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Czech Republic: Ostrava starts social housing program

Ostrava, 12.2.2013 22:26, (ROMEA) Czech Television reports that the first families enrolled in a social housing program in the town of Ostrava have received keys to their new apartments from the town. As long as they follow the rules and send their children to school, the town will assist them.  full story

Czech activist: Nothing about Roma without them

Ústí nad Labem, 12.2.2013 17:38, (ROMEA) The Ústí edition of the deník.cz news server has published an interview with Miroslav Brož of the Konexe civic association in the Czech Republic in which he discusses residential hotels, Romani people, and the mistakes of the social welfare system (in Czech at http://ustecky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/broz-projekty-pro-romy-selhavaji-20130208.html). News server Romea.cz publishes the interview in full translation below.  full story

Commentary: Czech residential hotels now worse than refugee camps used to be

Prague/Ostrava, 12.2.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) It's Wednesday, 6 February 2013 and we're in Prague at a large roundtable - police officers, psychotherapists, social workers, child welfare department staffers, employees of civic associations in the helping professions. All together we are doing our best to resolve the complex medical, relational and social problem of a single family that resulted in domestic violence recently.  full story

videoRomani rappers: Avoid Czech practical primary schools

Praha, 12.2.2013 0:08, (ROMEA) "Send him to a grade school/so he can be somebody/he may be a Gypsy/but he's not dilino" ("Pošlete ho do základky, aby z něj něco bylo – i když je Cigán, tak není dilino") budding Romani hip-hop artists from Prague's Žižkov neighborhood rap in their new music video "Nebuď dilino!" (“Don't be stupid!"). The four young Romani men have broken through with their group United GipsyCrew online and a single in which they proudly declare their Romani origin.  full story

Klaus family's secret police past fuels graffiti in Prague

Prague, 11.2.2013 17:42, (ROMEA) TV Nova reports that the building of the PORG academic high school in Prague, run by Václav Klaus, Jr, the son of the outgoing Czech President, has been spray-painted with red stars, a swastika, and the initials Š. M. According to the TV Nova report, the vandal was evidently responding to an article published in the Saturday edition of the Czech daily Lidové noviny reporting that Štefan Miština, the father-in-law of President Klaus, was a high official in the secret political police of the Slovak state during WWII and personally participated in the persecution of Jewish people.  full story

In memory of Livia B. Plaks – Roma advocate and a voice for the voiceless

Washington, 11.2.2013 15:19, (ROMEA) Livia Plaks, a woman whose contribution to the Roma cause cannot be overestimated, died suddenly of a heart attack on February 2 at her home in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. She was 65 years old. In her, we have all lost a passionate advocate for equality, minority rights, and Roma.  full story

Fashion designer helps Romani Mentor project in Czech Republic

Prague, 9.2.2013 20:32, (ROMEA) The Prádelna community center on Holečkova street in Prague 5 is hosting a Romani mentor for the second year in a row. The integration project of the same name (Romský mentor) is once again featuring successful fashion designer Pavel Berky.  full story

Commentary: Slovakia's TV Markíza misinforms viewers about "activation jobs"

Detva, Slovensko, 9.2.2013 19:22, (ROMEA) In the Czech Republic they've elected a president. Lawsuits are being planned against the Slovak President. In Syria the murder continues. In Somalia 29 000 children have died of hunger, while another 300 000 are expected to die there soon. The world is spinning in a crazy dance and the economic crisis is conducting the music, but Slovakia lives for its own domestic problems. No one here is much interested in the war in Syria or famine somewhere in Africa.  full story

Czech Republic: Social Darwinists humiliating the poor

Prague, 8.2.2013 19:25, (ROMEA) The situation with respect to housing and work for impoverished people in the Czech Republic is serious. Social housing practically does not exist here. There is often not enough work for middle-class people, to say nothing of the socially vulnerable, be they Romani or "white".  full story

Slovakia: Romani tenants refusing eviction in Trebišov

Trebišov, Slovakia, 8.2.2013 17:38, (ROMEA) News server Topky.sk reports that in Slovakia, Romani tenants are facing similar problems with eviction as those going on in the Czech Republic, specifically in Ostrava and Ústí nad Labem. The town of Trebišov is planning to evacuate the occupants of an apartment building in the town center on Zimní street. The building is slated for demolition, but its Romani inhabitants are refusing to move.  full story

Czech Republic: Real estate fraud behind housing scandal

Ústí nad Labem, 8.2.2013 9:58, (ROMEA) The room was lit by fire from a hole in the chimney. There was no running water in the whole building, they had disconnected the electricity, and someone had removed the steel girders, which most probably ended up at the scrapyard. The dejected woman on the bed didn't know whether the building might collapse on her and she might end up in the rubble like her niece.  full story

Czech "housing shortage" could cause more unrest

Prague, 8.2.2013 2:06, (ROMEA) News server Peníze.cz ("Money.cz") has just published an article on the issue of Romani social exclusion. News server Romea.cz provides a partial translation into English below. The original article can be found at http://www.penize.cz/prispevek-na-bydleni/249442-na-hrane-bytove-nouze-kolik-sluknovu-se-vejde-do-jednoho-ceska  full story

Commentary: The difficult path to integrating Czech Roma

8.2.2013 1:11, (ROMEA) The dismal housing situation, long-term unemployment, a high percentage of Romani children educated in the "practical primary schools" (special schools), and numerous incidents of anti-Romani sentiment, including demonstrations, in many towns throughout the Czech Republic: All of this shows that the process of integrating Romani people into society is markedly failing in practice. The living conditions and social situations of many Romani families continue to significantly intensify.  full story

Czech Television reports case of successful Romani integration in France

Aubervilliers, France, 8.2.2013 0:54, (ROMEA) Czech television reported last month that the municipality of Aubervilliers in France has "found the formula" for integrating Romani people there. For five years the administrative bodies of the Paris suburb have been trying to correct various problems linked to the municipality's rising population of Romani immigrants from Romania.  full story

The ERRC submits its reports to the UN

Budapest, Hungary, 7.2.2013 11:26, (ROMEA) The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is monitoring the implementation of the homonymous convention. Their task is to investigate the racial inequality and non-discrimination. In this framework, the ERRC (European Roma Rights Centre) has handed in its parallel report concerning Slovakia. The Committee is holding the session in which this report should be considered at the 82nd Session that will takes place from the 11th February to the 1st March 2013.
 full story

Analysis: High emotions no help in housing drama

Ústí nad Labem, 6.2.2013 19:03, (ROMEA) The recently resolved case of the residential hotel occupants in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem is a clear example of something we are all aware of: The dismissive approach taken toward Romani people in this country is often based on the social positions of those involved and the sense of superiority felt by those who are better off. During this recent scandal, the situation of people who are some of the very poorest in this country was spun by the Romani owner of the building in the Předlice quarter which they had to evacuate, by the town government (in the hands of the Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD), by the Romani operator of the residential hotel, and by the firm owning the building in which it was located. Unfortunately, some NGOs also spun their story as well.  full story

Survey shows Poles like Czechs most, Romani people least

Warsaw, 5.2.2013 17:25, (ROMEA) The results of a public opinion poll released yesterday in Poland show that the Czech nation is so well-liked that it was the only group to receive more than a 50 % approval rating. The Czechs came in first at 51 % and, according to the Polish Press Agency, have done so for the third time in a row.  full story

Housing for All: We charge the system with failure and incompetence

Ústí nad Labem, 4.2.2013 23:46, (ROMEA) An improvised press conference of the Housing for All initiative (Bydlení pro všechny) took place this afternoon in front of the residential hotel in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem. News server Romea.cz is publishing in full translation below a declaration that was read at that event.  full story

Czech town official alleges housing rights activists "just wanted publicity"

Ústí nad Labem, 4.2.2013 22:33, (ROMEA) Activists from the Housing for All (Bydlení pro všechny) initiative celebrated today as the last remaining tenants of a residential hotel in Ústí nad Labem prepared to move to better housing. The move ends a drama that has been unfolding since the fall, one that has the potential to repeat itself on a much larger scale in the future.  full story

Czech practical primary schools to be transformed, not closed

Prague, 4.2.2013 17:33, (ROMEA) Deputy Education Minister Jiří Nantl says "practical primary schools" in the Czech Republic will not be closed as many fear, but that it is necessary to transform them as per a European Court of Human Rights judgment so that pupils are not enrolled into such schools simply because they come from socially disadvantaged environments. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková told a public hearing in the Czech Senate today that the schools must be transformed.  full story