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Czech Republic: 11 organizations call on Terezín to fly the LGBTQ and Romani flags during traditional commemoration

29.4.2016 11:22 Eleven organizations working on LGBTQ and Romani topics have called on the Terezín Memorial to fly the LGBTQ (Rainbow) flag and the Romani flag next to the flags of nations whose members fell victim to Nazi persecution. "To our great surprise, there is no Romani flag flown at Terezín even though, together with Jewish people, it is the Roma as a group who were affected most by Nazi persecution in the Czech lands. More than 90 % of the interwar Romani population did not survive racial persecution and the war itself," the organizations write in an open letter to the members of the Commission for the Organization of the Terezín commemoration, which news server Romea.cz is publishing here in full translation.  full story

Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren supports its Diakonie organization after right-wing radical attack

28.4.2016 7:00 The leadership of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren has expressed support for its Diakonie organization in Prague after an attack by right-wing radicals who spray-painted its headquarters with threatening messages last weekend. In a statement released yesterday, members of the church leadership said aggression and calling for the death of others contravenes the spirit of the gospel.  full story

Hungary: Roma Press Center launches ironic campaign against police abuse featuring leading actors

27.4.2016 16:19 The people who can least afford it frequently become the victims of absurd police interventions in Hungary. The Roma Press Center (RSK) was led by its own experience and that idea to the following inspiration: With the aid of volunteers, they have collected the stories of specific interactions with the police and held a public contest for the most absurd police measure.  full story

Czech Republic: 2 000 demonstrate against racism in Prague after neo-Nazis graffiti "HateFree" cafés

27.4.2016 15:11 On 25 April as many as 2 000 people assembled on Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague to protest against the fact that several businesses and metro stations in Prague were spray-painted with neo-Nazi slogans and symbols over the weekend. Organizers of Monday's event, called "Prague is Not Afraid", wanted to demonstrate that there is no place in Czech society for Nazi ideology and violence.  full story

Slovak court rules forcibly sterilized Romani woman to receive compensation, hospital appeals

27.4.2016 13:37 The Košice II District Court has decided that the Pasteur University Hospital violated the rights of a Roman woman whom they sterilized without securing her informed consent. The court first instructed the hospital to apologize and, in a second verdict dated 19 February, awarded the woman the right to financial compensation in the full amount requested of almost EUR 17 000.  full story

Czech Republic: Demonstrations for and against receiving migrants in Ostrava

27.4.2016 11:57 Opponents and proponents of the reception of migrants demonstrated on Saturday afternoon in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic. A total of approximately 200 people on either side assembled at two different locations in the city.  full story

ROMEA to hold public debate on "Roma in the Czech Republic - obstacles, opportunities, options" TOMORROW

27.4.2016 11:14 The ROMEA organization will be holding a public debate, "Roma in the Czech Republic - obstacles, opportunities, options" on Thursday, 28 April at the National Minorities House (Vocelova 3, Praha 2). The event will have three sections, the first of which will focus on supporting the higher education of Romani people by providing scholarships.  full story

International study claims Romani children still discriminated against in education in Europe

26.4.2016 11:35 While the situation is slowly improving, discrimination and segregation of Romani children in the Czech education system still persists more than eight years after the judgment in the case of "D.H. and Others versus the Czech Republic". In that judgment, the European Court for Human Rights ruled that 18 Romani children had been illegally assigned to "special schools".  full story

Czech expert says child welfare authorities should address discrimination in the schools

26.4.2016 9:44 Klára Laurenčíková, the chair of the Czech Professional Society for Inclusive Education and a member of the Czech Education Ministry's expert team on inclusive education, said last week that she believes child welfare authorities should be more involved in cases of discrimination in the schools. The current Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, also pointed out that social workers have always been in a position to consult with parents about such matters as part of their jobs.  full story

Poland: Local Catholic church apologizes for neo-Fascist mass in cathedral

26.4.2016 8:35 Last week a big discussion was prompted in Poland by the fact that a local Catholic church had made it possible for a right-wing radical organization to celebrate mass in a cathedral in the east of the country. The ultra-nationalist group, which is calling for the country to leave the EU, celebrated its 82nd anniversary in the cathedral in Bialystok.  full story

Czech Senate approves education amendment in full, opponents of inclusion failed to convince them otherwise

25.4.2016 13:44 Last week the Czech Senate adopted an amendment to the law on education in full despite the fact that many reservations to it have been expressed. The vote means that new rules for inclusion in the Czech schools will apply as of September.  full story

Czech Republic: Dozens of educators and students support activist who allegedly assaulted police officer

25.4.2016 11:09 Dozens of educators and students of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) have signed a letter supporting left-wing activist Kateřina Krejčová, who allegedly assaulted a police officer last year while protesting a march by those opposed to migration. In February the court sentenced her to one month in prison, suspended for one year, a sentence she has appealed.  full story

Czech youth who fired gas pistol at demonstration given 200 hours of community service

25.4.2016 8:58 Jiří Borovička, who fired a gas pistol into the air during an anti-immigration demonstration this past February in Prague, was convicted of rioting and sentenced last week to 200 hours of community service and forfeiture of the weapon. The 21-year-old laborer has accepted the sentence and will not appeal, but the state prosecutor is still considering whether to appeal.  full story

Germany: Trial of right-wing extremist Lutz Bachmann of Pegida begins

24.4.2016 10:43 On 20 April the trial of Lutz Bachmann, the leader of the "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West" (Pegida) movement, began in Dresden accompanied by an exceptional degree of interest from the media and the public. If convicted he faces up to five years in prison for inciting hatred against refugees.  full story

Czech Republic: Group of 16 Christian refugees wants to go back to Iraq

23.4.2016 9:14 Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) tweeted on 20 April that the group of 16 Christian Iraqi refugees who wanted to leave the Czech Republic for Germany last week has asked to be returned to Iraq. Chovanec said the ministry would be negotiating with the Generation 21 Foundation, which brought the foreign nationals to the Czech Republic this year, as to whether it could cover the costs of their travel.  full story

European Parliament is financing neo-Nazis even after rules change

21.4.2016 7:24 The European Parliament has just issued a second grant this year to support the Europa Terra Nostra foundation (ETN), part of the extremist "Alliance for Peace and Freedom" (APF) faction of the European legislature. Czech extremist Tomáš Vandas sits on the executive board of the APF, which is using the money to prepare a big meeting in Stockholm this summer.  full story

Croatia: Unidentified attacker threw a grenade at a Romani preschool in Zagreb

20.4.2016 12:04 An unidentified attacker threw a hand grenade into the yard of a building in Zagreb that houses a nursery school for Romani children. The Croatian Romani Association also has its office in the building and a second preschool facility is also housed there.  full story

Czech online daily wants public prosecutor disciplined for anti-Romani prejudice

19.4.2016 21:38 The online daily Deník Referendum has delivered a motion to Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán (ANO 2011) asking that disciplinary proceedings be initiated against state prosecutor JUDr. Zdeňka Galková. The editors believe her work for the Prague 1 office has been extremely problematic because the activities of that particular state prosecutor's office clearly have an impact on the republic as a whole, as Prague 1 is the district in the country where the biggest number of political speeches and public activities takes place.  full story

Czech Republic: Seven-year anniversary of neo-Nazi arson attack on Romani family home in Vítkov

19.4.2016 12:09 Seven years ago, during the late night hours of 18 April and the early morning hours of 19 April 2009, four neo-Nazis threw Molotov cocktails into a single-family home in the town of Vítkov (Opava district), where a Romani family was living. During the subsequent blaze three people were injured, including the family's youngest daughter, Natálka, who suffered burns over 80 % of her body before she was even two years old.  full story

Slovakia: Fascist politician seeks minute of silence in Parliament for WWII-era leader, doesn't get it

19.4.2016 8:27 Slovak media are reporting that the leader of Slovakia's ultra-right "Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia" (K-LSNS), Marián Kotleba, asked the leadership of Parliament on Friday to announce a minute of silence to honor the President of the wartime Slovak State, Jozef Tiso, who was responsible for the deportation of Jewish people from the country. Andrej Danko, the speaker of Parliament who is also the head of the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), refused the motion.  full story