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Czech Republic: Arsonists get parole, victims awarded damages

Prague, 30.4.2013 19:04, (ROMEA) Today’s preliminary hearing with the defendants in the 2011 Býchory arson case had a surprise ending: The High Court has overturned the decision of the Regional Court and has placed the four defendants on parole. The court has also awarded compensation for moral damages to the victims.  full story

European Commission Internship for Young Roma University Graduates

Budapest, 30.4.2013 11:30, (ROMEA) The Roma Initiatives Office is offering five, five-month internships with the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, for young Roma university graduates from selected European countries.  full story

Valeriu Nicolae: Roma Social Inclusion Measures the European Commission Can and Should Take

Bucharest, 30.4.2013 10:15, (ROMEA) I have been accused in the past of always complaining about what the Commission does and never offering “constructive” solutions myself. Factually this is false.I am a strong pro-European. I also reject sugar-coating and I think critical thinking is what can get us out of the mess we are in at this moment.  full story

USA tells Slovakia to clean up its courts, prevent attacks against Romani people

Bratislava, Slovakia, 30.4.2013 0:34, (ROMEA) News server Aktuality.sk reports that the US State Department’s human rights report for 2012 has described the Slovak Republic as a country where judges abuse their power, the judicial system is imbalanced, and discrimination and violent attacks against Romani people are ongoing. According to the report, discrimination against ethnic minorities, the Roma in particular, is common.  full story

Slovak apartheid ends at one school

Prague, 29.4.2013 20:27, (ROMEA) The Slovak daily Sme reports that until recently, a school in the town of Šarišské Michaľany was educating dark-skinned children on its first floor and white-skinned children on the ground floor. The playground was divided into separate sections as well, while the cafeteria offered cooked food for the whites and “dry food” for the others.  full story

videoPro boxer Tyson Fury is proud of his origins

New York City, USA, 29.4.2013 5:26, (ROMEA) Last weekend Tyson Fury achieved an enormous triumph when he became the first professional boxer ever to knock out American boxer Steve Cunningham. "I am proud of what I am, and that's a Traveller,” the heavyweight Fury told The Independent. Last weekend in the USA was his 21st victory in a professional ring.  full story

Analysis: Czech political parties cleanse municipal district of “Romani garbage”

Ostrava/Prague, 28.4.2013 4:06, (ROMEA) The municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz, which is governed by the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) together with the Ostravak (“Natives of Ostrava”) movement, is gradually “purging” this central section of Ostrava of “Romani garbage”. At least, that is how developer and municipal department councilor Lukáš Semerák (Ostravak movement) expressed himself last year when explaining his desire to purchase buildings on Přednádraží Street and his purchase of an apartment building on Palackého Street just a few steps away.  full story

Commentary: Czech Senator Okamura’s view of people in need

Prague, 28.4.2013 1:35, (ROMEA) After November 1989, people in this country had high expectations. For example, they expected that the practices of a police state would come to an end. Unfortunately, those expectations haven’t been met, which is why I am constantly raising that issue.  full story

Czech municipality continues to push impoverished residents out

Ostrava/Prague, 28.4.2013 0:36, (ROMEA) The centrally located municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz in the town of Ostrava is facing even more criticism for its approach toward its socially vulnerable residents. During a recent inspection, the Building Works Authority there has discovered that buildings being used as residential hotels were never permitted for that kind of use. The structures concerned are meant to be used as apartment buildings (where whole apartments, not individual rooms, are meant to be leased) or as office buildings.  full story

Czech court to screen CCTV footage in trial of “machete attack”

Liberec, 27.4.2013 2:44, (ROMEA) CCTV footage was scheduled to be screened today at the Regional Court in Liberec, where the closed trial of a group of five men charged with committing the so-called “machete attack” is taking place. The 2011 attack in the town of Nový Bor injured three people. If convicted of attempted murder, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison or extraordinary sentencing.  full story

Czech court says landlord was not obligated to evacuate Přednádraží properties

Ostrava, 26.4.2013 19:31, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz reports that the Regional Court in Ostrava has ruled that the Building Works Authority of a central Ostrava district was not justified in instructing the owner of the buildings in the ghetto on Přednádraží Street, Oldřich Roztočil, to evacuate them. Roztočil does not have to pay a CZK 30 000 fine levied by the authorities for not evacuating the properties. He is now drawing up new leases for his displaced tenants, who are Romani.  full story

OECD warns Czech Republic of rise in number of socially excluded schools

Prague, 25.4.2013 18:50, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Czech education system is more selective than has previously been suspected. Non-Romani parents are not enrolling their offspring into schools with high numbers of Romani children and are choosing to send them to schools for the wealthy. The OECD is warning the Czech Republic of a rise in the number of “socially excluded” schools.  full story

Czech Republic: North Bohemian members leave DSSS

Ústí nad Labem, 24.4.2013 21:24, (ROMEA) The Ústecký daily in the Czech Republic reports that the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) has fractured. Petr Kotáb, the party leader in the Ústí region has left the DSSS ranks. Most of the DSSS members in North Bohemia have reportedly left as well.  full story

videoCardinal Duka to attend commemoration of Romani victims of Nazism in Lety by Písek

Lety u Písku, 24.4.2013 19:11, (ROMEA) The Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu v ČR – VPORH v ČR) will hold its traditional Commemoration Ceremony for the Romani victims of Nazism on Monday 13 May 2013 at 12:00 PM at the site of the burial ground of the victims of the former concentration camp for Romani people at Lety by Písek. Cardinal Dominik Duka will participate this year.  full story

videoVideo recording of discussion on social residential hotels in Czech Republic

Prague, 24.4.2013 18:44, (ROMEA) On Monday 15 April 2013 a discussion was held about so-called “social residential hotels” in the Czech Republic. The event in the conference space of HUB PRAHA, called “Garbage dumps for those we don’t want”, discussed whether the state should support such facilities or close them.  full story

German President Joachim Gauck: Never economise on human rights

Strasbourg, 24.4.2013 13:00, (ROMEA) The Council of Europe is "needed more than ever before", the German President said, in his address to the Parliamentary Assembly. In spite of pressure to make savings in a time of austerity across Europe, "we should never seek to economise on human rights.”  full story

Commentary: Should the state obstruct or support social residential hotels?

Prague, 23.4.2013 18:58, (ROMEA) At a debate in the Czech Republic last week attended by activists, experts, representatives of the public administration and nonprofit organizations, Deputy Regional Development Minister Miroslav Kalous (Civic Democrats - ODS) presented the ministry’s current plans in the area of social housing. Kalous said the ministry's aim is to meet the demand of people who need to live in residential hotels and “to help children and their mothers not end up on the street.”  full story

Brussels: Romani women critique Czech town’s social inclusion program

Brussels, Belgium, 23.4.2013 17:54, (ROMEA) Jakub Dürr, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union, received a visit in Brussels on 9 April 2013 from Romani women activists and NGO representatives from the Czech Republic. The meeting was attended by Romani activists Elena Gorolová, Iveta Horváthová, Ivanka Mariposa Čonková and Gabriela Hrabaňová. Among other matters, the women criticized the Social Inclusion Program of the municipality of Ostrava, which is slated for EU financial support.  full story

Commentary: My attempted interview with Czech Senator Okamura

Prague, 21.4.2013 17:27, (ROMEA) Recently I read an article by Senator Okamura on his blog about social policy and welfare. While I did not like some of his opinions, I honor and respect freedom of speech.  full story

Czech Republic: Anti-Romani march on Hitler’s birthday is a fiasco

Ústí nad Labem, 21.4.2013 15:30, (ROMEA) Yesterday’s attempted march against Romani people in the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem can be described as an enormous fiasco. The demonstration, convened by Josef Bareš on the 124th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth, was attended by one person. However, it has cost the state and the taxpayers no small amount of money, as about 70 police officers were deployed to the radical event.  full story