News

Czech President's rude wisecrack tars all Roma with the same brush

Prague, 20.6.2014 15:45, (ROMEA) Several Czech media outlets have reported that a Romani woman who asked Czech President Miloš Zeman when members of her community would get decent housing received the following wisecrack in response: "We need to clarify what is meant by the concept of decent housing. It means that I don't trash the apartment I am paying for. I don't tear up the floorboards to make a little fire, I don't remove the windows, I don't turn the hallways into a dump. The right to decent housing also means the obligation to reside somewhere decently. It's sincerely all the same to me whether someone is non-Romani or Romani. We must measure everyone according to the same standards. Someone either knows how to reside somewhere and get along with their neighbors or doesn't, and when they don't, they lose their entitlement.  full story

Photographs of the Roma minor whose lynching shocked France

Paris, 20.6.2014 0:02, (ROMEA) Yesterday the online edition of the British daily The Daily Telegraph published a photograph of the Roma youth who was brutally lynched in a Parisian suburb last week by a group of masked assailants. "These are the photographs that are shocking France," The Daily Telegraph reported.  full story

Czech survey shows more people believe discrimination is a big problem

Prague, 19.6.2014 22:54, (ROMEA) The number of people who consider discrimination in the Czech Republic to be a big problem has risen slightly once again. Currently 74 % of Czechs share that opinion compared to 70 % one year ago and only 47 % four years ago.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister races for equal opportunities between men and women

Prague, 19.6.2014 22:27, (ROMEA) Today, 19 June, the Czech Women's Lobby is holding its traditional "happening", called "Do we have the same chances?" The organization's "race for equality" in Prague will be attended by Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier.  full story

Czech lawmakers propose honors for the "Eight Brave Ones" from Red Square

Prague, 19.6.2014 21:32, (ROMEA) The Czech Chamber of Deputies will evidently be proposing that Czech President Miloš Zeman honor the deceased Russian dissident Natalya Gorbanyevskaya and the rest of the "Eight Brave Ones" who demonstrated in Moscow's Red Square against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by troops from the socialist bloc in August 1968. The Organizational Committee of the lower house recommended the lawmakers make the proposal yesterday.  full story

videoBBC: England team's first Romany footballer 'deserves recognition'

London, 19.6.2014 17:01, (ROMEA) In 1895 Rabbi Howell made history as the first Romany footballer to play for England, but 119 years on the pioneering player lies buried in an unmarked grave. Now as an appeal to raise funds for a headstone begins, what is the story behind Howell's ground-breaking career and have sporting attitudes to the Romany community changed?  full story

Violeta Naydenova: For Roma in France, Is Climate of Intolerance Fueling Violence?

Bucharest/Paris, 19.6.2014 0:45, (ROMEA) Somewhere in a hospital in Paris tonight, a Roma teenager lies in a coma fighting for his life. Accounts suggest that the boy, known to us only as Darius, was accused of burglary by residents of a poverty-stricken public housing development in Pierefitte-sur-Sienne; they subsequently abducted him, beat him into a coma in a basement, and dumped his body in a shopping trolley.  full story

Amnesty International: Forced evictions in France add to climate of fear amid alleged hate crimes

Paris, 18.6.2014 22:32, (ROMEA) The apparent lynching of a Roma teenager in a Paris suburb that left him in a coma is just one of several recent alleged hate crimes against minorities that demand thorough investigations and not just condemnation by the French authorities, Amnesty International warned.  full story

ERRC Urges French Authorities to Fully Investigate Lynching of Romani Minor

Budapest/Paris, 18.6.2014 22:23, (ROMEA) The European Roma Rights Centre expresses its deep concern regarding the brutal lynching of a 16-year-old Romani boy in France. The ERRC urges French authorities to investigate the attack, in particular any possible racial motivation, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.  full story

Czech Govt proposes granting Nicholas Winton the Order of the White Lion

Prague, 18.6.2014 20:36, (ROMEA) The Czech Government will propose to the President of the Republic that Nicholas Winton, the man who saved hundreds of Jewish children during WWII, be awarded the Order of the White Lion. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek (Christian Democrats -KDU-ČSL) informed journalists of the Government's decision yesterday.  full story

Commentary: Pope Francis is right - Roma are often modern-day slaves

Prague, 18.6.2014 19:45, (ROMEA) Recently several famous figures or those enjoying a certain authority have been standing up for Romani people and human rights in general. For example, Madeleine Albright has been following the lack of respect for Romani people in the Czech Republic and elsewhere and has expressed how disturbing she finds it.  full story

Khamoro World Roma Festival coming to Plzeň for the first time!

Plzeň, 18.6.2014 18:22, (ROMEA) This year the biggest Romani festival in the Czech Republic will bring sunshine not just to Prague, but to another city as well. For the first time ever, Khamoro will be hosted by the City of Plzeň from 26 – 28 June 2014.  full story

More and more Jewish people leaving Europe over security concerns

Prague, 18.6.2014 18:01, (ROMEA) Czech Radio reports that Delphine Ankaoua never thought she would feel like an uninvited guest in the luxury Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Recently, however, her neighbors asked her to remove her mezuzah, a small box containing a Hebrew text from Holy Writ, from her doorpost, so she decided it was time she and her family moved to Israel.  full story

Czech art installation lampoons gambling as part of debate

Bystřice pod Hostýnem, 18.6.2014 17:05, (ROMEA) On Friday 13 June yet another gambling establishment was opened in the Czech town of Bystřice pod Hostýnem. Prizes on offer included "debt collections", "time behind bars" and "family breakup".  full story

Commentary: Czech Roma Strategy should support the Romani intelligentsia more

Prague, 18.6.2014 0:37, (ROMEA) Despite all of the concepts and efforts expended to date, the situation of Romani people in the Czech Republic is deteriorating. According to estimates, 80 000 - 100 000 Romani people (an estimated one-third of all Roma living in the Czech Republic) are grappling with burdensome problems of social exclusion.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani Expert Team warns co-financing requirements will keep NGOs from EU money

Prague, 17.6.2014 22:57, (ROMEA) A group of Romani experts is warning against the introduction of rules requiring organizers to raise part of the money needed to co-finance EU-funded projects themselves so the state will not have to provide it. The experts believe many organizations would never access EU financing and services for the needy would decline as a result.  full story

Norwegian populists want begging ban, opposition says the law targets Romani people

Oslo, 17.6.2014 22:10, (ROMEA) The Norwegian Government is planning to ban begging in public spaces. The proposal is part of an amendment to a law that Parliament began discussing yesterday.  full story

videoFrance: Young Roma man in coma after brutal lynching, President is outraged

Paris, 17.6.2014 21:47, (ROMEA) A Roma youth has been fighting for his life after being brutally lynched on Friday in a northern suburb of Paris. French President François Hollande has condemned the attack.  full story

Czech Museum of Romani Culture could lose 13 % of its budget

Brno/Prague, 17.6.2014 19:56, (ROMEA) Organizations funded by the Czech Culture Ministry, including some of the biggest national cultural institutions, will be required to reduce their expenditures next year by 10 %, according to the current proposed budget for 2015. These organizations, however, are already working with bare-bones budgets, and a 10 % reduction could mean significant restrictions to the work they are tasked with undertaking by law.  full story

video"I was born in your bed": Czech town presents Venice Biennale exhibition on Roma

Litomyšl, 16.6.2014 21:34, (ROMEA) An exhibition by multimedia artist Daniel Pešta, whose work was featured in the 2013 Venice Biennale, will now be exhibited comprehensively for the first time in the Czech Republic. The project, which is dominated by two large-format pieces of video art, is about the phenomenon of the Romani issue and individuals' attitudes toward it.  full story