News

ERIO calls for an ethical journalism free of stereotypes and prejudices

Brussels, 23.10.2013 16:07, (ROMEA) The European Roma Information Office (ERIO) is deeply concerned with and condemns the recent media coverage of the case of a Greek girl found in a Roma camp in Greece. Media is reproducing negative stereotypes and myths of Roma reinforcing prejudices that can incite racism and discrimination against these communities.  full story

Center for Romani Studies: Most Czechs do not consider Roma a natural part of society

Rokycany, 23.10.2013 1:59, (ROMEA) The Center for Romani Studies (Středisko romských studií - SRS) has produced a report summarizing its current findings in the field of Romani issues. The aim of the report is to raise the topic of antigypsyism and its impacts on the security of Romani people in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Right-wing extremist threatens to kill Mayor of Ostrava

Ostrava, 23.10.2013 0:29, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that a man demanding the release of 15 aggressive demonstrators who participated in last Saturday's neo-Nazi demonstration in Ostrava has threatened to murder the Mayor of Ostrava and his family. It did not take long for police to take him into custody, where he remains.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: We can fight back if necessary, but what about our children? Go vote!

Prague, 23.10.2013 0:05, (ROMEA) Romale, I presume you are all noticing how a large proportion of the political candidates are speaking about us in the television debates, how so-called experts on Romani people are proposing solutions for our lives. Notice how almost all of those solutions call for forceful measures - we're going to increase the numbers of police officers in the streets, hire police assistants, introduce CCTV systems in troubled localities.  full story

Czech Republic: "Colorful Ostrava" to counter-demonstrate against neo-Nazis on state holiday

Ostrava, 22.10.2013 21:54, (ROMEA) On Monday 28 October 2013 there won't just be a neo-Nazi event in Ostrava, but also an assembly called "Colorful Ostrava" (Barevná Ostrava). The event will begin at 14:00 CET on Svatopluk Čech Square in the Přívoz quarter of Ostrava, which is a frequent target of neo-Nazi violence  full story

Horáčková (SRP), Romani candidate to Czech lower house: We must organize resistance to racism

Prague, 22.10.2013 21:02, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

ERRC Urges Restraint and Responsible Reporting in Child Removal Cases

Budapest, 22.10.2013 16:07, (ROMEA) The ERRC is concerned by increasing reports of children being removed from Roma families, following reports about a child taken from her home in a Romani settlement in Greece. Another child has since been removed from her home in Ireland, according to media reports.  full story

Czech Republic: Many neo-Nazis running for the DSSS again

Czech Republic, 22.10.2013 3:01, (ROMEA) The Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) has suffered in recent years from disputes with the rest of the ultra-right scene and numerous internal problems. Those problems have resulted in the entire North Bohemian cell leaving the party together with key figures Petr Kotáb and Lucie Šlégrová.  full story

Czech Bishops, Ecumenical Council and Jewish Federation warn of rising right-wing extremism

Prague, 22.10.2013 1:56, (ROMEA) Representatives of several churches and religious societies are warning of rising right-wing extremism in the Czech Republic. The religious representatives are asking the public not to support those who offer measures based on nationalism or racism as the solution to solving problems in coexistence between the majority society and Romani people.  full story

Kosovo: Romani family deported from France were assaulted today

France, 22.10.2013 1:14, (ROMEA) On 21 October French President François Hollande became the target of criticism from both the left and the right over his recent offer to allow a Romani girl deported under controversial circumstances to return to France alone, without the rest of her family. According to polls published that same day, Hollande's popularity has fallen to its lowest level since taking office.  full story

Greece: Attorney for Romani couple says they adopted girl with her mother's consent

Greece, 22.10.2013 0:32, (ROMEA) The BBC reports that in Greece the authorities have become involved in the case of a blonde girl living in a Romani camp not far from the small town of Farsala. DNA tests have confirmed that the girl is not biologically related to the family taking care of her.  full story

Czech Green Party candidate Czeslaw Walek: Romani topics have long been ignored

Prague, 21.10.2013 23:58, (ROMEA) The collaboration between the Green Party (Strana zelených - SZ) and the Equal Opportunities Party (Strana rovných příležitostí - SRP) is the most significant offer to be made to a "Romani" party in the Czech Republic since 1990. The Greens have long focused on the topic of inter-ethnic coexistence and related questions and have also protested manifestations of racism.  full story

Romani sculptor Ondřej Gadžor has passed away

Košice / Prešov, Slovakia , 21.10.2013 17:13, (ROMEA) Romani sculptor Ondřej Gadžor (9 July 1956 – 19 October 2013) passed away suddenly in his home in the Krásná nad Hornádom municipal department of Košice in Slovakia. The artist's family confirmed his death to the editors of Romano nevo ľil on 21 October.  full story

Commentary: In the Czech Republic, the Roma's image could get them killed

Prague, 21.10.2013 16:38, (ROMEA) This past spring the third - and so far the greatest - wave of anti-Romani protests has risen up in the Czech Republic. The first such wave, from 2007-2009, resulted in what was the most serious arson attack to date on a Romani family here in the town of Vítkov, and in the arrest of the perpetrators in August 2009. The second such wave, from 2011-2012, ended with a march by 2 000 people through the town of Břeclav, where locals and out-of-towners passionately protested an alleged attack by Romani people on a 15-year-old boy. One month later, it was proven that he had invented the entire story.  full story

Romani author Emil Cina has passed away

Prague, 20.10.2013 19:45, (ROMEA) On Sunday, 20 October 2013, Emil Cina, one of the most significant Romani authors and nation-builders, passed away at the age of 65.  full story

Czech Republic: Civil trial opens over compensation for brutalized Romani family

Plzeň, 19.10.2013 19:52, (ROMEA) On 16 October the civil trial began in Plzeň in the case of compensation for a brutal attack on a Romani family in Nýrsko in 2011. Last year a criminal court in Klatovy gave defendants Václav Boublík and Jiří Miškovič suspended sentences for their roles in the incident.  full story

Burianská (SRP), Romani candidate to the Czech lower house: Roma are running to speak out

Vítkov, 19.10.2013 19:00, (ROMEA) An unusually high number of Romani people are running in this year's early elections compared to years past. The monthly Romano voďi, published by the ROMEA association, has done its best to interview all the candidates running for the lower house and will run those interviews in addition to publishing analytical material about the elections.  full story

Czech Republic: Racists riot against Roma in Ostrava once more

Ostrava, 19.10.2013 18:32, (ROMEA) In the center of Ostrava more than 300 people gathered this afternoon for an anti-Romani demonstration. The demonstrators then marched on the Romani neighborhood of Přívoz.  full story

Commentary: DSSS "keeping order on the streets" in Duchcov

Duchcov, 19.10.2013 0:53, (ROMEA) Convicted criminals and Nazis are maintaining order on the streets of a town. That sentence sounds like it describes 1930s Germany, but it is neither the first nor the last parallel that can be drawn between today, the interwar era, and the course of daily life during both totalitarian periods in Central Europe.  full story

Former Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner says Interior Ministry wants rights agenda

Prague, 18.10.2013 22:07, (ROMEA) According to former Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková, efforts are underway in the outgoing Rusnok government to transfer the human rights agenda on minorities and other vulnerable groups from the Office of the Government to the Interior Ministry. Šimůnková views the cabinet's different perspective on human rights issues as one of the reasons she was dismissed from her post as head of the Human Rights Section, and that difference is the reason she has resigned as commissioner.  full story