Czech Republic

Czech judge who dissolved neo-Nazi party joins Constitutional Court

Brno/Prague, 9.6.2014 22:42, (ROMEA) On 30 May the Czech Senate approved Czech President Miloš Zeman's proposal to promote Judge Vojtěch Šimíček to the Constitutional Court. Šimíček chaired a panel at the Supreme Administrative Court that decides on electoral and political party cases.  full story

Czech Republic: Residential hotel set on fire in Liberec

Liberec, 9.6.2014 21:27, (ROMEA) Late afternoon Sunday a residential hotel on U Kolory Street in Liberec caught fire. Residents were evacuated before firefighters arrived and no one was injured.  full story

Czech Ghettofest attracts almost 3 000 this year

Brno, 9.6.2014 19:34, (ROMEA) The streets of Brno's "Bronx" were alive with the arts, culture and entertainment brought there by Ghettofest during the weekend of 6 - 8 June. The number of visitors exceeded previous years, approaching 3 000 people over the course of all three days.  full story

Czech Senate likely to reject European Commission's urging on Romani measures

Prague, 9.6.2014 17:43, (ROMEA) The Czech Senate is evidently planning to object to the European Commission instructing the Member States on specific measures for the social inclusion of Romani people. The upper chamber's EU Committee has recommended the Commission's instructions to that body.  full story

Czech right-wing extremists march through town where Romani arson victims live

Budišov nad Budišovkou, 9.6.2014 17:13, (ROMEA) On Saturday a demonstration was held in the town of Budišov nad Budišovkou that was advertised as a "Commemorative march for Viktor Švarc". Right-wing extremists attempted to exploit the as-yet unsolved death of Mr Švarc, who was 28 years old when he died.  full story

Czech Police again report fabricated attack by "dark-skinned" person as real

Prague/Jihlava, 8.6.2014 3:24, (ROMEA) The Czech Police evidently still do not know how to go about publicizing information from their investigations. Many examples to back up this claim exist, but the most recent is, of course, the most typical: The existence of fabricated reports of "muggings" which the police (and subsequently, several media outlets) present to the public as having actually occurred through their initially poorly-formulated press releases.  full story

Czech ministers visit excluded localities in Karviná, Labor Minister visits Chomutov

Chomutov/Karviná, 7.6.2014 23:32, (ROMEA) Yesterday Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec and Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová paid a joint visit to the Moravian-Silesian Region. The ministers specifically visited socially excluded localities in the town of Karviná.  full story

Czech Republic: Interview with Alica Heráková, founder of Ghettofest

Brno, 6.6.2014 22:59, (ROMEA) Alica Heráková lives in the neighborhood of the Czech city of Brno around Bratislavská and Cejl Streets that is nicknamed the "Bronx". She has decided to convince the residents of Brno that the quarter is not actually a dangerous place that should be avoided.  full story

Czech state to expand public contract conditions on hiring the unemployed

Prague, 6.6.2014 19:54, (ROMEA) The Czech Labor Minister intends to implement the hiring of unemployed persons through public procurement contracts. Several municipalities have already introduced criteria for this.  full story

Czech Senator Dryml appeals fine for verbal abuse

Prague, 5.6.2014 23:54, (ROMEA) Czech Senator Vladimír Dryml, formerly a supporter of Czech President Zeman and a former member of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), has decided to file a constitutional complaint against the Senate. The upper chamber has upheld a verdict issued by its Parliamentary Immunity Committee fining the senator CZK 20 000 for verbally abusing a doctor from Yemen.  full story

Czech Equal Opportunities Party has new chair

Prague, 5.6.2014 23:28, (ROMEA) After the failure of the Equal Opportunities Party during the recent elections for the European Parliament, Štefan Tišer has resigned his post as chair. The party's new chair is its former adviser, Miroslav Kováč.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister on his visit to the Ústí Region

Czech Republic, 5.6.2014 22:32, (ROMEA) Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier has recently visited the towns of Duchcov, Prunéřov u Kadaně, Krupka and the Šluknov district to learn how local governments are approaching the problems of social inclusion that are arising there. "It's obvious that various approaches are being taken to the same problem," he summarized.  full story

Czech firm only rents ghetto apartments to Romani tenants

Litvínov, 5.6.2014 19:39, (ROMEA) Romani people belong in the ghetto, not among "normal people". According to the testimony of several Romani residents of the Czech town of Litvínov, that seems to be the motto of the private real estate firm CPI BYTY these days.  full story

Czech political prisoners of communism say the Jáchymov concentration camp must be remembered

Jáchymov, 4.6.2014 22:18, (ROMEA) Former political prisoners in the Czech Republic have gathered for the 25th time to commemorate the horrors undergone during the 1950s in the concentration camps at Jáchymov and other uranium mines by thousands of people considered subversives by the communist regime. Speaking in front of the Church of St. Jáchym, Vladimír Chlupáč, who was imprisoned for 9.5 years in Jáchymov, said young people must be constantly reminded of the hell of what went on there, as it is a national disgrace.  full story

Czech Republic: Law should prevent xenophobia online but will be hard to enforce

Prague, 4.6.2014 20:54, (ROMEA) The clogging of virtual space with vulgarities, xenophobic outbursts and identity theft is a problem not just for online social networks, but also for all kinds of online discussion forums beneath articles and videos. Laws are now being developed in the Czech Republic to prevent such excesses on Facebook and in other corners of the digital world.  full story

Czech NGOs write to FinMin over co-financing of EU-funded social projects

Prague, 4.6.2014 16:48, (ROMEA) Nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic have written an open letter to Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babiš responding to materials published by the ministry entitled "Rules for co-financing of European Structural and Investment Funds for 2014-2020", which establish binding rules for the financing of projects from the ESIF and have recently undergone an inter-ministerial commenting process. The organizations criticize the ministry's proposal that responsibility for up to 15 % of co-financing be mandatory for participation in ESIF projects.  full story

OSCE conference on equal access to quality education for Roma children in the Czech Republic

Prague, 3.6.2014 20:24, (ROMEA) In the Czech Republic, Romani children comprise 28 % of the pupils attending what were once called the "special schools", according to the most recent research on the issue produced by the Czech Social Inspectorate. Czech Deputy Education Minister Jindřich Fryč presented the results of that research at an international conference on the education of Romani children on 30 May in Prague.  full story

Czech High Court refuses usual compensation to family of murdered Romani man

Prague, 3.6.2014 19:52, (ROMEA) On 28 May the High Court in Prague rejected an appeal regarding the amount of damages to be paid to the surviving relatives of a Romani man from Teplice who was stabbed to death. Stanislav Sýkora, who injured two other Romani men with a knife during the same incident, has been sentenced to five years in prison for involvement in a felony affray.  full story

Czech Govt Inter-ministerial Commission has new vice-chair, David Beňák

Prague, 31.5.2014 8:40, (ROMEA) On 27 May 2014, the first session of the newly-appointed Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs was convened. Its members were appointed by a government resolution on 12 May 2014 that also changed the advisory body's statutes.  full story

Czech dramaturg resigns after moderators humiliate Romani musicians on live tv

Brno, 28.5.2014 9:47, (ROMEA) The legendary Czech-Romani funk band Gulo Čar and the Slovak reggae-punk band Smola a Hrušky issued a joint press release yesterday protesting the way in which the moderators of the "Tečka páteční noci" program on Czech Television handled their appearance last Friday just before midnight. The bands say moderator Martin Dušek made humiliating, xenophobic remarks to them during the broadcast.  full story