World

England: Families of girls who died after hit-and-run give thanks for support, ask Romani community not to raise any more money

10.1.2017 8:26 The families of the Romani girls who were killed in England on New Year's Eve by an irresponsible hit-and-run driver have sent a video message through the Facebook profile of one of their relatives asking the public not to organize any more fundraising drives to support them. In the roughly three-minute message, the family members each express their gratitude to everybody who has already provided them with financial, moral and psychological support.  full story

Civil March for Aleppo crosses into the Czech Republic

9.1.2017 17:24 Hundreds of people left Berlin, Germany at the end of 2016 on a 4 000 kilometer long march to Aleppo, Syria. Those participating will continue through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey to Syria.  full story

Model is shocked by Czech racists' response to him, incident now an international embarrassment

9.1.2017 7:26 The scandal of racist commentaries being posted to Facebook in response to the international Lidl retail chain's use of a black model in an advertising flier in the Czech Republic has drawn media attention in many European countries including Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. The news has reached the model himself, who lives in Hamburg, Germany.  full story

NGO representatives from 20 countries attend ODIHR/OSCE round table on monitoring demonstrations and keeping them nonviolent

6.1.2017 8:06 Last month the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held a three-day round table on the topic of monitoring public assemblies and demonstrations during which representatives of nonprofits from 20 countries, including a representative of the ROMEA organization in the Czech Republic, presented their experiences with monitoring demonstrations and working with local authorities and police during public assemblies. Roughly 35 representatives from 20 countries worldwide attended.  full story

Czech Republic: Two-day European conference on Romani education to take place in Prague

5.1.2017 11:51 On 17 and 18 January an international exchange conference called "It Is Not Too Late" (Ještě není příliš pozdě) will take place at Prague City Hall (Mariánské náměstí 2). The program will feature primarily examples of good practice in the area of educating members of the Romani minority.  full story

Poland: Solidarity march with Muslims planned in Elk after xenophobic unrest continues

5.1.2017 8:05 In the Polish town of Elk, anti-foreigner unrest has been continuing after the death on New Year's Eve of a young Polish man during a scuffle with the employees of a kebab restaurant there. Police have already arrested at least 24 local residents and charged most of them with disturbing the peace.  full story

Renáta Kováčová: Tragic death in UK of two Romani girls from Czech Republic sparks horrible online commentary

4.1.2017 7:30 Most of us have probably heard about the tragedy that happened on New Year's Eve in Great Britain when a driver ran into two young girls from the Czech Republic and then left the scene without providing them first aid. One girl died on the spot and the other also succumbed to her injuries later.  full story

Germany: Researchers find there were more victims of the Holocaust than previously believed

3.1.2017 8:46 The number of victims of the Holocaust from the Jewish communities living on the territory of the German Reich is approximately 15 000 more than has heretofore been reported. According to the German news server Spiegel Online, researchers from Germany's Federal Archive announced the findings on the basis of a detailed study of the fates of individual Jewish people living in Nazi Germany.  full story

Poland: Attempted robbery results in death, racist unrest

3.1.2017 7:14 Polish Police have chargd a 26-year-old Tunisian man with murder after the stabbing death of a 21-year-old Polish man on New Year's Eve sparked racial unrest in the town of Elk in the northeast of the country. Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported yesterday that police arrested 28 people who were involved in the unrest on Sunday.  full story

Ukraine: Odessa is flooded with anti-Romani posters

2.1.2017 11:33 Squares and streets in the Ukrainian city of Odessa have recently been flooded with posters featuring portraits of Romani people splattered with blood and messages such as "Roma are bandits and murderers!" Other posters read "Don't forget Loshchynivka", a reference to a case in which a girl from that village was murdered in August, sparking pogroms against local Romani residents.  full story

videoSlovak President addresses anti-Romani sentiment in New Year's Day speech

2.1.2017 9:28 Not all Romani people are parasites and not all Muslims are potential terrorists, Slovak President Andrej Kiska pointed out in his New Year's address yesterday. Kiska highlighted that people are now willing to tolerate the hatred, nonsense and vulgarities spreading on the Internet and online social networks.  full story

videoVIDEO: We are the change! Young Roma want to get into politics

2.1.2017 6:35 One way to overcome discrimination against Roma and ensure their equal status in society, according to the organization ERIO (European Roma Information Office), os the involvement of Roma young people in politics. The organization has now released a video in which young Roma appear from five different European countries - Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Spain.  full story

French left and right unite on mass evictions of Roma: Hollande forces thousands more Roma onto the streets

27.12.2016 21:01 A report released earlier this month by the European Roma Rights Centre and the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme shows France stepped up the number of forced evictions of Roma this year after a relative reprieve in the second quarter. After a reduction in eviction numbers, France has seemingly made up for lost time and increased the number of forced evictions of Romani people; the full report on the forced evictions of Roma in France for the third quarter of 2016 is available in English and French.  full story

HOAX: Video from Prague spreads through Facebook alleging "Islamic refugees" were caught trying to rape a girl

20.12.2016 23:57 On 14 December the administrators of a Canadian website called "Never Again Canada" posted video footage to their Facebook profile that originally came from the Czech Republic and has been viewed 900 000 times, shared 14 000 times, and received 5 000 reactions as of 20 December. The footage shows an argument about methamphetamine followed by an assault on a young woman in Prague.  full story

Slovakia: Commander of brutal police raid against Romani people prosecuted

20.12.2016 19:36 The Slovak Interior Ministry's Inspectorate has accused the police officer who was directly in charge at the scene of a raid against Romani people in the Slovak town of Vrbnica in 2015 of criminal activity. Other prosecutions of the individual police officers accused of committing violence against the Romani residents during the raid have been halted.  full story

How you can aid the people trapped in Aleppo, Syria

18.12.2016 22:58 The horrifying photographs and video footage of what is currently happening in Aleppo are probably being seen right now by all of us. Many of us are asking ourselves: What can I do?  full story

USA: Tech firm staffers refuse to work for Trump

18.12.2016 20:23 On 14 December Reuters reported that approximately 100 employees of American technology firms have pledged not to aid President-elect Donald Trump create a database of people according to their religion or to deport people en masse. The signatories to the open letter are employed by Google, Twitter and other firms.  full story

Analysis: The German parliamentary elections and refugee policy

18.12.2016 17:23 Next year parliamentary and presidential elections will happen in the two most significant Member States of the European Union. While in France the choice of the conservative required two rounds of voting and about four million people ended up choosing the new candidate, the determination of the candidate for the German conservative dual party of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) was a lightning-fast process.
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New European civil society network hopes to accelerate the delivery of justice

18.12.2016 2:14 The European Implementation Network (EIN) began its work on 2 December at the headquarters of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The main aim of this new nonprofit organization is to support the implementation of judgments handed down by the court.  full story

Slovak PM targets Roma in his speeches, critics say he should focus on his own corruption scandals

18.12.2016 1:20 Slovak news server Denník N reports that at the most recent convention of the governing Smer party, Slovak PM Robert Fico and his colleagues chose not just a new governing board, but also a new priority - Romani people. Fico gave a harsh speech discussing Romani people as welfare abusers and said he would support the police in their interventions into Romani settlements.  full story