World

Catholics and Muslims condemn terrorists' murder of Catholic priest at a church in northern France

27.7.2016 18:29 The terrorist organization calling itself Islamic State (IS) has taken responsibility for yesterday's murder of a priest at a church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a town near Rouen in northern France. Through its Amaq press agency, IS announced that two of its "soldiers" committed the crime.  full story

Poland: Man who shouted "Kill him!" to attackers of Syrian immigrant sentenced to community service

27.7.2016 15:15 A court in Poznan, Poland has handed down a sentence of two years' community service to a 22-year-old Polish man who shouted "Kill him!" at two violent thugs who were beating up an immigrant from Syria in the center of that city. Newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Zygmunt W. was found co-responsible for the victim's injuries even though he did not physically attack him because he incited the assailants to do so.  full story

German Police: Aggressor in Munich attack inspired by right-wing extremist Breivik, not Islamism

23.7.2016 18:32 The attack during which a shooter killed nine people and then himself yesterday in Munich, Germany was apparently not politically motivated. Hubertus Andrä, the Munich Police Chief, said at a press conference today that 27 people were also injured during the attack, 10 of them seriously.  full story

An 18-year-old man with dual German-Iranian citizenship has shot nine people dead, injured 21 in Munich

23.7.2016 11:07 A shooter in Munich, Germany murdered nine people and injured 21 yesterday before losing his own life. Police say the perpetrator was an 18-year-old dual citizen of Germany and Iran who had been living in Munich for at least two years and had no prior criminal record.
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Poland: German television series sued for scenes depicting Polish anti-Semitism during WWII

20.7.2016 7:17 The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports that on 18 July the civil trial began at a court in Kraków of the producers of a German television series set during the Second World War and German television station ZDF. A Polish veterans' association and Zbigniew Radlowski, now 92 years old, who was a Polish resistance fighter during the war, have sued the producers of the television program over scenes depicting Polish anti-Semitism.  full story

Interview with Slovak journalist Rudolf Sivý: "Extremist" is not the four-letter word it once was

19.7.2016 16:03 Slovak journalist Rudolf Sivý, who covers human rights, nationalism and political extremism, is interviewed in the June edition of Romano voďi magazine, where he says the term "extremist" is no longer the epithet it used to be in Slovakia. In the interview, he discusses how a particular ultra-right party made it into the Slovak Parliament, how radicalization of society happens, and what role the media plays - a discussion that is very instructive for the Czech Republic as well ahead of next year's elections.  full story

Bulgarian man who abused Romani youth convicted of racially-motivated attack

19.7.2016 7:40 Last week the District Court in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, reviewed the case of a racist attack perpetrated by Angel Kaleev. In April of this year, Kalev assaulted a Romani youth, Mitko Jonkov, after Jonkov dared to assert that he and Kalev were equals.    full story

Alliance against Antigypsyism: Antigypsyism is a major obstacle to equal citizenship for Romani people

19.7.2016 6:31 On 5 July the Alliance against Antigypsyism published its "Reference Paper on Antigypsyism", which is a specific form of racism against Roma, Sinti, Travellers and other groups stigmatized as "gypsies" in the public arena. The paper, among other things, proposes a working definition of the concept.
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Czech commentator: The Nice attack is all about the PR of fear

17.7.2016 17:01 If you want to be seen, you must be in the media, and if you want to be in the media, then you must make yourself visible. What are all these terrorist attacks really about?  full story

European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (Berlin) seeks Executive Director

16.7.2016 12:59 The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), a joint initiative of the Alliance for the European Roma Institute, the Council of Europe, and the Open Society Foundations, has announced it is seeking its first Executive Director. ERIAC will be a foundation registered under German law and based in Berlin.  full story

UN internal human rights oversight body says it failed to hold Kosovo mission accountable for abuses such as housing Roma on contaminated land

16.7.2016 11:53 The online news server Prishtina Insight reports that an annual report published by the United Nations' own internal human rights mechanism, the Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) has harshly criticized UN failures with respect to human rights in Kosovo. The HRAP called its efforts to achieve some sort of formal judgment regarding human rights abuses committed by the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) a "total failure" and said it apologized "profusely to the complainants for its role in this sham.”  full story

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: It is extremely inappropriate to "catch Pokémon" in our building

13.7.2016 13:14 The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has called on fans of the smartphone game "Pokémon Go" to stop using their building for this new form of entertainment. The institution said it is "extremely inappropriate" for players to virtually "hunt" the virtual pokémon figures in virtual representations of a place dedicated to commemorating millions of Second World War murder victims.  full story

ROMEA releases new Czech-Norwegian documentary film about aid for victims of discrimination and hate violence

13.7.2016 8:11 A new Czech-Norwegian documentary film about the situation in those countries for victims of discrimination and hate violence has been produced by staffers of the ROMEA organization in the Czech Republic. It is now available for viewing on the YouTube channel of ROMEA TV.  full story

Slovakia: New campaign warns of the link between online hate and real-world extremism

11.7.2016 20:13 At the end of last week the Open Society Foundation (OSF) in Slovakia launched a new campaign against hate and the sharing of hateful content online under the slogan "Saying 'but' won't hide the hate". The campaign links hatred in the online world to real-world extremism in society.  full story

USA: Protests against police violence continue, resulting in hundreds of arrests

11.7.2016 19:05 In many places throughout the entre United States, more protests were held on Sunday against the incidents last week of African-American civilians being shot dead during controversial police interventions. Demonstrators assembled again in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and St. Paul, Minnesota, the cities where the controversial police shootings took place, according to CBS News.  full story

UK: Number of attacks on East European and Muslim immigrants grows by 42 % since the referendum

10.7.2016 23:25 The number of hate attacks against immigrants in Britain has increased 42 % since the June referendum in which British voters expressed their desire for their country to leave the European Union. The statistics were reported on 8 July by the British police.  full story

Germany: Merkel's popularity rising, anti-refugee populists losing favor

10.7.2016 18:48 German Chancellor Angela Merkel is enjoying her highest ratings since the beginning of the refugee crisis. A total of 59 % of Germans are assessing her work positively, the highest rating since last September.  full story

Germany: Number of refugees arriving has significantly fallen

10.7.2016 11:34 During the first six months of 2016 more than 220 000 migrants arrived in Germany. The figure was announced on 8 July by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.  full story

USA: African-American sniper kills five white police officers in Dallas after two African-American civilians killed by police elsewhere

9.7.2016 22:58 An armed African-American sniper identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan, killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas and injured six more during an otherwise peaceful demonstration on 7 July against police violence being committed against African-Americans. Police also arrested three other people in connection with the attack, one of them female.  full story

Germany: Romani refugees at risk of deportation occupy cathedral in Regensburg

9.7.2016 20:48 On Tuesday, 5 July, a group of more than 40 Romani refugees from states in the Balkans occupied the cathedral in the Bavarian city of Regensburg on the Danube. The local Catholic parish has decided to leave the refugees in the building and is not requesting police to intervene.  full story