Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Romani enrolments into first grade exceeding capacity of school in Předlice

Ústí nad Labem, 30.1.2014 7:01, (ROMEA) Martin Košnar, director of the primary school in the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem, says that exponentially more children than usual are enrolling into the first grade there. All of the children enrolled there are of Romani nationality.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani candidate proposed for Deputy Human Rights Minister

Prague, 28.1.2014 7:54, (ROMEA) Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, the chair of the Czech Social Democrats, and Andrej Babiš, chair of the ANO movement, have not yet reached agreement on deputy ministerial appointments for the incoming cabinet. The names of some of the deputy ministers that ANO intends to send to the ministries have now been revealed.  full story

Czech lower house speaker condemns MP’s visit to neo-Nazi convicted of racially-motivated murder

Prague, 27.1.2014 15:27, (ROMEA) Czech MP Jan Hamáček (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD), the speaker of the lower house, has commented on the recent visit paid by Czech MP Tomio Okamura to Vlastimil Pechanec, who is serving time for the racially-motivated murder of a Romani man, calling the visit “extremely inappropriate and unfortunate.” Hamáček posted the comment through Facebook as follows: “In my opinion this casts a negative light not only on Mr Okamura and his party, but on the entire Chamber of Deputies.”  full story

Analysis: What if the Czech MP clears the neo-Nazi?

Litvínov, 27.1.2014 10:06, (ROMEA) Tomio Okamura, known to the Czech public as a more acceptable alternative to Tomáš Vandas, the chair of the ultra-right Workers' Social Justice Party (DSSS), has paid a visit to neo-Nazi Vlastimil Pechanec at the prison in Pardubice where he is serving a 17-year sentence for the murder of Otto Absolon, a Romani man. Okamura believes Pechanec's trial by three first-instance judges, three appeals court judges, and three Supreme Court justices was manipulated and politicized.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister-designate: Populism won't resolve ghettos

Prague, 26.1.2014 7:09, (ROMEA) Czech Senator Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has said he would like to legislate the right of every child to a place in preschool, greater powers for the ombudsman, and the opportunity for gay and lesbian couples to adopt when he takes up the post of human rights minister. While in office, he intends to spend most of his time on the issue of social exclusion and has a plan for supervising the cohesion and effectiveness of state measures in that area.  full story

Czech Republic: Trial to start in case of violent death of a Romani man at the hands of police

Kynšperk nad Ohří, 25.1.2014 17:04, (ROMEA) Here in the Czech Republic, the media in general and this news server in particular are often criticized for reporting too often on racially-motivated crimes committed against Romani people. The following example shows that this is not always the case, as there are many such cases that quickly fizzle out without the media following them at all.  full story

Czech Republic: Trial of brutal interethnic assault in Duchcov to start

Ustí nad Labem, 25.1.2014 15:48, (ROMEA) In February the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem will begin trying the case of a brutal assault perpetrated last year in the town of Duchcov (Teplice district). Judge Markéta Morkusová informed the Czech News Agency of the planned trial yesterday.  full story

Czech MP visits convict doing time for racially motivated murder

Prague, 25.1.2014 10:32, (ROMEA) Czech MP Tomio Okamura, chair of the "Dawn of Direct Democracy" (Úsvit přímé demokracie) movement and its vice-chair, Jaroslav Novák, visited Vlastimil Pechanec today in prison in Pardubice. Pechanec was convicted of perpetrating the racially-motivated murder of Ota Absolon, a Romani man, in 2001 in Svitavy.  full story

After an eight-year break, Czech Labor Ministry to follow up on excluded localities research

Prague, 25.1.2014 0:20, (ROMEA) After an eight-year hiatus, the Czech Labor Ministry has announced it wants to repeat its research into so-called excluded localities. The ministry wants to determine whether ghettos in the Czech Republic have changed and whether there are more of them.  full story

Notorious Czech antigypsyist says she's leaving politics

Chomutov, 22.1.2014 22:42, (ROMEA) Ivana Řápková, a former mayor of Chomutov and former MP, resigned from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) last Friday. Yesterday the daily Chomutovský deník reported she resigned because of long-term internal disagreements in the party.  full story

Czech Republic: 47 charged so far over anti-Romani unrest in České Budějovice

České Budějovice, 22.1.2014 15:49, (ROMEA) Police have so far charged 47 people in connection with last year's unrest at the Máj housing estate in České Budějovice. Some have already been given suspended sentences.  full story

Markus Pape: Freedom of speech vs. promotion of violence

Prague, 21.1.2014 22:08, (ROMEA) Freedom of speech is a basic human right. If it is violated, that can endanger the protection of other human rights.  full story

Czech suspect says Romani victim must have stabbed himself to death

Ústí nad Labem, 21.1.2014 0:09, (ROMEA) The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem began hearing testimony on 20 January 2014 in the case of Stanislav Sýkora, who faces charges of racially motivated grievous bodily harm. Sýkora has testified that he is not guilty and that he believes the Romani victim caused his own injuries, of which he later died.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: New ministers could change Czech perceptions of gender and minorities

Prague, 20.1.2014 23:12, (ROMEA) We finally have the names of the cabinet to be led by incoming Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. This means the strange double-government situation in this country will soon be over, one that has made it very difficult for the average citizen and the public in general, who directly elected a President and deputies to the lower house, to figure out who is basically doing what, especially what the outgoing, Zeman-appointed cabinet has abolished, approved, negotiated or reallocated.  full story

Czech town tries to prevent panic and anti-Romani demonstrations

Příbram, 20.1.2014 22:07, (ROMEA) Last Friday a meeting was organized by the town of Příbram which aimed to respond to a recent petition circulating there called "For a Safe Příbram" which was authored by local resident Lenka Synková and has been signed by several hundred people. When asked why she wrote the petition, Synková said:  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: Help, not populism, for the socially excluded

Prague, 20.1.2014 19:28, (ROMEA) Jiří Dienstbier is slated to become the next Czech Human Rights Minister. He says he would like to change the fact that same-sex couples are discriminated against in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Secret neo-Nazi concert in Prague cancelled

Prague, 19.1.2014 20:41, (ROMEA) The organizer of yesterday's secret concert by neo-Nazi bands Summer Heroes and Violence Station at Prague's Na Slamníku restaurant ultimately cancelled the event before it even began. Police expected approximately 100 people to attend, but only 50 showed up.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazi bands play secret concert in Prague

Prague, 19.1.2014 0:33, (ROMEA) The Antifa.cz website reports that the neo-Nazi bands Summer Heroes and Violence Station are scheduled to perform this evening in a secret concert at the Na Slamníku restaurant in Prague. The choice of venue is shocking, as the pub has previously been understood as a place for punk or rock music concerts that share a certain esprit du corps with the underground music era during communism, not with neo-Nazism.  full story

Czech director accused of xenophobia threatens critic with violence

Prague, 17.1.2014 23:14, (ROMEA) News server iHNED.cz reports that Czech Radio will be broadcasting a segment of its "Zaostřeno" ("In Focus") program this Saturday in which director Filip Renč tells Kamil Fila, a film critic with the RESPEKT weekly, that he'd like to "break his jaw". Renč did not like Fila's critique of the way Renč depicts foreigners in the television serial "Sanitka 2" ("Ambulance 2").  full story

Candidate for Czech ombud moderates his anti-Romani stance

Prague, 17.1.2014 22:18, (ROMEA) Social Democrat Stanislav Křeček, who has been proposed by Czech President Miloš Zeman as a candidate for the post of Public Defender of Rights (ombud), is now attempting to moderate anti-Romani statements he published last August on his Facebook profile. "I could have held back," he has told news server Lidovky.cz.  full story