News

ERRC publishes Roma Rights issue honoring the late Nicolae Gheorghe

9.7.2015 16:39 The current issue of Roma Rights, the journal of the European Roma Rights Centre, is dedicated to the life and work of the late Nicolae Gheorghe. Guest editor Nicoleta Bitu compiled the issue.  full story

Czech Police arrest suspected shooter, investigate whether foreigners were his target

9.7.2015 16:06 he Czech Police have arrested a man suspected of have fired at a public bus on Tuesday in the Bory quarter of Plzeň. They also confiscated the weapon that was probably used in the shooting.  full story

Czech Gov't Roma Commission: Municipal consent to housing benefits must be abolished

9.7.2015 5:43 The Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs, which is chaired by Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier, convened last week and joined those institutions and politicians demanding a new amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress. As of May, local municipalities, not Labor Offices, have been empowered to decide whether housing benefits applications should be awarded.  full story

Croatia: 500 stateless persons are mostly Roma

9.7.2015 4:12 News server dalje.com reports that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are approximately 500 stateless persons in Croatia and twice as many at risk of statelessness. They have no citizenship or personal identification and are therefore unable to exercise their rights, find jobs, get married or apply for health insurance.  full story

Czech Republic: Art show about Hodonín concentration camp for Roma opens in Prague

9.7.2015 3:40 On Tuesday, 30 June an exhibition of art by Michaela Pospíšilová-Králová entitled "As If It Never Existed" ("Jako by nikdy neexistoval") about the concentration camp for Roma at Hodonín by Kunštát opened at Café v Lese in Prague (Krymská 12, Vršovice). The opening featured a lecture by Markus Pape, a German journalist living in Prague who has long studied the topic of the Roma Holocaust.  full story

Canada accused of racially profiling Roma travellers from Hungary at European airport

9.7.2015 0:28 In an echo of the approach taken by the UK toward Romani air passengers from the Czech Republic in 2001, Romani citizens of Hungary say Canadian border officials are stopping them in Europe from boarding flights to Canada, according to thestar.com. Romani author Eva Kalla (age 60), a citizen of Hungary, was stopped at the airport in Vienna and referred to a Canadian border official who refused to let her fly to Toronto - even though EU citizens need no visas to do so.  full story

Czech Police now agree that "a gallows has no place in a democracy"

8.7.2015 22:30 Speakers at last week's anti-immigration demonstration in the center of Prague may have committed a felony. That is the conclusion of the police officers who have studied the documentation materials and speeches given at previous assemblies of a similar nature.  full story

Bulgarian NGO to sue over ongoing forced demolition of Romani homes in Garmen

8.7.2015 20:49 News server novinite.com reports that the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) has issued a press release stating its objections to the ongoing forced demolition of buildings in the "Kremikovtsi" Romani quarter of the village of Garmen. The 29 June demolition rendered four families with a total of 15 children homeless and more demolitions are scheduled for 13 July, according to the Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance, which also reports that 124 of the quarter's 134 houses are slated for demolition.  full story

What grade to give a xenophobic student? Racism at a Czech college

8.7.2015 5:10 This story is about how easy it is to talk about racism in the academic community when one is standing up at the blackboard and how hard it is to handle it inside the community itself. The author does not want to identify the school where this scandal took place, and the names of the author and the student have been changed to protect their identities.  full story

Council of Europe issues report on Roma in preschool in the Czech Republic

7.7.2015 23:21 The Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Roma Issues (CAHROM) has just issued a report on its November 2014 visit to the Czech Republic. The visit included experts from Hungary, Latvia, Poland and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, who have authored the report.  full story

Czech Interior Minister: Today it's a gallows, tomorrow people could be shooting each other

7.7.2015 21:54 According to the Czech Interior Ministry, the law was broken during last week's demonstration against immigration and Islam in Prague. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec says it will be necessary to change police procedure as a result.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum: Anti-Gypsyism afoot in Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and elsewhere

7.7.2015 20:52 The European Roma and Travellers Forum has issued the following press release:  full story

New head of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion will involve more socially excluded people

7.7.2015 19:44 Radek Jiránek became the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion one month ago. He replaced Martin Šimáček, whose sudden dismissal caused a crisis - employees backed Šimáček, went on strike for one day, and ultimately approximately one-third of them quit.  full story

Hungary: Romani molecular geneticist says biochemistry is extraordinarily interesting

7.7.2015 1:23 József Horváth is a 27-year-old specialist in oral cancer. He grew up in a Romani settlement in Karcag, Hungary, where he completed high school before attending university in Debrecin, Hungary's second-largest city.  full story

Czech Education Minister insists on abolishing curriculum for "mild mental disability"

7.7.2015 0:10 Czech Education Minister Kateřina Valachová confirmed to the Czech News Agency on 3 July that nothing will change with the plan to abolish the use of reduced curricula for "mildly mentally disabled" pupils. Abolition of the curriculum is an important step toward an inclusive education and overcoming discrimination against Romani pupils in the Czech schools.  full story

Commentary: Are the Czech police not bothered by death threats and a gallows?

6.7.2015 22:08 The following commentary was first published in Czech on 2 July.  full story

Commentary: Actually, the Czech Police do not "know" that a gallows has no place in a democracy

6.7.2015 19:32 Police officers do not have an easy job and Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec evidently does not know much about their work. Just imagine someone bringing a mock-up of a gallows to a demonstration, as occurred last Wednesday.  full story

Roma instructor at Harvard calls for an end to injustice

6.7.2015 18:17 Recent European Roma integration policies have failed, and we need to find out why, according to Margareta Matache, Roma rights activist and instructor at Harvard University, speaking at Central European University’s Roma Graduate Preparation Program End-of-Year Student Seminar on June 15.  full story

Czech Republic: Thousands call on Government to stand up to hatred

6.7.2015 17:01 Last Wednesday's demonstration on Wenceslas Square in Prague demonstrated how hot-button problems related to the hysteria being spread on the topic of refugees in the Czech Republic are being dealt with. The event sparked a more or less immediate reaction and an Open Letter to the Czech PM and Interior Minister was posted online within 48 hours.  full story

Bulgaria: Switzerland investing in Roma integration there

5.7.2015 22:13 Focus-fen.net reported on 23 June that the Bulgarian Minister of Labor and Social Policy signed agreements with the municipalities of Burgas, Ruse and Sliven and Swiss Ambassador Denis Knobel on financing social inclusion of Roma, according to the ministry. The Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Program is to be jointly implemented by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Health and Minister of Labor and Social Policy.  full story