News

AI: EU action against Czech Republic for discrimination in schools is a victory for rights, justice, and Roma

London, 25.9.2014 19:05, (ROMEA) Amnesty International today welcomed the European Commission’s announcement that it would use its powers to initiate infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic for breaching European Union (EU) anti-discrimination legislation.  full story

Czech Foundation against Corruption: Vote-buying has begun

Prague, 25.9.2014 18:31, (ROMEA) Purely by accident, I ran into two homeless people sitting on a bench who were very grateful for the twenty crowns I gave them. After conversing for some time, they admitted that they are usually exploited during elections here, as it is impossible for them to refuse an offer of CZK 500 for their vote.  full story

Czech legislation to curb housing benefit abuses by residential hotel landlords

Prague, 25.9.2014 17:56, (ROMEA) The disbursal of housing benefits to tenants of residential hotels is evidently about to be limited. According to an amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress drafted by the Government, the state would calculate such benefits provided directly to the operators of residential hotels based on the space being rented, not on the number of people living in a unit.  full story

Interview with REF grantee Filip Sivák: The world is not a story of good and evil

Prague, 25.9.2014 0:06, (ROMEA) This year Filip Sivák represented the Czech Republic in the Social Enterprise Summer School in the USA as part of a scholarship program funded by the American and Czech governments. This winter he will resume his Bachelor's studies at the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Czech Technical University in Prague.  full story

Alica Heráková: Local elections and the Romani political scene - who will succeed?

Brno, 24.9.2014 21:18, (ROMEA) A year ago we were voting for the Czech Parliament, this past May we voted for the European Parliament, and ahead of us, in this superelectoral year of 2014, we now have elections to municipal councils and the Senate. In addition to victories by the left and the success of Andrej Babiš, the current results point to one more fact: The Romani political scene is forming and rearranging itself, but it has not yet succeeded in earning success.  full story

Czech Republic: NGOs say vote-buying will repeat this year in excluded localities

Prague, 24.9.2014 19:48, (ROMEA) The NGOs Foundation against Corruption (Nadační fond proti korupci - NFPK), Our Politicians (Naši politici - NP), Oživení (Renewal) and Transparency International are monitoring the manipulation of the upcoming local and Senate elections. "We have clear indications that both vote-buying and the intentional relocation of voters will be taking place in the upcoming elections," representatives of these organizations said today.  full story

Europol rescues 30 Romani children from traffickers in continent-wide raid

The Hague, 24.9.2014 19:19, (ROMEA) The European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, has intervened in 34 countries including the Czech Republic and arrested 1 027 people in the biggest raid against organized crime in its history. Under the leadership of Europol, the operation, called Archimedes, lasted nine days and focused primarily on drugs, fraud, human trafficking, tax evasion and theft.  full story

Czech NGO says most women ever running in local elections

Prague, 23.9.2014 22:13, (ROMEA) The representation of women in local politics is expected to slightly rise after the elections. The most women ever in the history of the Czech Republic - 32.23 % - are candidates.  full story

Czech Republic: EU citizens from abroad may vote in local elections

Prague, 23.9.2014 21:36, (ROMEA) Foreigners in the Czech Republic who are citizens of EU Member States may participate in the municipal elections this year even if they only have temporary residency and not statutory permanent residency, according to the State Election Commission (SEC). The recommendation was made in accordance with last Friday's verdict handed down by the Regional Court in Brno.  full story

Analysis: Trial of violent death of Romani man at hands of Czech Police involves witness suicide attempt

Kynšperk/Sokolov, 23.9.2014 19:29, (ROMEA) In mid-September the trial of police officers from the town of Kynšperk resumed at the District Court in Sokolov. The Plzeň Regional State Prosecutor charged them with negligently causing the 2012 death of Mr Ľudovít Kašpar, a Romani man also from Kynšperk.  full story

Czech Trade Inspection Authority finds 19 cases of discrimination, five against Roma

Prague, 23.9.2014 17:41, (ROMEA) The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA) has announced that it discovered 19 cases of consumer discrimination during its monitoring in the first half of this year. In addition to discrimination against Romani people, inspectors also found problems with behavior toward Russians.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani candidates establish movement for local elections

Trmice, 23.9.2014 17:05, (ROMEA) A group of local Romani residents of Trmice (Ústí Region) has decided to change the place where they were born, live and work. They have put together a list of independent candidates for this year's municipal elections, the Together for Trmice (Independent Vote) movement (Společně pro Trmice (Nezávislá volba), which is running under number 10.  full story

videoCzech Republic: Romani footballers play embassy employees

Děčín, 21.9.2014 21:39, (ROMEA) The friendly football match between the local TJ Junior Roma football club and representatives of eight embassies drew as many as 200 spectators to Děčín today. The match was held in response to the fact that several teams from the Děčín area refused to play the Romani team, comprised predominantly of Romani people in the district-level third class.  full story

Sweden: Neo-Nazis double their gains compared to last election

Stockholm, 21.9.2014 19:59, (ROMEA) Parliamentary elections were held in Sweden recently and their outcome is evidently the end to the eight-year-long government by the center-right coalition led by Prime Mnister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Almost one-third of the votes were won by the opposition Swedish Social Democratic Party.  full story

Ukrainian soldiers wearing helmets with Nazi symbols

Ukraine, 20.9.2014 17:36, (ROMEA) The German television station ZDF has broadcast footage showing members of the Ukrainian Army with Nazi symbols on their helmets such as a swastika and the symbol of Hitler's special SS units. News server Echo24.cz cited NBC News as reporting that ZDF broadcast the footage as part of its reporting on the situation in Ukraine earlier this month.  full story

ERGO distances itself from wall demolition in Slovakia

Brussels, 19.9.2014 23:07, (ROMEA) Yesterday the European Roma Grassroots Organization Network issued a press release regarding the partial demolition of a segregating wall in Slovakia in which the Brussels-based group distanced itself from the incident. On the night of 9 to 10 September, the wall in the town of Košice was partially demolished by a small group of activists at the same time that an event was being held in the community as part of ERGO's “Wall Free Europe” campaign, which was launched in April and is centered around the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November.  full story

Czech town's EU-funded project won't run in Romani neighborhood

Most, 19.9.2014 20:20, (ROMEA) News server Deník.cz reports that the Most town hall has joined a local antigypsyist campaign underway there with a move that has rendered recent construction work unnecessary and increased tensions in a neighborhood where authorities had pledged to improve interpersonal relationships and living conditions. An EU-funded project to eliminate social exclusion is now supporting it, at least in this one case.  full story

Czech local elections see attempts to buy votes

Bílina/Český Těšín, 19.9.2014 19:35, (ROMEA) The Mf DNES daily in the Czech Republic reports that some politicians are doing their best to buy votes in the upcoming municipal elections. The paper's first report today was about the town of Český Těšín.  full story

Czech Greens: School Act amendment supports segregation, returns us to the past

Prague, 19.9.2014 18:51, (ROMEA) Czech legislators are scheduled to discuss the Government's amendment to the Schoot Act, the aim of which is to make it possible to enroll pupils who would be capable of completing mainstream primary school without assistance and pupils from different cultural or social environments into the "practical schools". The Green Party (Strana zelených - SZ) calls the amendment's approach an unacceptable return to the past.  full story

Czech court acquits German neo-Nazi over 2011 speech

Brno, 19.9.2014 18:14, (ROMEA) Yesterday the Municipal Court in Brno acquitted German neo-Nazi Robin Siener of defamation, which the state prosecutor charged him with committing in 2011 at a 1 May demonstration by the Workers' Youth in Brno. At the right-wing extremist meeting, Siener spoke about "multicultural terrorism" and a cheap workforce flooding Europe, among other matters.  full story