News

Czech Republic: Visiting season opens at Lety memorial

Lety u Písku, 1.4.2015 0:42, (ROMEA) The memorial at Lety by Písek will launch yet another season for visitors on Tuesday, 31 March 2015 with a program for youth called "Closer Together" ("Sobě blíž") which will feature performances by Mário Bihári and Bára Hrzánová, among others.  full story

Czech Republic: Street Battle Jam dance competition comes to Khamoro World Roma Festival for the first time

31.3.2015 23:58 This year the Street Battle Jam dance competition will take place for the first time as part of the Khamoro World Roma Festival. The competition will take place on 30 May 2015 from 9:30 to 19:00 at the Vltavská metro stop in Prague.  full story

City of Prague establishes National Minority Committee with seat for Roma

Prague, 31.3.2015 1:12, (ROMEA) More than 5 % of the residents of Prague are of a nationality other than Czech. The City Council has therefore fulfilled its legal obligations and established a National Minority Committee with representatives of 12 nationalities.  full story

European antiracism campaign uses positive images of Roma

Czech Republic, 31.3.2015 0:02, (ROMEA) Several days ago an original photographic exhibition brought a Europe-wide campaign of several months' duration to a close, a campaign fighting in fresh ways against stereotypes held by majority populations against Romani people. The antiracist media campaign, part of the Roma Matrix project, was created by six partners in five European countries.  full story

Czech film series "Bastards" humiliates Romani people

30.3.2015 20:54 Is the "Bastards" film series a serious portrayal of the environment in the Czech "practical schools", or is it just a sampling of generalizations, prejudices and stereotypes about Romani people? Martina Šafářová, a student at the University of Pardubice, has analyzed Magnusek's series in her thesis.  full story

UK: Family from Czech Republic charged with human trafficking

Plymouth, England, 30.3.2015 19:55, (ROMEA) A five-member family originally from the Czech Republic has been charged with human trafficking by authorities in the southeastern English town of Plymouth. People trafficked from the Czech Republic were forced to sleep in a garage, on the ground, or in a cupboard beneath a staircase and to give most of their pay to those who had trafficked them.  full story

Promoter of status quo segregation believes the Czech state takes excellent care of Romani children

30.3.2015 2:55 Jiří Pilař, chair of the Association of Special Educators (Asociace speciálních pedagogů - ASP) is a longtime defender of the "special schools" who has been fighting with the advocates promoting what he calls "inclusion at any price". He recently published a commentary on the educational news server Česká škola (Czech School) about the current state of his fight on behalf of the "practical schools" (previously called "special schools") and the recent amendment of the Schools Act.  full story

Czech women kidnapped in Pakistan two years ago are back home

30.3.2015 0:32 Antonie Chrástecká and Hana Humpálová, two Czech women kidnapped in 2013 in Pakistan, have given interviews to the Turkish press agency Anadolu after their recent release claiming that they do not know which group was behind their abduction and that their kidnappers never identified themselves. Reportedly the worst part of their captivity was the beginning, when they had to get used to the sudden change and feared their captors.  full story

Computer game lets white people experience what it's like to be a bullied minority

29.3.2015 23:48 Players of the computer survival game Rust can no longer choose what their avatar looks like but will have an appearance randomly assigned to them. The gaming websites Gamerspot.com and Kotaku.com have reported on the change.  full story

Commentary: If I were Romani, I'd go crazy

29.3.2015 20:25 "To be Romani all too frequently means living in an excluded locality. To live in a ghetto means being close to the drug mafia, loan sharks, and speculators in social housing, to be in the sights of those who traffic in poverty. It means to experience despair, frustration , hopelessness and resignation. In such a situation, merely finding the will to escape it is a minor miracle," writes commentator Martin Vrba in an article for the Czech online magazine A2larm.cz.  full story

Sweden: Lawsuit over police list of Romani people begins

28.3.2015 20:29 A Swedish nonprofit organization is suing the state over its police registry of Romani people, which contained the personal data of persons connected by nothing but their ethnicity. News server Newsweek.com reported on the case yesterday.
 full story

Karel Holomek: Segregation is a source of crime, frustration and hatred

28.3.2015 19:45 I do not want to a priori suspect Mr Čunek of endeavoring to harm Romani people, even though he is succeeding exceptionally well at exactly that. He is being applauded on an open stage and people undoubtedly ultimately sent him back as Mayor of Vsetín and even as Senator for exactly that reason.  full story

videoRomea.cz interviews authors of the "official" version of the Romani anthem

28.3.2015 19:02, (ROMEA) Does there now finally exist an official, standardized form of the Romani anthem? Has the situation in which hundreds of various versions of the anthem were being played for different occasions at different places now been overcome?  full story

Czech Republic: Nonprofits help unemployed Roma, save the state millions

Prague, 27.3.2015 23:51, (ROMEA) Last year, within the framework of a project run by the ROMEA nonprofit (the publisher of news server Romea.cz) and the Slovo 21 NGO, 59 Romani clients in Prague succeeded in finding jobs, saving the state budget more than CZK 6 million (EUR 218 000). "We are glad that last year we succeeded in helping almost 60 Romani residents of Prague find work, and we managed to change their life situations. That is no easy task and I consider it a big success," said Jelena Silajdžić, director of Slovo 21.  full story

videoIs this the official version of the international Romani anthem?

27.3.2015 22:45, (ROMEA) The authors of the Rromaanthem.org website are claiming that for the first time in history, the international Romani anthem, "Gelem, gelem", now exists in an official, standardized form. The anthem has been recorded in three versions: A choral one, an instrumental one, and a solo vocal one.  full story

Czech Romani Studies scholar says that when Roma do well, so does all of society

27.3.2015 22:25 "The values held by Romani people are basically the same values as those held by the majority society," Mgr. Zbyněk Andrš, Ph.D., an ethnologist and Romani Studies scholar from the Social Sciences Department at the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Pardubice said in an interview for news server EuroZprávy.cz. Andrš says the reason that a large number of Romani people perform unskilled labor and enjoy lower standards of living is that their access to the authorities and to education is comparatively worse.  full story

Commentary: European Roma Institute will use the power of culture

27.3.2015 21:49, (Frankfurter Rundschau) The German Sinti and Roma can look back on some good weeks: Recently, Federal Supreme Court President Bettina Limperg signaled the readiness of the court for a historical investigation into its "unreasonable jurisdiction" concerning Sinti and Roma. As a result of a discriminatory Supreme Court ruling from 1956 victims of National Socialism had been denied the compensation of their suffering for decade  full story

Czech Republic: Residential hotel owner fined CZK 550 000 over shocking conditions

27.3.2015 21:31, (ROMEA) Pavel Mirga, the operator of a troubled residential hotel on Dluhonská Street in Přerov, has been fined CZK 550 00 (EUR 20 000) because his residential hotel facility was never properly registered. Kamila Navrátilová, spokesperson for the Regional Authority, told the Czech News Agency that the decision has yet to take effect and could be appealed.  full story

Why we are setting up a European Roma Institute

27.3.2015 20:23, (European Voice) For more than four decades Europe’s Roma community have wanted to establish an institution that would give their music, art and unique traditions their own stage. Across the continent, such bodies exist to celebrate an array of cultures, nationalities and identities. Yet, there is nothing of this kind for Roma. Many feel this absence, particularly among Romani campaigners, educators and intellectuals. It compounds a sense of exclusion and denies all of us the opportunity to celebrate the Roma influence on our shared cultural life. We are joining forces to help put this right.  full story

Czech ombud responds to critics about Romani discrimination findings: Test cases are a serious approach

27.3.2015 19:57, (ROMEA) The Czech Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, issued a press release about discrimination against prospective Romani tenants on 22 December 2014. There was no greater response to her findings at that time.  full story