Czech Republic

Czech Govt HR Commissioner: Governments must work more closely with Romani people

Prague, 8.4.2013 19:07, (ROMEA) Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková has issued a statement on the occasion of International Romanui Day. In addition to wishing the community well, she reminds us that this day calls on government institutions to work more closely with Romani people. Šimůnková sees the main tasks for improving the situation of Romani people in the Czech Republic as located primarily in the field of education, which can ensure Romani people are better able to find a place on the labor market and can help many of them escape the cycle of poverty. News server Romea.cz publishes her statement below in full translation.  full story

Czech Republic: Crisis Committee launches petition for Museum of Roma Culture

Czech Republic, 8.4.2013 18:44, (ROMEA) The Museum of Roma Culture in the Czech Republic is facing the threat of a possible merger with the Moravian Museum as a result of the first phase of savings measures approved by the Czech Government at its 16 January cabinet session. Disagreement with this plan has been expressed by the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs, the Romani Crisis Committee, and many individuals. The Romani Crisis Committee has set up a petition addressed to the Czech Culture Minister and Czech Prime Minister, “For the Museum of Roma Culture” (Za Muzeum romské kultury), expressing disagreement with this merger.  full story

Commentary: Ghetto children in the Czech Republic are victims of the system

Prague, 8.4.2013 17:59, (ROMEA) When I was young I wanted to become a musician like my father, my grandfather, his father and all of our family. I first wanted to play either clarinet or saxophone, and later I wanted to play bass, drums, guitar and piano like Uncle Jonko, and in the end I wanted to play the electric guitar like Petr Janda – he’s not from my family, but he plays well too.  full story

Czech Republic: 15 women charged with promoting neo-Nazism

Děčín, 7.4.2013 2:27, (ROMEA) On Thursday, 4 April, the state prosecutor in the Czech town of Děčín filed charges against 15 women for allegedly perpetrating the crime of promoting and supporting the neo-Nazi movement Resistance Women Unity (RWU). Děčín State Prosecutor Petr Minich announced that if convicted of the charges, the women face up to eight years in prison.  full story

Amnesty International calls for an end to discrimination against Romani people in Europe

London/Prague, 6.4.2013 21:14, (ROMEA) On the occasion of International Romani Day on 8 April, Amnesty International (AI) is warning the European Union that it is not doing enough to end discrimination against Romani people in the Member States. The world’s largest human rights organization has launched a Europe-wide campaign called “Human Rights Here, Roma Rights Now”.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani community lights candles to honor their Holocaust victims

Prague, 6.4.2013 19:29, (ROMEA) A total of 30 Romani individuals and representatives of Romani organizations met yesterday in the courtyard of Prague’s Lichtenstein Palace to light candles in memory of their Holocaust victims. The commemoration was attended by the Czech Foreign Minister and the Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner on the occasion of International Romani Day, which falls on 8 April.  full story

Czech trafficking in poverty: Residential hotel owners cashing in on state welfare

Ostrava, 4.4.2013 22:32, (ROMEA) Overpriced rents, poor hygienic conditions, families with children living in one small room, strange contracts, infectious diseases: This is life in the residential hotels for the impoverished in Ostrava as described by an analysis performed by the Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) association and publicized yesterday at a press conference by experts criticizing another recent analysis published by the Czech Regional Development Ministry (MMR). That MMR analysis has stated that "social residential hotels" could become one component of social housing in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion and ROMEA to discuss media's portrayal of Roma with journalists

Prague, 4.4.2013 14:43, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and the ROMEA civic association are holding a round table on the topic of "Portraying Romani people in the media" at the Journalists' Syndicate (Syndikátu novinářů, Pressroom, Senovážné náměstí 23, Praha 1) on 8 April 2013 from 11:00 - 13:00. This event is being held under the auspices of Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková.  full story

Czech experts disagree with residential hotels as social housing

Prague, 3.4.2013 17:00, (ROMEA) A group of academics and representatives of organizations serving the needy disagrees with including residential hotels as a component of social housing and are criticizing a recent analysis recommending such an approach. The group is also asking for a law to be adopted to ensure "affordable, non-segregated, quality housing" for the poor, according to the initiative's coordinator, Štěpán Ripka, who spoke at a press conference today.  full story

Martin Šimáček: Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion has not and will not meet with ultra-right party

Prague, 2.4.2013 23:01, (ROMEA) In response to the press release from the Konexe civic association of 30 March 2013 (http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-ngo-town-of-krupka-discussing-romani-integration-with-ultra-right-party-not-with-romani-residents) I would like to state that the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has never met with representatives of the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnost), is not meeting with them and will not meet with them in future. The main reasons are the following:  full story

Czech NGO: Town of Krupka discussing Romani integration with ultra-right party, not with Romani residents

Krupka, 2.4.2013 22:17, (ROMEA) The following is a press release from the Konexe NGO:  full story

Czech Republic: Ostrava ghetto residents want out, but not to residential hotels

Ostrava, 2.4.2013 17:28, (ROMEA) They have to heat with wood, they have no electricity, and they continue to draw their potable water from a single shared faucet. This is how the last residents remaining in building number 8 on the ghetto of Přednádraží street in Ostrava live now. Even though the residents have begun slowly repairing the building with the aid of money from various donors, most of those who spoke to the Czech Press Agency claim they would like to move out of the locality.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani crime prevention assistant now police officer

Sokolov, 1.4.2013 23:49, (ROMEA) The West Bohemian town of Sokolov is the first in the Czech Republic in which a crime prevention assistant has gone on to become a municipal patrolman. Patrik Bandy worked as a crime prevention assistant in Sokolov starting in May 2012 and performed his job so responsibly he was selected as an appropriate candidate for the municipal force.  full story

Events scheduled for International Romani Day - 8 April 2013

Czech Republic, 1.4.2013 16:38, (ROMEA) On Monday, 8 April 2013 Romani people worldwide will celebrate International Romani Day. They will commemorate the historic first World Congress of the International Romani Union, which took place near London in 1971, primarily thanks to the initiative of Grattan Puxon and Donald Kenrick of Great Britain, Matéo Maximoff representing French Romani people (the Manouche), Jarko Jovanović of the former Yugoslavia, and other Romani individuals and Romani studies scholars.  full story

Czech Republic: Vietnamese mafia could spoil bid for national minority status

Prague, 30.3.2013 21:32, (ROMEA) Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who chairs the Czech Government Council on National Minorities, is planning to submit a proposal to the Government to grant ethnic Belarussians and Vietnamese national minority status. There are 12 officially recognized national minorities in the Czech Republic.  full story

Miroslav Brož: "Social housing" for Romani people will preserve the status quo

Prague, 30.3.2013 19:59, (ROMEA) For quite some time now an agitated discussion has been taking place among experts about so-called "social housing". Such housing should be accessible to people who cannot rent apartments on the open market and who would otherwise end up on the street.  full story

Czech permanent settlement law expired 15 years ago

Prague, 30.3.2013 19:27, (ROMEA) Deeply engrained stereotypes about Romani people, formed in Europe over the course of six centuries, persist today even though various regimes have made efforts to more or less eliminate the stereotypes in various ways. One of those efforts was the forced assimilation of Romani people that began in the fall of 1958 in the former Czechoslovakia with a law on the permanent settlement of vagrant persons.  full story

Czech town orders slumlord to remove tons of garbage from condemned building

Ústí nad Labem, Předlice, 28.3.2013 15:36, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Ústí nad Labem town hall has ordered the removal of tons of garbage from a building in the Předlice quarter. The sad state of the structure was recently pointed out to them by the Konexe association, which helps impoverished Romani people in Ústí nad Labem.  full story

Czech NGO: Dense network of gaming rooms is drowning the poor

Ústí nad Labem, 28.3.2013 0:44, (ROMEA) Staff of the People in Need (Člověk v tísni) organization have mapped the situation concerning the operation of gaming rooms in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem. More than 100 places there feature video poker machines through which roughly half a billion crowns flow annually.  full story

Czech Museum of Roma Culture could merge with another, community is against it

Brno/Prague, 27.3.2013 16:36, (ROMEA) The Museum of Roma Culture is threatened with the prospect of being merged with the Moravian Museum in Brno on the basis of the first phase of saving measures approved by the Czech Government at its meeting on 16 January 2013. At its most recent session this past Monday, the Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs has expressed its disagreement with this plan.  full story