News

Most of the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion staff to strike Monday

7.5.2015 19:28 Most of the staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion will strike on Monday. Of the Agency's 70 employees and sub-contractors, 59 will begin the strike.  full story

Czech Republic: Ghettofest 2015 will have less loud music, more reverence

7.5.2015 18:33 The fourth annual Ghettofest will take place on 5 and 6 June in the "Bronx" neighborhood of Brno. In addition to a full program of music and theater, the festival will focus on the tragic past of the locality and the fates of its local inhabitants.  full story

EP is for quotas on refugees, Czech politicians can't agree

7.5.2015 16:53 On Saturday, 2 May a total of 3 427 refugees were rescued from boats in the Mediterranean Sea during several interventions near the coast of Libya, according to the Italian Coast Guard. The service has been rescuing thousands of African immigrants from overcrowded smuggling vessels that frequently capsize on their way to Italy, with many lives lost.  full story

Roma demand apology from Czech Education Minister on Facebook for his insulting remarks on television

7.5.2015 15:42 Romani activist Miroslav Klempár is using his Facebook profile to call on Romani people to sign an open letter to Czech Education Minister Marcel Chládek. Klempár refers in the letter to the minister's recent appearance on Czech Television, where he responded to a critical report by Amnesty International in part as follows: We are doing our best today just to get children from excluded localities into the schools. Many representatives of the schools go to their homes to drag them out of bed. They are doing their best to teach them the basics of hygiene, to speak Czech correctly, and also to teach them that it's just not normal for someone to stay in bed until noon and then smoke a pack of cigarettes - in other words, that people also go to work."  full story

Changes at Czech university revive longstanding dispute about the existence of the Romani ethnicity

7.5.2015 9:03 The Faculty of Arts of one of Europe's oldest universities, Charles University in Prague, is undergoing significant changes thanks to the leadership of its current Dean. Some members of the academic community are strongly objecting to some of those changes; a petition has been put together and ethnology students are on strike.  full story

Office of the Czech Gov't announces search for new director of Agency for Social Inclusion

7.5.2015 8:15 The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic has announced the terms for applying to its selection procedure for the position of director of the Agency for Social Inclusion. The new director will start work in June.  full story

Czech ethnology students begin strike in defense of fired teachers

7.5.2015 7:42 Yesterday morning began a two-day occupational strike by ethnology students at Charles University in Prague. The students want the director of the Institute of Ethnology, Marek Jakoubek, to be removed and hope their protest action will draw attention to ongoing changes with which they disagree.  full story

Outgoing director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion says Human Rights Minister doesn't understand the Agency's work

7.5.2015 6:34 In an interview for news server Romea.cz on 5 May, outgoing director Martin Šimáček has responded to the explanation given by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier to the press about the situation in the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. Šimáček said he believes the minister's press conference shows that he completely lacks information about the work of the Agency and that his subordinates are reporting erroneous, incorrect information about it to him.
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Czech Republic: Dean at Charles University standing by controversial ethnologist

6.5.2015 19:18 In February 2014, Docent Mirjam Friedová became the first female Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Friedová, who was originally the director of the Linguistics Department, came into the leadership position as Dean with a new concept of how to direct the faculty - how to make up for the university's lack of money, how to solve staffing cuts, and how to focus more on research activity.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Agency staff will either meet their obligations or leave

6.5.2015 12:21 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier convened an extraordinary press conference yesterday to respond to the "further escalation of the situation" around the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and the "media campaign by its employees". The staff of the Agency have announced they are considering going on strike.  full story

Charles University ethnology students occupy building and strike, demand director be removed

6.5.2015 8:42 Students of ethnology at Charles University in Prague are beginning a two-day occupation and strike on Wednesday, 6 May. Their protest is an expression of their disagreement with the director of the Institute of Ethnology, Marek Jakoubek, whose removal they seek.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion threatens strike

5.5.2015 17:35 The staff of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is concerned, now that its director Martin Šimáček has been removed, that the Agency will become politicized and will be incapable of fulfilling its obligations. They say they consider their negotiations to date with Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, under whose remit the Agency falls, to have been unsatisfactory.  full story

Analysis: 1 May in Brno, Czech Republic

5.5.2015 8:34 Every other year, the city of Brno becomes a place where right-wing radicals from all over the Czech Republic gather for a 1 May demonstration. In previous years, every such assembly, irrespective of its size, has produced a completely different outcome.  full story

Film about Czechoslovak experiment with Romani children wins best documentary from Olomouc Film Academy

3.5.2015 2:31 A documentary film by Czech Television, "Suppressed Letters" (Zatajené dopisy) about an experimental school for Romani children in 1950s Czechoslovakia, has won the prize for best Czech popular science documentary from the Academia Film Olomouc. At the beginning of the experiment, children attended the boarding school voluntarily, but later attended after being forcibly taken away from their families on the presumption that their ties with their parents would be broken.  full story

Commentary: How to end "school apartheid" in Slovakia?

3.5.2015 1:43 Vlado Rafael, an expert on education who is the director of the Eduroma project, says in an interview with news server Aktuálně.sk that the courts have already ruled against a school for segregating Romani children in Slovakia. The verdict was a breakthrough - three years ago the court prohibited the school in the town of Šarišské Michaľany from segregating Romani children away from others  full story

Germany: Police say foiled terrorist attack had Islamist background

2.5.2015 23:39 Police in Germany say that a foiled terrorist attack, the object of which was most probably supposed to be a bicycle race on 1 May in the Frankfurt area, had an Islamist background. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on the foiled attack on 2 May, citing the spokesperson for the Hesse State Criminal Police as their source.  full story

Czech Police acted unlawfully when intervening against activists holding Czech-Romani flag

2.5.2015 21:58 The Czech Police have apologized to Romani activist Ivana Čonková for detaining her, together with evangelical priest Mikuláš Vymětal, for holding a Czech-Romani flag together at a counter-protest in January against an anti-Islamic demonstration. Čonková's complaint in the matter has been evaluated as partially justified.  full story

Slovakia must explain discrimination of Roma in the schools to the European Commission

2.5.2015 15:39 Slovakia has two months to answer several questions about its laws and practices leading to the discrimination of Romani children in the schools. The European Commission (EC) launched an infringement proceedings against Bratislava on 30 April that theoretically could end up before the European Court of Justice.  full story

Czech lower house concludes first negotiations about ombud's new powers

Prague, 2.5.2015 2:35 The Czech lower house has taken one month to complete its first reading of a Government amendment to expand the powers of the office of the Public Defender of Rights (the ombud). The delays were due to a demand from the right-wing opposition that the current Czech Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, be present during the negotiations.  full story

Slovak Police train Czech colleagues to work among Romani people

2.5.2015 2:22 Slovak police officers are training their Czech colleagues to work in Romani communities. A total of 76 officers from the Czech Republic are involved in the ongoing training visits to Slovakia.  full story