World

Austria: Arsonists set future asylum-seeker shelter on fire

9.6.2016 6:38 A wooden building in the north of Austria near the Czech and German borders that was supposed to become a shelter for asylum seekers was set on fire last week. According to representatives of the Red Cross, which owns the building, the fire was set by arsonists.  full story

European Commission agrees with social media companies on a common approach against online hate

5.6.2016 13:22 On 31 May the European Commission together with firms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube published a Code of Conduct to aid in the fight against the dissemination of hate speech through the Internet. According to the code, the firms will attempt to investigate whether content is objectionable within 24 hours of being warned about it.  full story

Soraya Post: Roma deportations increasing due to Syrian refugee crisis

2.6.2016 18:16 The deportation of Roma refugees in Europe is increasing because of the influx of Syrian refugees in Europe, according to Soraya Post, a Swedish member of the European Parliament.
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OSCE/ODIHR Event to Focus on Justice and Redress to Roma Victims of Forced Sterilization in the Czech Republic

30.5.2016 18:50 On Wednesday, 1 June, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will convene an international conference on providing justice and compensation to Romani women who have been subjected to forced sterilization in the Czech Republic. Those attending will be representatives of the Czech Government, survivors of forced sterilization, civil society organizations including Roma community organizations, international experts, and representatives of the Council of Europe, the OSCE/ODIHR, and the United Nations.  full story

Russia: Romani residents of Tula rebel over gas supplies

29.5.2016 11:35 In one of the biggest Romani settlements in Russia a mass battle took place several weeks ago between local residents and police. The cause was the efforts of gas technicians to cut the Romani residents off from a gas pipe they had illegally been tapping.  full story

Germany: Romani refugees occupy Berlin memorial to Roma murdered during Nazism, police intervene

29.5.2016 9:55 Last Sunday afternoon approximately 100 people occupied Berlin's memorial to the Romani and Sinti people who were murdered by the Nazis. The protest was held under the slogan "We Are Here".  full story

Cyprus: Orthodox Church leader welcomes election of neo-Nazi MPs

28.5.2016 10:21 The leader of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, has expressed satisfaction over the fact that neo-Nazis from the "National-People's Front" (ELAM) party made it into Parliament for the first time ever after Sunday's elections. Chrysostomos supports the deep conservatism of the Orthodox Church, which takes a hard line against the secularizing efforts of modern society and supports hate speech against minorities such as the LGBT community.  full story

European Commission launches infringement proceedings against Hungary over discrimination of Romani children

28.5.2016 9:50 On 26 May the European Commission (EC) called on Hungary to stop discriminating against Romani children in education and to adjust its laws accordingly. The Commission made the announcement within the framework of its regular review of transgressions committed by Member States against EU legislation.  full story

Germany: British neo-Nazis tweet photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute at Buchenwald

28.5.2016 8:36 Two members of a British neo-Nazi group have tweeted a photo of themselves giving the Nazi salute during a visit to the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. German media drew attention to the case on 26 May and report that authorities are investigating.  full story

Timea Junghaus: Roma art as an act of resistance

27.5.2016 21:27 On May 16, Europe’s Roma commemorated the 1944 uprising in the so-called Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy Camp”) in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, the idea of Roma resistance is understood as the Roma people’s perseverance in fighting different forms of oppressions, now and in the past.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum expresses support for Czech NGOs seeking to fly the rainbow and Roma flags at Terezín

18.5.2016 16:47 The European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) has sent Jan Munk, the director of the Terezín Memorial who also chairs the Commission for the Preparation of the Terezín Commemoration, a letter expressing its agreement with the 14 nonprofit organizations who asked that both the LGBT community's rainbow flag and the international Romani flag be flown during the commemorative ceremony at Terezín this year. Munk rejected the request at the beginning of May for the flags to be included alongside state flags during the 15 May event.
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DG Justice seminar series on improving media coverage of Romani people comes to the Czech Republic

11.5.2016 7:58 A two-day international media seminar began in Brno yesterday, attended by representatives of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs, nonprofit organizations, the Romani community, and domestic and international journalists. Organizers say the aim of the seminar is to develop closer communication between journalists, municipalities, local authorities and organizations in order to support more balanced, precise coverage of Romani issues in both alternative and mainstream media throughout Europe.  full story

Hundreds protest border closure between Austria and Italy and demand a border-free Europe

8.5.2016 15:32 Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police yesterday at the Brenner Pass in the Alps that connects Austria with Italy. The demonstrators were mostly young left-wing radicals from Italy who attempted to cross the border, which Austria is preparing to establish checkpoints at to stop any eventual flow of migrants into the country.  full story

Bulgaria: Anti-Romani protests in southern town of Radnevo

8.5.2016 9:14 Anti-Romani unrest broke out last Wednesday in the southern Bulgarian town of Radnevo. Approximately 2 000 Bulgarians demonstrated for a fair investigation of a brawl on Monday between three ethnic Bulgarians and four men from a local Romani family that resulted in serious injuries.  full story

Slovak appeals court tells first-instance court to revise its verdict on police abuse of Romani boys from Košice

2.5.2016 8:48 The shameful scandal of the police abuse of Romani juveniles living at the Luník IX housing estate in the town of Košice has been dragging through the courts since March 2009. According to a report published by news server Romovia.sme.sk on 29 April, the Regional Appeals Court has now overturned the first-instance court verdict in the case of police officers charged with being accomplices to felony abuse of the powers of a public official and other crimes.  full story

Slovakia: Neo-Fascist party being investigated by Prosecutor-General, could be banned

1.5.2016 19:32 The Slovak ultra-right party called "Kotleba-Lidová strana Naše Slovensko" (Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia or K-LSNS), which was responsible for the biggest surprise result in the country's recent Parliamentary elections, is now facing a possible ban. The Prosecutor-General has begun to investigate its activity after being called upon to do so by the Human Rights Institute, which filed a motion for the party, which now holds 11 seats in the legislature, to be dissolved.  full story

Commentary: Standing with Mitko against racist violence in Bulgaria

30.4.2016 12:49 After a video surfaced on YouTube showing Mitko, a 17-year-old Romani youth from the Bulgarian village of Ovchepoltsi, being racially abused, beaten and kicked in the face for saying that he considered himself equal to his "nationalist" attacker, outrage turned quickly to solidarity. Within days, an online #RomaAreEqual campaign was launched by the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), and thousands across Europe affirmed that they "stand with Mitko" against racist violence and demanded an appropriate response from the Bulgarian authorities.  full story

Hungary: Roma Press Center launches ironic campaign against police abuse featuring leading actors

27.4.2016 16:19 The people who can least afford it frequently become the victims of absurd police interventions in Hungary. The Roma Press Center (RSK) was led by its own experience and that idea to the following inspiration: With the aid of volunteers, they have collected the stories of specific interactions with the police and held a public contest for the most absurd police measure.  full story

Slovak court rules forcibly sterilized Romani woman to receive compensation, hospital appeals

27.4.2016 13:37 The Košice II District Court has decided that the Pasteur University Hospital violated the rights of a Roman woman whom they sterilized without securing her informed consent. The court first instructed the hospital to apologize and, in a second verdict dated 19 February, awarded the woman the right to financial compensation in the full amount requested of almost EUR 17 000.  full story

Poland: Local Catholic church apologizes for neo-Fascist mass in cathedral

26.4.2016 8:35 Last week a big discussion was prompted in Poland by the fact that a local Catholic church had made it possible for a right-wing radical organization to celebrate mass in a cathedral in the east of the country. The ultra-nationalist group, which is calling for the country to leave the EU, celebrated its 82nd anniversary in the cathedral in Bialystok.  full story