News

Czech civil society marks anniversary of the first Nazi transport of Jews from Prague not with silence, but with rhythm

25.10.2015 9:17 An unusual "happening" called "Drumming for Bubny" has marked the anniversary of the first Nazi transport of Jewish people from Prague to the concentration camps during WWII. Four hundred drums were distributed at the Prague-Bubny train station beneath a statue by Czech sculptor Aleš Veselý called "The Gate of No Return" and used by participants to symbolically disrupt the silence that surrounded that first deportation (Video footage of the event is here).  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister rejects notion that mayors can decide who will live in a municipality

25.10.2015 8:26 Mayor of Obrnice Drahomíra Miklošová is calling for increased powers to be granted to mayors so they can decide who can live in their communities. She has repeatedly called the situation in her own municipality grave recently because a larger number of Romani families are now returning there after having attempted to settle in England.  full story

Moldova: First Romani women elected to local government

25.10.2015 7:20 UN Women reports that this summer's local elections in Moldova resulted in the election of two Romani women for the first time. A total of 15 Romani candidates, seven of them women, ran in the June elections.  full story

Czech Republic: Hundreds of demonstrators both against and for receiving refugees in Prague

24.10.2015 12:57 On 17 October several hundred opponents of immigration and Islam gathered in the center of Prague as did those opposed to racism and xenophobia. Both camps were kept separated from one another on Wenceslas Square by police officers and the statue of St. Václav.  full story

Planned EU ban on Balkan aylum-seekers alarms Roma there

24.10.2015 8:47 Balkan Insight reported last month that Macedonian Roma associations have objected to EU plans to ban Balkan nationals from claiming asylum as part of its response to the refugee crisis. The groups say the plans are unfair to their own persecuted communities.  full story

Czech Republic: Death threats to civil society groups aiding refugees

24.10.2015 8:32 News server iDNES.cz reports that stickers featuring a noose and "DEATH TO TRAITORS" were placed on the display window and door of the Kašpárek Community Center in the Czech town of Pardubice at the beginning of this month. The vandalism occurred several days after the center organized a food drive and other aid for refugees.  full story

Ireland: Romani family compensated for hysteria around blond child

24.10.2015 8:07 Compensation of more than EUR 60 000 has been awarded to the family of a blond Romani boy in Ireland after he was taken away from his family for no reason in October 2013. Social workers mistakenly believed the boy was not the biological son of his parents.  full story

Czech Professional Society for Inclusive Education files complaint against TV Nova over manipulative reporting

24.10.2015 7:43 On 15 October the Czech Professional Society for Inclusive Education issued the following press release:  full story

Sweden: Racism motivates fatal sword attack at a school

24.10.2015 7:27 Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that detectives say the assailant who mudered a pupil and a teacher at a school in southwestern Sweden on 22 October acted out of racist motivation. Swedish media had speculated that the 21-year-old attacker, who was shot during the police response and subsequently succumbed to his injuries, might be an ultra-right sympathizer.  full story

Commentary: Czech Education Minister says "Romani schools" won't change overnight as a result of new law

23.10.2015 19:19 In an interview for the daily Deník.cz, Czech Education Minister Kateřina Valachová said that the ministry's plan to educate all children together is not "social engineering" and that people should not believe that it will mean the Romani children who attend "Romani schools" in the ghettos will suddenly begin attending schools elsewhere. Inclusion, according to the minister, is not something to undertake casually.  full story

Hungarian Justice Minister says Europe's Roma could "join the terrorists"

23.10.2015 9:06 The EU Observer reported on 20 October that Hungarian Justice Minister László Trócsányi told a conference on “criminal justice in response to radicalization” in Brussels that Europe's 12 million Romani people "could be a target of radicalizatoin" and there is a risk they will travel to Syria as foreign fighters to join the jihadists or other radical groups. When asked why Romani people, most of whom are Roma Catholic, would choose to fight alongside jihadists in the Syrian war, a spokesperson for the Hungarian Government told euobserver.com that the Roma are "deprived people and they are usually more exposed to radical views.”  full story

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Czech Republic is systematically violating refugees' rights, Czech President is a xenophobe

23.10.2015 7:24 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has charged the Czech Republic with systematically violating the rights of refugees who have been arriving there since August. Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein also made it know that he is disturbed by the "xenophobic public pronouncements, including Islamophobic remarks" made by Czech President Miloš Zeman.  full story

German prosecutor investigating Pegida for hate speech and Facebook over xenophobic posts

23.10.2015 6:37 The German Prosecutor has begun an investigation of those who gave speeches at a demonstration Monday by the anti-immigrant movement Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) in front of the Opera House in Dresden that was attended by approximately 20 000 people. One speaker there expressed regret that Germany no longer runs any concentration camps.  full story

Human Rights Commissioner urges the Czech authorities to adopt bill on reparations for involuntary sterilisation of Roma women

22.10.2015 11:33 The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks today urged the Czech authorities to adopt a bill on reparations for the involuntary sterilization of Roma women. “I regret the Czech government’s decision not to proceed with the adoption of the law allowing the granting of compensation to the Roma women who were victims of forced sterilisations,” he said after publishing a letter he addressed to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Mr Bohuslav Sobotka, on 6 October.  full story

Czech Republic: Survey of Roma finds they do not view refugees as a threat

22.10.2015 8:16 At a time when a humanitarian crisis is impending at several European border crossings simultaneously and demonstrations both against migration and for receiving migrants have been held several times in one month in the Czech Republic, news server Romea.cz has decided to survey Romani people for their opinions on the topic of refugees. Bear in mind that this is just a narrow sample of Romani representatives and our first such report, which has more of an illustrative character than being of any compelling predictive value. We are convinced that it makes sense to familiarize our readers with the perspective of at least a few ROmani individuals, as the viewpoint of Romani minority members on this issue remains hidden from view to the broader public due to a lack of relevant sociological research.  full story

Germany: Pegida protests get ugly, mayoral candidate stabbed by xenophobe wins election in Cologne

20.10.2015 7:41 Last week Germany was in an uproar over a demonstration by the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) to which a protester brought a gallows with the names of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel inscribed on it. Politicians condemned the protest style as unacceptable and the state prosecutor is investigating whether it constitutes a crime.  full story

Czech Senator wants Constitutional Court to review ordinance about "sitting in public"

19.10.2015 23:09 News server iDNES.cz reports that Czech Senator Václav Láska is planning to bring the town of Rotava before the Constitutional Court over its ordinance restricting "sitting in public" in some parts of its territory. "The expert opinion I have commissioned says the ordinance is not constitutional. The problem is that it is endeavoring achieve an aim other than its stated aim. The restrictions concern just certain sections of the town without any logical reason as to why they should apply to that particular area," he explained.  full story

EU Interior Ministers address how to prevent the dissemination of hatred online

19.10.2015 22:53 Options for preventing the dissemination of hatred online were reviewed by Interior and Justice Ministers of the EU Member States in Luxembourg on 9 October. EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová said that large Internet firms should take the same approach on this issue that they have taken to eradicating the dissemination of child pornography.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court orders discrimination cases reopened

19.10.2015 8:30 The Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud - ÚS) has ordered that a case of Romani people who made a reservation at a hotel in Most but were not given a room upon arrival be reopened. According to the original verdict, discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity was not proven, but the ÚS believes doubts persist as to whether the defense argument of the hotel was not itself tendentious.  full story

Survey shows Czechs are the least tolerant in EU toward blacks, Buddhists, Muslims, Roma

18.10.2015 12:28 A recent survey of EU countries sponsored by the European Commission to determine the level of discrimination in the Member States was published at the beginning of October. The Czech Republic comes out of the survey as one of the least tolerant countries in the EU when it comes to foreign nationals, the members of various religions, national minorities and sexual minorities.  full story