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Analysis: Vlastimil Pechanec - neo-Nazi martyr or hard-core murderer?

Prague, 17.7.2014 18:37, (ROMEA) On 21 July 2014 it will be 13 years since Otto Absolon, a father of two young children, died at the hands of a local neo-Nazi, Vlastimil Pechanec, in the East Bohemian town of Svitavy. At the end of last month, Mr Absolon's murderer was conditionally released from prison.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister completing amendment to enhance ombud powers

Brno/Prague, 17.7.2014 17:17, (ROMEA) Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) will be submitting a draft amendment to enhance the powers of the ombud within the next few weeks. The change would grant the ombud authority to request the Constitutional Court to abolish dubious laws and the authority to file anti-discrimination suits.  full story

Czech adoption at decade low, Romani children often "exported"

Prague, 17.7.2014 16:43, (ROMEA) Authorities in the Czech Republic received the lowest number of requests for adoption last year during the past decade, a total of 626 (see table below). In recent years the number of requests has been gradually declining.  full story

International stipends for Romani college students: deadline 21/7

Czech Republic and other 15 countries, 17.7.2014 15:31, (ROMEA) Roma Education Fund’s Scholarship Program (REF SP) announces yearly scholarship cycle of the Roma International Scholar Program (RISP) for the 2014 - 2015 academic year. The Program is designed to provide partial support to Roma students who are citizens of one of the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, and Ukraine, for pursuing Bachelor, Master, Doctorate, or Postdoctoral education outside their home country or country of residence. The aim of the scholarship is to promote academic mobility of Roma students and support their academic integration internationally.  full story

videoRoma guys see a piano on the street - look what happened next!

Trnava, Slovakia, 16.7.2014 18:06, (ROMEA) A video from Slovakia is spreading like wildfire online featuring an upright piano on the street and three Romani guys. The footage was shot by Peter Bročka of Trnava, who posted the breathtaking clip to YouTube.com.  full story

videoA Flood Lays Bare Inequality in Bulgaria

Varna, 16.7.2014 12:02, (ROMEA) Asparuhovo district in Varna, Bulgaria, was the hardest hit area during the June 2014 floods. The tragedy is enormous; entire streets and houses have vanished. A total of 14 people were killed, including 4 children. I visited the area weeks after the disaster and the scenes remain apocalyptic.  full story

Kevin Basek, a volunteer from Lehigh University: Roma people face systematic exclusion

Praha, 16.7.2014 11:35, (ROMEA) During the first half of July, two students from Lehigh University in the USA, Kevin Basek and Alyssa Wedge, came to the offices of o.p.s. ROMEA having decided to spend their summer doing more than getting tan, taking trips and going to one party after another, as most of their peers probably will, and instead dedicating their time off from school to working for a nonprofit organization as volunteers. The opportunity for their international volunteering is made possible by the Inclusion o.p.s. organization, which focuses on supporting the inclusion and integration of minorities in the Czech Republic in collaboration with Christine Novak, a professor of clinical psychology, the UN Information Center in Prague, and the American Center Prague.  full story

Czech social housing responsibility may shift to municipalities

Prague, 15.7.2014 23:02, (ROMEA) Who should provide social housing? Should municipalities be obligated by law to provide social housing for their residents?  full story

European Shoah Legacy Institute to narrow focus, attract other states

Prague, 15.7.2014 21:33, (ROMEA) The European Shoah Legacy Institute, which is based in the Czech Republic, should become more narrowly focused and its financing and work should involve more countries than at present. Those are the proposals made by Jiří Čistecký, the Czech Government's Special Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, in a report reviewed by the cabinet on 9 July.  full story

videoCzech homeless people make video at Prague train station

Prague, 15.7.2014 18:56, (ROMEA) A total of 29 homeless people are featured in a new video clip that was filmed at Prague's Masaryk train station (Masarykové nádraží). In the emotional clip, the homeless men and women sing the Czech national anthem, "Kde domov můj?" (Where is My Home?).  full story

Czech state to provide co-financing for some EU-funded nonprofit projects

Prague, 15.7.2014 17:40, (ROMEA) Nonprofit organizations will not have to raise their own co-financing for certain EU-funded projects in years to come as the Czech Finance Ministry originally proposed. The Czech state will continue to provide the necessary co-financing to ensure the provision of education, inclusion and social services by nonprofits.  full story

Czech Police arrest man who painted Nazi graffiti

Most, 15.7.2014 16:14, (ROMEA) Police have charged a 24-year-old man from the town of Litvínov (Most district) with displaying sympathy for a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms and criminal property damage. The man has admitted to spray-painting Nazi symbols on a building in the outskirts of the town of Most.  full story

Russia: Romani scientists were also sisters

Russia, 15.7.2014 0:14, (ROMEA) This article is yet another in our series about eminent Romani figures, this time about two sisters who were scientists from Russia, or rather from the former Soviet Union. They are the biologist Lyubov Pankova and the chemist Natalya Pankova.  full story

Czech Radio: Romani priest values the trust people place in him

Jihlava, 14.7.2014 22:42, (ROMEA) A smartphone helps him with his sermons, he leads a rich social life, he goes to the gym, leads mountain hiking trips and designs his own vestments. He recently celebrated his 30th birthday and is the first Roman Catholic priest to come from a Romani environment in today's Czech Republic.  full story

Demons of the Czech internet: Complexes, hatred, and frustration

Prague, 14.7.2014 20:00, (ROMANO VOĎI) "I want to show how absurd it is for anyone to claim to be a 'decent Czech' while simultaneously making some of the claims that turn up in the online discussions beneath news articles," says Jan Jablunka. His recent online video series, "Decent Czech" (Slušný Čech), which draws attention to the "demons of Czech online discussions", has recently poked thoroughly at more than one hornet's nest here.  full story

videoCzech film festival awards film about Romani boxer

Karlovy Vary, 14.7.2014 17:23, (ROMEA) The International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary chose 15 projects out of 51 applicants to compete as part of its Works in Progress 2014 series for awards on 7 July. An international jury then selected the most promising film to receive a prize of EUR 10 000 worth of services from the festival's partner, Barrandov Studios.  full story

Water cut to Czech residential hotel, town must step in

Ústí nad Labem, 14.7.2014 16:00, (ROMEA) Dozens of people from the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem are without supplies of potable water. Iveta Kardianová, spokesperson for North Bohemian Water Supply and Sewerage (Severočeské vodovody a kanalizace - SČVK) says the building, a residential hotel, has been disconnected over hundreds of thousands of crowns in unpaid bills.  full story

Cyril Koky: Address Romani unemployment through responsible public procurement

Prague, 14.7.2014 6:48, (ROMEA) The high level of unemployment among the Romani population causes a stigmatizing factor that negative influences the majority society's position toward the Romani minority. The majority society sees the cause of unemployment more in Romani people themselves and in their "unwillingness" to work and will not admit the existence of systemic barriers in access to employment or of discrimination on the labor market.  full story

Commentary: "Are you baby-sitting all those children?"

Prague, 12.7.2014 23:42, (ROMANO VOĎI) My friend Petra causes a ruckus wherever she goes with her children. "Are you some kind of camp? Are you baby-sitting them for someone? Did you adopt them all?" total strangers unashamedly ask her on the street, in the shop, on the tram, even when she visits the emergency room.  full story

Czech ombud: Most problems concern social security

Prague, 12.7.2014 16:54, (ROMEA) Czech ombud Anna Šabatová has answered several quick questions for the magazine Romano vod'i:  full story