News

Does the Czech Human Rights Minister grasp the purported dispute between the "ethnic" and "social" approaches to inclusion?

3.6.2015 17:35 Two important events took place recently that may fundamentally influence the approach to Romani integration policy and combating socially excluded localities for a long time to come. A new report on socially excluded localities was presented by the GAC company, and several hours later, Czech Human Rights Minister Dienstbier announced that the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion will be Radek Jiránek.  full story

UK: Gangs are abusing impoverished women from Eastern Europe, including Roma, for fake marriages

3.6.2015 16:49 Klara Balogová was 18 years old, without a cent, and in an advanced stage of pregnancy when she traveled 1 000 kilometers from Slovakia to England to marry a man she had never met. She knew that neither she nor her child were any of his concern.  full story

Commentary: Not everyone has luck or talent - response to Julius Zajac about options for ghetto children

3.6.2015 15:40 Julius Zajac's recent commentary presented a proud, self-aware perspective on the problems of Roma - in his view the key to overcoming these problems is education, and anyone can access a decent education in the Czech Republic. Racism, he says, does not stand in the way.  full story

Norwegian photographer fascinated by Roma ability to maintain cultural heritage in desperate conditions

3.6.2015 15:15 In Oslo a book about Norwegian Romani people was recently been published featuring the photographs of Gorm K. Gaare. He has also documented the lives of Roma in Bulgaria, in the Czech town of Bělá nad Radbuzou near Plzeň, and in Slovakia.  full story

Czech Republic: Café says it will only serve "adaptable" customers

3.6.2015 0:46 There probably is no need to extensively justify the unwritten social rule that if someone disrupts the social order of those peacefully sipping espresso at the Chat Noir Café in Brno to such an extent that it is intolerable, that person can understandably be asked to leave. When, however, the café announces it is forbidding entry to "inadaptables", some prefer to suppress their desire for coffee and give the place a miss.  full story

Czech town rejects residential hotel tenants' applications for housing benefits across the board

2.6.2015 14:41 Town councilors for the municipality of Bohumín have rejected all 124 applications for housing benefits submitted by individuals who are accommodated in residential hotels on their territory. Such rejections could impact as many as 210 such facilities throughout the country.  full story

Nine aid workers of Czech NGO murdered in Afghanistan

2.6.2015 13:49 Nine Afghani employees of the Czech organization People in Need were killed last night during an attack perpetrated by armed men in the north of Afghanistan. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported the news, citing a local representative, and the Czech News Agency confirmed the reports with the organization's director, Šimon Pánek.  full story

REF Seeks a National Selection Board Member in Czech Republic

1.6.2015 13:16 Roma Education Fund Scholarship Program announces its call for applications for a National Selection Board (NSB) position for the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP), who will participate in the evaluation and selection process of scholarship beneficiaries for REF Scholarship Program (REF SP) for the academic year 2015-2016, in Czech Republic.  full story

videoKHAMORO: Annual parade of Romani performers marches through the center of Prague

31.5.2015 23:11 This year the 17th annual Khamoro Festival parade of colorfully-dressed Romani dancers, musicians, and singers made its way through the center of Prague accompanied by live music. The annual festival began last Sunday on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague and culminated last night with a gala concert of many Romani performers.  full story

France sees annual celebration of Sara e Kali, the patron saint of Roma

31.5.2015 8:47 On Sunday, 24 May, the traditional pilgrimage of Sara e Kali, a celebration of the patron saint of Romani people, Saint Sarah, took place in the south of France. The festival takes place in the village of Saintes Marie de la Mer and tens of thousands of Romani people from all over Europe visit it annually.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion sees more staff quit over allegedly untransparent hire of new director

30.5.2015 8:19 Wednesday's announcement of the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, Radek Jiránek, has not managed to halt the departure of another 10 employees. Notice has been given, for example, by the interim director, Alena Zieglerová, by an expert in debt counseling, and by a lawyer with the Government department.  full story

Czech Prime Minister proposes removal of Education Minister

29.5.2015 6:18 Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka will be proposing the dismissal of Education Minister Marcel Chládek within the next few days (both are ČSSD). The PM has referred to information reported yesterday by the daily Mladá fronta DNES about the bullying of subordinates at the ministry, claiming that he intends to take it seriously.  full story

SURVEY: Romani figures respond to the choice of Jiránek as director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion

27.5.2015 20:22 Radek Jiránek, head of the Crime Prevention Department at the Czech Interior Ministry, is the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

New director of Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is Radek Jiránek

27.5.2015 15:17 The new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is Radek Jiránek, who until now has been the head of the Crime Prevention Department at the Czech Interior Ministry. Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (ČSSD) announced the appointment today at a press conference.  full story

Hungary: Mayor tells Roma to adapt or leave in effort to run them out of town

27.5.2015 14:49 Mayor Dávid Janiczak (age 28) of the Hungarian town of Ózd is a member of the ultra-right Jobbik ("Movement for a Better Hungary") party and is allegedly doing his best to throw impoverished people, most of whom are Romani, out of their homes through what are being called "scandalous housing regulations". Bence Tardai of the liberal Dialogue for Hungary party made the claims on 25 May.  full story

Czech Republic: Number of socially excluded localities has doubled since 2006 to 606

27.5.2015 13:42 The number of socially excluded localities has almost doubled in the Czech Republic since the first Analysis of Socially Excluded Romani Communities and Localities in the Czech Republic and the Absorption Capacity of Entities Working in this Area was presented on 6 September 2006. That year the number of impoverished apartment complexes, impoverished neighborhoods and whole streets was estimated at 300, while now it is estimated to number 606 such localities in 297 municipalities.  full story

Czech Republic: Open Society Fund explains its financial cooperation with owner of tabloid Extra.cz

27.5.2015 8:13 The Open Society Fund Prague (OSF Prague) has announced a scholarship fund to support Romani college students in collaboration with Jan Barta, the owner of the tabloid publication Extra.cz. News server Romea.cz has asked OSF Prague whether they consider it problematic to collaborate with the owner of a tabloid whose Editor-in-Chief, Pavel Novotný, makes no secret of the fact that he manipulates "Romani topics" to increase readership.  full story

Bulgaria: Mayor of Garmen says anti-Romani protests are being exploited for political gain

26.5.2015 18:28 Anti-Romani protests broke out in the municipality of Garmen in southwestern Bulgaria on Saturday. Those protesting say they have long had conflicts with some occupants of temporary housing near their community.  full story

Czech trial of arson attack reviews neo-Nazi groups

26.5.2015 9:04 In mid-May the Regional Court in Plzeň continued with the trial of the allegedly organized groups operating from 2011-2012 under the names of Blood & Honour and Combat 18 (the number 18 is a synonym for Adolf Hitler's initials) on the territory of the Czech Republic. The nine-member group, according to the indictment, is said to have promoted neo-Nazism and some of its members are said to have perpetrated arson attacks on occupied and unoccupied buildings, to have supported racial hatred, to have perpetrated various forms of violence with a tendency to terrorism, to have denied the Holocaust, and to have committed violence against a particular group and its individual members.  full story

Interviews with rival Czech academics about the Institute of Ethnology, the Roma, and social inclusion

25.5.2015 10:36 Does an "ethnic" approach to the integration of Romani people represent the threat of their isolation and nationalism? Is it artificial and risky?  full story