News

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

Julius Zajac: I will never recognize a self-appointed Council of Elders

25.5.2015 7:52 So: Now we have a Council of Elders. How its members intend to aid the integration of Romani people into Czech society is unclear.  full story

Commentary: Who has gone nuts? Holomek is misinformed

24.5.2015 23:29 In connection with the gradual destruction of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier's team, as well as the discussion about the new format for state interventions that those promoting exclusively "Romani" measures want to promote in public policy, many contradictory claims are being made about who has thought what and what was supposed to work for whom. It is a bit tendentious and unfair for some members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs and for Romani publicists to claim that People in Need somehow denies Romanipen and the ethnic dimension of the situation of the Romani minority in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister speaks of a "cult of personality" around the director he fired

24.5.2015 20:09 Speaking today on the Prima television station's "Partie" program, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has already identified replacements for some of the staffers of the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion who have given their notice in connection with his dismissal of Martin Šimáček as its head. On Friday his spokesperson told the Czech News Agency that the minister had not yet begun to look for replacements and would wait until Šimáček's successor is chosen before opening up the positions to applicants.  full story

Czech Republic: Khamoro Festival starts today in Prague

24.5.2015 18:42 The best Romani artists from all over the world are now heading to Prague and then to Plzeň. Today is the first day of the 17th annual Khamoro Festival, which is the best-known, biggest Romani festival in the world.  full story

Karel Holomek: The Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion has gone nuts, the Roma need a legitimate political partner

24.5.2015 7:37 Last week several dozen Romani figures assembled and issued a declaration expressing their ambition to become representatives of the Romani community in the Czech Republic. News server Romea.cz has learned that the author of that declaration is the famous Romani activist, journalist and politician Karel Holomek.  full story