Czech Republic

New Czech ombud is Anna Šabatová

Prague, 14.2.2014 17:49, (ROMEA) Anna Šabatová, who has just been elected Public Defender of Rights (ombud), will be wanting politicians to increase the ombud's powers. "I would be glad if the ombud would be able to file motions for the abolition of laws with the Constitutional Court. I would also be glad if the ombud could file its own lawsuits in matters of discrimination," Šabatová said.  full story

Czech ombud candidate Křeček: Minority rights are getting too much attention

Prague, 13.2.2014 23:06, (ROMEA) News server Romea.cz presents the translation in full of the speech given by Stanislav Křeček, candidate for the post of the Public Defender of Rights, to the Czech lower house today:  full story

Czech ombud candidate Šabatová: I will improve work with the public administration

Prague, 13.2.2014 22:28, (ROMEA) News server Romea.cz presents the translation in full of the speech given by Anna Šabatová, candidate for the post of the Public Defender of Rights, to the Czech lower house today:  full story

Czech MPs fail to choose new ombud in first round, second vote tomorrow

Prague, 13.2.2014 21:38, (ROMEA) Czech MPs failed to elect a new Public Defender of Rights (ombud) today. Neither the current Deputy Public Defender of Rights, Stanislav Křeček, nor the former Deputy Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, has received enough votes during today's first round of secret voting.  full story

Czech Deputy Ombud advises new govt of problems

Prague, 13.2.2014 21:14, (ROMEA) The current Czech Deputy Ombud has congratulated the ministers in the new cabinet on their appointments to office and has warned each of them about several problems which he considers in need of urgent resolution. Most of his remarks were addressed to the Labor and Social Affairs Minister, as traditionally most of the people who contact the Ombud do so about labor and social problems and the office has conducted the most investigations in areas under that ministry's purview.  full story

Czech NGO files complaint against paper over racist article

Prague, 13.2.2014 17:51, (ROMEA) The Prostějovský Večerník ("Prostějov Evening News") daily paper has once again had a complaint filed against it over a racist article. As with the previous case, the complaint was filed by the NESEHNUTÍ nongovernmental organization, which believes that an article headlined "GYPSY HYENAS rob woman of crutches!" violates the law.  full story

Czech and German neo-Nazis to commemorate bombing of Dresden in Karlovy Vary this year

Karlovy Vary, 12.2.2014 21:40, (ROMEA) Nationalists from both the Czech Republic and Germany are using the Internet to convene an assembly in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary on the anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945. The event, allegedly a memorial march called "Light for Dresden", will take place this Saturday.  full story

Czech Republic: Homeless man's tent set on fire

Prague, 12.2.2014 21:00, (ROMEA) A homeless man living in a tent near the Černý Most shopping center in Prague has become the victim of an arson attack by two perpetrators who remain at large. All of the evidence so far indicates that the perpetrators poured a flammable liquid on the man's tent, made of fabric, at 2 PM Sunday and then struck a match.  full story

Czech arson trial: Drunken stupidity or racially-motivated attempted murder?

České Budějovice, 12.2.2014 20:38, (ROMEA) On Monday the trial of a case of attempted arson committed last summer in the town of České Budějovice continued, with few representatives of the media in attendance. News server Romea.cz reported on the start of the trial in December last year.  full story

Czech Govt to fight antigypsyism and anti-Semitism, beef up ombud and social housing

Prague, 11.2.2014 17:47, (ROMEA) Addressing social housing, fighting marginalization and a robust performance against antigypsyism and intolerance are all promised in the Czech Government's draft program declaration. The cabinet also wants to get a handle on the "trafficking in poverty at overpriced residential hotels."  full story

Czech Republic: Young adults inherit debt from day one

Most, 10.2.2014 17:39, (ROMEA) News server Peníze.cz has published an interview with Alena Zieglerová, who worked for many years as the head of the Labor Office in the Czech town of Most. She knows the Chanov housing estate, which has a large Romani population, and the problems of people "on the margins" of society firsthand.  full story

Czech town uses EU funds for police assistant to restrain unruly pupils in the schools

Sokolov, 7.2.2014 17:26, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that in the Czech town of Sokolov a new reinforcement to the municipal police has begun addressing truancy with troubled families and will even be sitting as an observer next week in classrooms where instruction is disrupted by undisciplined pupils. The police assistant mission is being started at the Primary School on Křižíkova Street, where most of the children (approximately 40) from a recently closed, so-called Romani primary school were reassigned a year and half ago.  full story

Czech Police looking for man who gave the Nazi salute in the Prague metro

Prague, 7.2.2014 0:00, (ROMEA) Police officers from a local station in the Vysočany quarter of Prague and detectives investigating extremism are working on the case of an aggressor who verbally assaulted his fellow passengers on the metro before giving the Nazi salute at the Kolbenova metro station. On Monday, 27 January at about 11:30 AM, the man reportedly shouted racial epithets at a tourist from France while riding in a metro car between the Vysočanská and Kolbenova stops.  full story

Czech media ignores trial of 2013's most serious racially-motivated attack

Teplice/Ústí nad Labem, 6.2.2014 21:47, (ROMEA) At the end of January, the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem reviewed last year's most serious case of racially-motivated violence (according to the indictment). During the celebration of the opening of the spa in Teplice, a local recidivist stabbed a man to death and seriously injured several others with a hunting knife.  full story

Museum of Roma Culture director: Today's anti-Roma sentiment recalls interwar society

Brno/Prague, 6.2.2014 0:25, (ROMEA) In the Czech Senate on 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, speeches were made by Senate chair Milan Štěch, the vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies MP Jaroslava Jermanová (ANO movement), Auschwitz survivor Luděk Eliáš, and the director of the Museum of Roma Culture, Jana Horváthová. News server Romea.cz brings you Ms Horváthová's speech in full translation below.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court rejects complaint by convicted Holocaust denier

Brno, 5.2.2014 2:09, (ROMEA) The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint filed with it by the Czech-Canadian author Vladimír Stwora, who has been convicted in the Czech Republic of using the internet to doubt the extent of the Holocaust. While the prisoner amnesty announced by former Czech President Václav Klaus had already cancelled the suspended sentence handed down against Stwora, he insisted on having his complaint against it heard by the court.  full story

Czech Republic: New law would mean thousands at risk of homelessness

Brno, 3.2.2014 17:31, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that more than 3 000 socially excluded people live in residential hotels throughout the Czech city of Brno. A forthcoming amendment would restrict residency in such facilities to the length of one year but does not address what would happen to those who have to move away after a year's time.  full story

Czech town refutes rumor it is privileging Romani residents

Most, 2.2.2014 21:44, (ROMEA) The town of Most has recently responded to a letter it received from someone identifying themselves as a pensioner claiming that young Romani passengers ride public transportation for free there and that the town also pays Romani people's taxi fares once a month. The town has refuted these rumors; please see the letter and the town's response below  full story

Czech court sentences two of the four brawlers in Duchcov incident

Duchcov/Teplice, 1.2.2014 22:59, (ROMEA) A court in Teplice issued its ruling on 28 January in the case of those involved in an illegal manhunt for the organizer of anti-Romani demonstrations in the town of Duchcov, a group of four who ended up assaulting two mistakenly identified men. The judge has sentenced two of the defendants to prison, put one on probation, and acquitted the fourth.  full story

Czech MEP candidate wants to ban immigration into the EU

Prague, 1.2.2014 4:08, (ROMEA) Klára Samková, a candidate for the European Parliament on the ticket of the Dawn of Direct Democracy (Úsvit přímé demokracie) party, is continuing the harsh rhetoric of party chair Tomio Okamura. Samková has released a statement in favor of a total ban on immigration into EU countries.  full story