World

EU Commissioners on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day: Too many Roma are victims of hate crime in Europe

2.8.2016 14:44 News server NewEurope.eu reports that First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová have issued a joint statement on the occasion of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. The statement recalls that on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, around 3 000 Roma men, women and children from the "Gypsy family camp" of Auschwitz-Birkenau were murdered in the gas chambers.  full story

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and ODIHR issue joint statement on need to ensure dignity for Roma Holocaust remembrance

2.8.2016 14:13 Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Ambassador Mihnea Constantinescu, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), called today for greater efforts to protect endangered memorial sites related to the Roma and Sinti genocide during World War II. Speaking on the occasion of the commemoration of the liquidation of the “Gypsy family camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, when almost 3 000 Roma and Sinti in the camp were murdered, they stressed that states have to do more to demonstrate their sincere and strong commitment to education about and remembrance of the genocide.  full story

International Organization for Migration data shows how biased reporting is about migrants in Europe

1.8.2016 17:35 Because the flood of (mainly negative) reporting about the so-called refugee crisis in the Czech Republic can make it seem like we are living at a time of unprecedented migration and that Europe is at risk of an exodus from the rest of the world onto its territory, it is worth taking a look at the data and statistics that are available about this phenomenon. A closer look at the numbers on migration to the Czech Republic, to Europe, and around the globe not only refutes many myths, it introduces some surprising findings.  full story

German Chancellor still believes her country can handle the impacts of attacks and immigration

30.7.2016 16:09 German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains convinced that Germany can deal with the impacts of the current terrorist attacks and of immigration. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, she promised that Berlin will do all it can to apprehend the people responsible for last week's attacks.  full story

Czech Radio: Political scientist says Europe is not the epicenter of political violence, but anti-Muslim hate is spreading there

30.7.2016 11:27 Tuesday's "Interview Plus" program on Czech Radio focused on the question of the ongoing terrorist attacks in Europe. Ondřej Ditrych, a political scientist at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague and the Institute of International Relations, discussed the impact of how the media reports such events and whether a growth in violence is actually happening in Europe that should give us reason to panic.  full story

German Police in Lower Saxony raid Islamist radicals

29.7.2016 15:35 Police in Lower Saxony, Germany, have conducted extensive raids against so-called Salafists who profess a radical form of Islam. The action targeted the association of the German-language Islamic Circle (DIK).  full story

German Police say Munich shooter was an ultra-right supporter proud of sharing a birthdate with Hitler

29.7.2016 8:47 Yesterday the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) said sources close to the investigation of the shooting in Munich one week ago said the shooter who murdered nine people before committing suicide was a racist and supporter of the ultra-right. During his rampage near the Olympia shopping center, the attacker chose his victims from among those who he believed were immigrants, according to police sources.  full story

USA: Controversy over conservative radio host's Nazi-like salute at the close of her RNC speech

28.7.2016 22:29 Jeremy Stahl, a senior editor at the website Slate.com, has re-posted photographs tweeted from last week's Republican National Convention in Ohio. In the photos, the talk radio host Laura Ingraham is shown raising and straightening her right arm in profile toward the very large screen from which candidate Donald Trump was remotely addressing the convention.  full story

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