News

Slovakia wants obligatory work for Roma on welfare

Slovakia, 1.12.2013 19:08, (ROMEA) Last Tuesday the ruling Směr (Direction) party in Slovakia was joined by opposition MPs to override a presidential veto of an amendment requiring work in exchange for aid to those in material distress. Unemployed persons will have to work at least 32 hours a month in order to receive the state benefit of EUR 61.60.  full story

Amnesty International Czech Republic strongly objects to senators' remarks about Roma

Prague, 1.12.2013 18:10, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz previously reported, a recent session of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on recommendations from the Council of the EU about Romani integration measures included remarks by some senators which revealed their antigypsyism, crassness, ignorance of the issue, and sense of superiority combined with a need to ridicule others. News server Romea.cz reached out to several figures from the NGO sphere and politics and asked them their opinion of the Senate's performance.  full story

Slovak Police charge man with electoral fraud, Romani voters were bribed

Slovakia, 30.11.2013 18:38, (ROMEA) For the first time ever, the Slovak Police have brought charges in a case of electoral fraud. Detectives believe the Slovak man charged allegedly promised voters a discount coupon worth EUR 5 and tobacco if they would vote for certain candidates in the elections to the Banská Bystrice Regional Council.  full story

Analysis: Czech media uninterested in civil society critique of senators' antigypsyism

Prague, 29.11.2013 22:26, (ROMEA) The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic is part of our democratic system and should therefore honor the Constitution of the Czech Republic, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms that is a part of that constitutional order. Senators who speak during sessions of the upper chamber are representing the Czech Republic as a democratic state governed by the rule of law to the nation and the rest of the world.  full story

Slovak PM: Growth in extremism can be confronted by better solving "the Romani question"

Prague, 29.11.2013 21:03, (ROMEA) Speaking in Prague yesterday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said government can confront the growth in extremism by "managing to solve the so-called Romani question." He was responding to a question about what would stop the growing popularity in the Central European region of people like Slovak right-wing extremist Marian Kotleba.  full story

Czech figures say Senate session on Roma integration full of collective blame, hatred, ignorance and racism

Prague, 29.11.2013 18:51, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz reported earlier this week, the recent session of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on EU recommendations for Romani integration measures included statements by some senators that were a testament to their antigypsyism, their crassness, their ignorance of the issue, and their sense of superiority combined with a need to ridicule others. News server Romea.cz has reached out to several leading figures from the NGO sphere and politics and asked them for their opinions of the Senate's performance.  full story

Slovakia: Ultra-right also won Romani votes, intimidation alleged

Slovakia, 28.11.2013 21:30, (ROMEA) Members of the Romani Union Party in Slovakia (Strana romské unie na Slovensku - SRÚS) are calling on newly-elected governor of the Banská Bystrice region Marián Kotleba to meet with them before Christmas and show them his plans for their community. The party wants to offer its own proposals for improving the situation of Romani people to him.  full story

Czech Senate debate on Roma integration reveals antigypsyism, crassness, ignorance

Prague, 28.11.2013 2:11, (ROMEA) The recent Czech senate debate of recommendations from the Council of the EU for effective measures in the area of Romani integration in the EU Member States can only be characterized as dense. In addition to several truthful statements, the discourse included many zingers from infamous politicians such as Jaroslav Doubrava, Miroslav Krejči, Jaroslav Kubera and Pavel Lebeda.  full story

Czech Republic: Activists want incoming governing coalition to enact Human Rights Ministry

Prague, 27.11.2013 0:05, (ROMEA) A total of 40 nonprofit organizations and several eminent figures in the Czech Republic have issued an open letter calling on the heads of the ANO, Christian Democratic and Social Democratic parties to consider establishing a Ministry for Human Rights, Minorities and Equal Opportunities should they form a government. Proponents of the move believe it would mean such issues would receive greater weight and would not only help solve country's problems with ghettos, but would even benefit the economy as a whole.  full story

Slovakia: Roma Initiative chair says low Roma turnout part of Kotleba's win

Bratislava, Slovakia, 26.11.2013 23:27, (ROMEA) The TASR press agency reports that Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Community Affairs Peter Pollák believes the election of ultra-right politician Marián Kotleba (People's Party "Our Slovakia") to chair the Autonomous Region of Banská Bystrice (Banskobystrický samosprávny kraj - BBSK) is because that the Romani issue has gone unaddressed in Slovakia for the past 22 years. Václav Kappel, chair of the Romani Initiative of Slovakia, has criticized Romani voters for not turning out to vote against Kotleba.  full story

Czech Republic: Roma in Brno take to the streets to talk work

Brno, 25.11.2013 21:28, (ROMEA) On 21 November, Romani residents were speaking face to face with people on the streets of Brno to tell them about the work they do. By wearing orange safety vests reading "We are working" and telling their personal stories to passers-by, those involved in the outreach are attempting to break down prejudices against Romani people.  full story

Czech prosecutors disagree on whether assault in Duchcov was racially motivated

Duchcov, 25.11.2013 17:24, (ROMEA) Six months after Romani people assaulted a non-Romani married couple in the Czech town of Duchcov, sparking anti-Romani demonstrations there, it remains unclear whether the alleged assailants will be charged with racial motivation. Experts disagree on whether the incident should be considered one of racially motivated violence.  full story

Jolana Šmarhovyčová: Six years after D.H. v Czech Republic, all that has changed are the school names

Ostrava/Prague, 25.11.2013 17:13, (ROMEA) This month marks six years since the groundbreaking judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of D.H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic. That judgment confirmed that the Czech Republic discriminates against Romani children by disproportionately sending them to what were once called the "special schools" and today are called "practical schools."  full story

Czech Republic: Romani gunshot victim gets two years for rioting

Tanvald, 25.11.2013 16:59, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that a Czech court has sentenced Patrik Tatár, a Romani man who was shot in the abdomen on New Year's Day 2012 by 63-year-old Jan Sieber, to two years in prison. The state prosecutor found earlier that Sieber had acted in self-defense.  full story

Czech-Roma NGO: "Practical school" not beneficial to Romani children's futures

Prague, 25.11.2013 16:36, (ROMEA) Staffers of the Slovo 21 civic association in the Czech Republic will be attempting to discuss with Romani parents the idea that their children should be enrolled into mainstream primary schools, not "practical" ones. The NGO's latest project, called "Mom, Dad, I want to go to school", endeavors to communicate the message that "practical schools" will not benefit their children's futures.  full story

Analysis of Czech Police strategy for anti-Roma hate marches during 2013

Prague, 25.11.2013 16:03, (ROMEA) When at the end of May the traveling circus of this year's series of hate marches first broke out in the northern Bohemian town of Duchcov, the Czech Police behaved as of "ordinary citizens" had never before joined such neo-Nazi actions before. For experts on this issue who witnessed the unrest in the Šluknov area in 2011, the memories are fresh.  full story

Czech Social Democratic shadow minister: D.H. judgment key to desegregating schools

Prague, 25.11.2013 15:42, (ROMEA) This month marks six years since the groundbreaking judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of D.H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic. That judgment confirmed that the Czech Republic discriminates against Romani children by disproportionately sending them to what were once called the "special schools" and today are called "practical schools."  full story

Slovaks vote in Fascist as governor of Banská Bystrica Region

Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, 24.11.2013 15:04, (ROMEA) Voters in Slovakia have surprised pundits by electing right-wing extremist Marian Kotleba governor of the Banská Bystrica Region, a man who has organized anti-Romani marches and other ultra-right events. Kotleba won 55.5 % of the second round of voting, defeating incumbent Vladimír Maňka (Smer) by more than 14 000 votes.  full story

Czech Police apprehend perpetrators of hate crime in Bystřice pod Hostýnem

Bystřice pod Hostýnem, 20.11.2013 17:23, (ROMEA) Police have apprehended and charged two violent offenders who brutally assaulted fellow customers in a bar in the town of Bystřice pod Hostýnem this summer. News server Romea.cz has previously reported on the case in great detail (see http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-republic-brutal-assault-began-with-words-why-are-you-talking-to-a-gypsy).  full story

Czech Republic: Pig farm on Holocaust site allegorized in parade

Prague, 20.11.2013 0:49, (ROMEA) On 17 November, the Czech state holiday celebrating democracy and freedom, the Slave of Race (Otrokem Rasy) initiative participated in an event in Prague called the Velvet Fair (Sametové posvícení). Our particular topic was the Romani Holocaust at Lety by Písek and our contribution was appropriately called "SOMETHING STINKS HERE".  full story