News

Karel Holomek: Migration crisis not new, Roma migrated from Slovakia post-WWII and to Canada post-1989

31.3.2016 17:14 Last weekend the international "Dialogue in the Center of Europe" (Dialog uprostřed Evropy) conference was held in Brno, one that has traditionally been held there for many years. This year's topic was "Historical and European perspectives on the approach to refugees".  full story

Sweden: History of the persecution of Roma in the Czech lands is published

30.3.2016 16:05 In April 2016 a book about the persecution of Romani people in Bohemia and Moravia will be published in Stockholm for Swedish readers, entitled "Inadaptable Citizens: A History of the Persecution of Roma in the Czech Lands". Swedish publishing house Atlas has informed news server Romea.cz of the release.  full story

Czech Supreme Audit Office: People who are not disadvantaged at all are being awarded "social housing"

29.3.2016 23:27 State-subsidized apartments are being leased by people in the Czech Republic who are not living with any kind of medical or social disadvantage. What's more, the Czech Regional Development Ministry is not keeping track of who is actually taking advantage of such subsidized properties.  full story

Czech Republic: Interest in tutoring for Romani children in Brno exceeds supply of volunteers

29.3.2016 21:24 News server iDNES.cz reports that the Romani residents of Brno are expressing increasing interest every year in the long-term tutoring of their children. This year a minimum of 250 Romani children are augmenting their regular education in this way.  full story

Czech Republic: International Romani Day celebration to honor the invisible in Prague

29.3.2016 19:08 The Romani association ARA ART will be holding its second annual celebrations of International Romani Day on 8 April. This year's theme is "Honoring the Invisible".  full story

Belgium: Neo-Nazis assault memorial ceremony in center of Brussels for victims of terrorist attacks

28.3.2016 17:55 Yesterday hundreds of people assembled on the Place de la Bourse in the center of Brussels, which has become a location for honoring the victims of last Tuesday's terrorist attacks, despite police and politicians warning on Saturday that the gathering would stretch police resources. The peaceful commemorative ceremony was disrupted by roughly 450 football hooligans and neo-Nazis, according to the Belgian newspaper La Libre.  full story

videoCzech town offers Romani family accommodation in uninhabitable residential hotel

28.3.2016 9:51 The Gorol family of the Czech town of Slaný recently requested an apartment from local officials after their previous rental arrangement came to an end. The local council approved a place in its residential hotel for them, which is comprised of three adjacent buildings.  full story

videoUltra-right extremists riot in center of Prague, Czech Police intervene and arrest racist activist

27.3.2016 3:15 Police in Prague arrested the chair of the right-wing extremist National Democracy (ND) party, Adam B. Bartoš, on Saturday, 26 May at a demonstration against "Islamicization". Four other demonstrators were arrested later in the day.  full story

Admirer of Hitler and MPs who insult refugees now on Slovak legislature's Human Rights and Minorities Committee

26.3.2016 17:45 The first session of the newly-elected National Council of the Republic of Slovakia has been used to decide the composition of its various committees. The nominations to the Human Rights and National Minorities Committee have sparked exceptional agitation in the Slovak media.  full story

Parent of child with Down Syndrome writes open letter to Czech tabloid waging anti-inclusive education campaign

25.3.2016 18:46 Tomáš Hečko, the parent of a child with Down Syndrome, was approached by the tabloid daily Blesk in the Czech Republic for an interview on the topic of inclusive education and decided not to give them one. "Your newspaper has abandoned the pretense of even attempting to appear objective and instead of providing information is leading a campaign - a campaign against several thousand children with mild mental disability who are exercising their right to an inclusive education (or who want to do so in future) in the mainstream primary schools. You are also waging this campaign against us, the parents," he wrote in an open letter to the Blesk reporter.  full story

Yaron Matras: Do Roma need protection from themselves? The Council of Europe comes under fire from academics for reinforcing prejudice

24.3.2016 23:43 Almost one hundred academic researchers specialising in Romani studies have signed an open letter to the Council of Europe’s Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, expressing their concern about a recent Council of Europe communication announcing its new four-year Thematic Action Plan on Roma and Traveller Inclusion. They take issue with the statement’s depiction of Roma as having a pre-disposition to early marriage, violence, organised crime and begging, and say that such suggestions contribute to, rather than confront stigmatisation and prejudice.  full story

Yveta Kenety: Czech daily again manipulates public with biased, outdated information about Roma

24.3.2016 17:14 One of the most recent examples of manipulative journalism that breaks all the rules on writing a quality article is the Právo daily's piece published on 21 March on their online news server Novinky.cz with the misleading headline "European Judges: Czech Republic was basically punished for trying to educate Roma". The report is about the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of D.H. and Others versus Czech Republic and quotes three judges who voted against that judgment as if it were a hot news item the journalist had to go straight to Strasbourg to get.  full story

Analysis: Apartheid and segregation are being applied to Romani schoolchildren in the Czech Republic

24.3.2016 2:03 Romani children comprise almost one-third of the pupils who now attend schools previously referred to as "special schools" (zvláštní školy) even though less than 3 % of the population of the Czech Republic is Romani. That fact was reported by the international human rights protection organization Amnesty International (AI) in February in a report entitled "Must Try Harder - Ethnic Discrimination of Romani Children in Czech Schools".  full story

Czech Police given suspended sentences along with civilian who beat Romani youth and threatened to kill him

23.3.2016 23:23 Yesterday a court in the Czech Republic handed down three suspended sentences against the perpetrators of an assault on a Romani youth that happened at the end of January 2015 and was first reported by news server Romea.cz. The trial did not prove that the two defendants who were police officers were responsible for the attack, but did punish them for merely observing the behavior of the third defendant who perpetrated the violence.  full story

David Beňák on the Czech inclusive education debate, the invisible, and the unheard

23.3.2016 21:27 Educating all children together is a basic, normal approach to education that must be the standard in the Czech Republic. It is a good standard to set ourselves.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry not allowing party to add "Bloc against Islam" to its name

22.3.2016 19:58 The Czech Interior Ministry has denied permission to the Úsvit-Národní koalice (Dawn-National Coalition) political party to change its name to "Úsvit s Blokem proti islámu" (Dawn with the Bloc against Islam). Party chair Miroslav Lidinský informed journalists of the decision today.  full story

Analysis: Czech daily reprints eight-year-old dissenting opinions of Strasbourg judgment on racial discrimination in education

22.3.2016 18:20 The Czech daily Právo has published a report on the dissenting opinions of judges on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg stating that the Czech Republic lost the D.H. case at that venue in 2007 because the state had attempted to educate Romani people. The fact that the statements are eight years old did not prevent the daily from making them the main story of yesterday's edition.  full story

Slovak municipality opened playground with segregated use rules - Romani children on even-numbered days only

21.3.2016 15:09 The Slovak municipality of Hrčeľ has introduced special rules for using its multi-functional playground that was funded with EU monies in 2012 - Romani children can use it on even-numbered days and "the rest" of the citizenry can use it on odd-numbered days. The sign announcing the rules to those visiting the playground was also still accessible on the municipality's website this past weekend, according to news server dennikn.sk.  full story

Analysis: Czech tabloid launches campaign against inclusive education

20.3.2016 18:30 The Czech tabloid Blesk launched a campaign against inclusive education several weeks ago. It began by spending a week depicting inclusive education to its readers by way of clichés, lies and myths about the destruction of the Czech school system.  full story

Hungary: Deadline is 24 April for undergraduate applicants to Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University

18.3.2016 19:35 The Central European University (CEU), which is headquartered in Budapest, has announced it is taking applications from Romani students for the 2016-2017 academic year. The program, entitled Roma Graduate Preparation Program (RGPP), focuses on an intensive, two-semester preparation of undergraduates, especially those in the social sciences, to continue on to a Master's program.  full story