Czech Republic

Czech NGOs lobby to preserve human rights agenda on international day

Prague, 10.12.2012 17:41, (ROMEA) Human rights defenders are demanding that the Czech Prime Minister instruct his cabinet not to go through with budget cuts to the Office of the Government and not to transfer its advisory boards to various ministries. They are concerned that human rights protections in the Czech Republic will deteriorate as a result.  full story

Czech Senator Čunek chairing Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights

Prague, 10.12.2012 16:58, (ROMEA) Czech Senator Jiří Čunek has been appointed chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunity, which some may find a surprising choice. The appointment took place on 6 December when the Senate approved the change. Čunek will now take over the subcommittee, replacing former chair Miluše Horská, who has been elected Vice-Chair of the Senate.  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion: Field social work in Sokolov a success

Sokolov, 8.12.2012 18:38, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has issued the following press release, which Romea.cz is providing in translation:  full story

Hitler's selected speeches published in Czech translation

Brno, 8.12.2012 18:04, (ROMEA) A selection of speeches made by the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1942 has been released in the Czech language. Publisher and translator Pavel Kamas told the Czech Press Agency that he wanted to provide people with these speeches, which have been practically unavailable before now, so they could freely form their own opinions of them. Experts contacted by the Czech Press Agency have pointed out that the speeches are propaganda tools and could be misleading if not accompanied by expert commentary.  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion: Housing system in Litvínov a success

Litvínov, 7.12.2012 17:22, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has issued the following press release:  full story

Czech police errors result in acquittal of neo-Nazis who assaulted Romani men

Hradec Králové, 6.12.2012 22:33, (ROMEA) An appeals court in Hradec Králové has rejected the appeal of state prosecutor Alexandr Pumprla in the case of Romani men who were beaten up in Nový Bydžov last year and has left intact the acquittal handed down by the district court. "The reason was lack of evidence. The blame primarily lies with police, who performed the suspect identification procedure poorly," David Oplatek of the In IUSTITIA organization, told news server Romea.cz.  full story

Romani scholar: Czech press reports on Romani origins oversimplify, promote stereotypes

Prague, 5.12.2012 17:57, (ROMEA) The Czech Press Agency has published an article on the genetic origins of Romani people in Europe which seems to be very imprecise. According to the wire service, Romani people in Europe are descended from the "Dalit caste" in India, which reportedly represents the lowest level in the professional caste hierarchy there. The ancestors of today's Romani people are said to have left the Indian subcontinent 1 000 years ago. The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph has also reported that these claims have been proven by a new genetic study.  full story

Czech Hockey Fans' Fair Play Charter now addresses racism

Czech Republic, 5.12.2012 16:30, (ROMEA) Hockey clubs in the Czech Extraliga have published the Hockey Fans' Fair Play Charter (Charta fair play hokejového fanouška) on their web pages condemning racism at stadiums and in everyday life. Hockey fans now have the opportunity to sign the charter as well.  full story

videoCzech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion reports positive results

Most, 4.12.2012 16:34, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has issued the following press release:  full story

videoCzech Republic: How Ústí nad Labem treats the poorest of the poor

Ústí nad Labem, Předlice, 4.12.2012 0:26, (ROMEA) Ústí nad Labem: An inversion layer hangs over the streets. I remember one like it from the days when there was mining in this north Bohemian region, and when much more brown coal was burned there than is today. Now the hard-to-breathe gases are returning to the region, reportedly because local chemical factories are starting up again. The town is grey, with few colors, and even fewer smiles among the passers-by.  full story

Czech tabloid asks singers about photo of them giving the Nazi salute

Prague, 3.12.2012 16:04, (ROMEA) The Sunday edition of the Blesk tabloid in the Czech Republic reports that it has managed to acquire photographs of the stars who hosted this year's "Český slavík" (Czech Nightingale) awards ceremony, Lucie Bílá (46) and Daniel Landa (44), giving the Nazi salute. The snapshot is said to be an unaltered original and can be seen at http://www.blesk.cz/clanek/celebrity/186516/lucie-bila-a-daniel-landa-proc-jsme-hajlovali.html  full story

Prague conference notes progress on Holocaust restitution

Prague, 1.12.2012 19:43, (ROMEA) First Deputy Foreign Minister Jiří Schneider and Stuart Eizenstat, an adviser to the US Government on Holocaust questions, told journalists in Prague Thursday that an international conference assessing the options for the return of property stolen during the Holocaust has noted general progress on the issue of restitution. However, Eizenstat and Schneider believe the correction of wrongs committed during the Nazi era is not yet over and there is a need to accelerate the restitution given the advanced age of the victims.  full story

Czech "practical schools" won't close, petition is causing hysteria

Prague, 30.11.2012 23:20, (ROMEA) News server Aktuálně.cz reports that tens of thousands of people have signed a petition against closing the "practical primary schools" that was delivered to representatives of the Czech Education Ministry last Friday. The actual situation is much less dramatic than the sensation stirred up around the alleged closure of the "practical primary schools". Both the Czech Government and the ministry say they are counting on such schools continuing to exist.  full story

Czech ministries, municipal govt pass the buck on Přednádraží street

Ostrava, 30.11.2012 17:20, (ROMEA) The ProAlt Ostrava organization and the SOS Přednádraží collective have issued the following press release, which news server Romea.cz publishes in full translation below:  full story

Czech Radio: Businesses get rich on residential hotels for the poor

Ústí nad Labem, 30.11.2012 1:10, (ROMEA) Czech Radio has reported that the business dealings of those who own the residential hotels that charge disproportionately high fees for single rooms, often featuring showers and toilets located in common hallways and restrictions on who can visit their guests, could easily be called trafficking in poverty. The owners of these businesses rely on the fact that their clients are people who cannot find normal rental housing and that the state will contribute toward paying their bills. For most people living in such places, they are the last resort when fleeing the ghetto.  full story

Czech Republic: Open letter from Romani evacuees in usurious residential hotel

Ústí nad Labem, Předlice, 29.11.2012 16:49, (ROMEA) The situation in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem is becoming unsustainable. The first people have been evacuated from the Předlice quarter there and the same fate probably awaits others. The town itself is mostly to blame for the situation, as it sold buildings in the quarter to private owners, some of who have no interest in maintaining them. As some residents have informed news server Romea.cz, some of the buildings probably belong to banks by now because their owners have defaulted on loans using the buildings as collateral. Structural engineers have found flaws in almost 30 buildings in the Předlice quarter, so more evacuations may lie ahead.  full story

Romani activist seeks seat on Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes

Prague, 29.11.2012 16:32, (ROMEA) Čeněk Růžička, the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu) is one of the candidates for a seat on the board of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů - ÚSTR). The Czech Senate will choose the institute's board members during a session in December. A total of 33 candidates have applied.  full story

Czech EdMin wants zero non-disabled children in "practical primary schools"

Prague, 29.11.2012 1:28, (ROMEA) The Czech Education Ministry wants to prevent non-disabled, socially disadvantaged children from studying in the "practical primary schools" alongside children with mental disabilities. During the next two years, the ministry is preparing to introduce several measures into practice to prevent such enrollments. Those measures concern pupils' records, the methods used to evaluate "practical primary school" candidates, and the establishment of preparatory classes at such schools. The ministry is responding to a five-year-old judgment from the European Court of Human Rights which found 18 Romani pupils had been unjustifiably enrolled into what were previously called "special schools" in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Parents protest closure of integrated school in Prague

Prague, 29.11.2012 0:23, (ROMEA) The parents of pupils attending the Grafická Primary School are protesting the plan of the Prague 5 municipal government to close it. In an open letter, the parents write that they greatly value that the school's environment produces "trouble-free collaboration between majority-population pupils and Romani pupils there. Our children get along nicely together, which is not at all usual in today's society... In recent years, pupils who were inappropriately enrolled into 'practical primary schools', even though their intellect did not require such enrollment, have managed to relocate here. These pupils, with the kind and meticulous support of their educators, have successfully handled the difficult transition back to the curriculum of a regular primary school." The parents are demanding that Prague 5 review its decision to close the school.  full story

More than 40 future Roma professionals receive academic scholarships

Praha, 28.11.2012 11:09, (ROMEA) At 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 29, Prague’s theater D 21 will host a mid-afternoon gala to recognize Romani university students who won scholarships from the Roma Education Fund (REF) for the academic year 2012/2013. In its thirteenth year, the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP) supports 44 Romani students in the Czech Republic in 2012 and has spent well over two million Euros on scholarships across the region since its establishment.
 full story