News

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

Czech High Court upholds breakthrough verdict: Media must compensate victim of online racist discussion

18.10.2015 2:46 The High Court in Prague upheld a breakthrough verdict on 13 October by a first-instance court that sentenced the publisher of Parlamentní listy, the OUR MEDIA company, to pay compensation of CZK 150 000 to plaintiff Jaroslav Suchý for the fact that it did not delete racist discussions conducted beneath three articles published online. JUDr. Milena Opatrná said the news server "did not respect the moral or physical integrity not only of the plaintiff, but of ethnic Roma generally" when, despite repeated calls to remove the racist, xenophobic posts from its online discussions calling for the physical destruction of Romani people and for violence, it left them online for three years.  full story

SocDems in EP may suspend Slovak ruling party for a second time over refugee crisis

18.10.2015 0:07 In a blog post for the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Bernard Rorke, who teaches a course on "Roma Rights" at Central European University in Budapest discusses the recent proposal from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) faction at the EP to suspend Slovakia's SMER party from the S&D Group. Rorke says Gianni Pitella, President of the S&D Group met with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to discuss his attitude about the Syrian refugee crisis on 9 October and was quoted as saying the PM's position had embarrassed the "whole Progressive family".  full story

German Police: Xenophobe stabs mayoral candidate

17.10.2015 23:42 One day prior to tomorrow's local elections an assailant has stabbed Henriette Reker, a candidate for Mayor of Cologne, at a marketplace. The online version of the daily Die Welt reports she has been seriously injured but that her life is not in danger.  full story

Trial of the Czech cell of Blood & Honour enters its final phase

17.10.2015 15:27 A nine-member group of alleged neo-Nazis from various parts of the Czech Republic has been on trial before the Regional Court in Plzeň since February. From 12-13 October, closing arguments in the case were made by the prosecution, the attorney for the victims, and two of the defendants gave final statements.  full story

Europe's human rights watchdog disturbed by Czech Republic's segregated schools and treatment of asylum-seekers

17.10.2015 0:05 The Czech Republic has not yet managed to eradicate the reprehensible segregation of Romani children in its schools - despite its integration strategy many educational institutions continue to exist that are "only for Roma" where children are taught according to reduced curricula. The Council of Europe has published this criticism in a recent report.  full story

Czech Republic: Homegrown Romani funeral procession mistaken for refugees

16.10.2015 21:08 In recent months a tragicomic scenario has played itself out more than once in which ordinary inhabitants of the Czech Republic have been mistaken for refugees. Last Sunday this scenario repeated itself in Znojmo, when a funeral procession by local Romani people accompanying a deceased relative to her final resting place was mistaken by a bystander for a group of refugees.  full story

Belgium charges French comedian over racist remarks

15.10.2015 19:59 The Belga press agency reports that controversial French comedian Dieudonné has been charged with using anti-Semitic, discriminatory speech during a performance in Belgium and faces prison time of up to six months without parole should he be convicted. "His performance is full of so many defamatory, offensive expressions that it makes one want to vomit," said Damien Leboutte, the prosecutor in Liège, when reading the indictment.  full story

Czech Deputy PM: Responsible politicians go against the "voice of the people" to do the right thing

15.10.2015 19:01 Disadvantaged children should attend "normal" schools, people should not live in residential hotels in ghettos but in normal apartments, women should be paid the same as men and more must be done to protect women from violence, and society must learn how to avoid an energy crisis. These are interrelated topics, but we are not used to considering them as such.  full story

Canadian airline could be sued for not honoring tickets purchased by Romani passengers

14.10.2015 23:54 CBC News reports that a human rights group based in Hungary wants Canadian-based Air Transat and other airlines that have rejected Romani passengers travelling to Canada to refund their fares. The group says as many as 50 passengers have been prevented from boarding flights to Canada recently because they either actually were or appeared to be Romani and their fares have not been refunded.  full story