Czech Public Defender of Rights says human rights are being violated at the Bělá-Jezová detention facility

14.10.2015 19:23 Anna Šabatová, the Czech Public Defender of Rights, declared yesterday that the situation of children and families with children living in the Bělá-Jezová detention facility for refugees run by the Czech Interior Ministry near Mladá Boleslav is so serious that it amounts to a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. Šabatová said children there are living in objectively worse conditions than Czech prisoners do.  full story

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee: Opportunistic politicians evicting Roma for political gain

13.10.2015 20:39 On 9 October, Kaloyan Stanev of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee published an opinion piece through the Open Society Foundations about the evictions of Roma that have been ongoing there. He describes police giving families one hour to leave their dwellings before they are bulldozed.  full story

Czech city enacts ordinance banning "sitting in problem areas"

13.10.2015 19:55 An ordinance has taken effect in 11 selected localities of the Czech city of Most restricting options for spending time outside by banning seating on freestanding walls or on chairs brought outdoors, as well as forbidding the use of barbecue grills. Similar ordinances apply in other towns in the Ústí Region such as Duchcov, Krupka and Litvínov.  full story

Austria: Not even refugee crisis could bring the ultra-right full victory, SocDems still rule Vienna

13.10.2015 5:07 The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) has won 39.4 % of the vote over its competitors, the ultra-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), and has therefore won the regional elections in Vienna. The FPÖ won 32.1 % of the vote, 6.4 % more than in 2010.  full story

Romani youth from Czech Republic receiving the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award

13.10.2015 2:31 "I would primarily like to be a role model for others who grow up in children's homes," says 19-year-old Lukáš Kotlár, who will be receiving the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award at the end of the school year. Part of the award is the Duke of Edinburgh's education program, which has supported young people from all parts of society since 1956 in dozens of countries worldwide on the way to their future employment, independence, self-awareness and social sensitivity.  full story

EU-funded online Roma resources project draws criticism from academics and activists

12.10.2015 16:42 Stefan Benedik of the History Department at the University of Graz in Austria has written a protest letter regarding the online promotional video for a project called "e-roma-resource" (e-RR) funded by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. The video has since been removed.  full story

Czech Defense Minister unshaken by poll revealing extremism in the Army, sociologist says it reflects society

12.10.2015 7:53 An opinion survey among soldiers that discovered some Czech Army personnel hold extremist views also revealed some positive results, according to Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický (ANO). "The soldiers have my full trust and I stand behind the Army 100 %," he said after Chief of General Staff Josef Bečvář presented the findings of the survey to MPs on the Defense Committee in the Czech lower house on 7 October.  full story

Romanian film "Aferim!", set during era of Roma slavery, discusses various forms of honor

11.10.2015 0:27 A gendarme and his sidekick, a father and son looking for a runaway Gypsy slave, ride through the breathtaking landscape of Wallachia. On the way they encounter various characters almost always representing some sort of social type, whether a psychopathic Orthodox priest, a band of local mercenaries, Gypsy serfs and their only slightly more well-off masters from the impoverished peasant class, or drunkards and whores at a traveller's tavern.  full story

Czech Republic: Activists sentenced for stunt to draw attention to a suicide say police made hateful, racist remarks

8.10.2015 5:31 News server Aktuálně.cz reported on 6 October that a verdict has been handed down in the case of two activists who tried to draw attention in June to the story of a man from Ostrava who committed suicide out of fear that he would become homeless after his eviction from a residential hotel. The local authority where the man was living did not approve his request for housing benefits, which meant he would no longer be able to afford to stay in the facility.  full story

As evictions continue in Albania, Romani women reach out to local elected officials

7.10.2015 21:58 Activist Ola Tare in Albania has contacted the Roma Virtual Network to report the planned eviction of Roma families living in an informal encampment near a man-made lake in the capital, Tirana. The municipality reportedly announced the eviction on 2 October because of redevelopment plans and alleged that the families were "harm[ing]... the environment and their [own] health."  full story

Czech School Inspectorate: Objections to counting Romani pupils in the schools are absurd pretexts

7.10.2015 2:43 Yet another "head count of Romani children" has just been completed in the Czech Republic's primary schools. The tally was conducted at all primary schools and was designed to produce information about how many Romani children are attending "special" schools, whether the practice of segregated classes (or entire schools) is operating at "normal" schools and of so, to what degree.  full story