World

Council of Europe issues report on Roma in preschool in the Czech Republic

7.7.2015 23:21 The Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Roma Issues (CAHROM) has just issued a report on its November 2014 visit to the Czech Republic. The visit included experts from Hungary, Latvia, Poland and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, who have authored the report.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum: Anti-Gypsyism afoot in Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and elsewhere

7.7.2015 20:52 The European Roma and Travellers Forum has issued the following press release:  full story

Roma instructor at Harvard calls for an end to injustice

6.7.2015 18:17 Recent European Roma integration policies have failed, and we need to find out why, according to Margareta Matache, Roma rights activist and instructor at Harvard University, speaking at Central European University’s Roma Graduate Preparation Program End-of-Year Student Seminar on June 15.  full story

Bulgaria: Switzerland investing in Roma integration there

5.7.2015 22:13 Focus-fen.net reported on 23 June that the Bulgarian Minister of Labor and Social Policy signed agreements with the municipalities of Burgas, Ruse and Sliven and Swiss Ambassador Denis Knobel on financing social inclusion of Roma, according to the ministry. The Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Program is to be jointly implemented by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Health and Minister of Labor and Social Policy.  full story

Macedonia: Local council votes to dislocate Roma from settlement

27.6.2015 2:24 The website utrinski.mk reported on 12 June that the Kavadarci local council has voted to provide container housing to the inhabitants of a Romani settlement who have permanent residency in the town while requiring the rest to "return to their place of origin". The settlement, called the "Teneke maalo", is said to have been inhabited illegally.  full story

USA criticizes Czech Republic, Slovakia over Roma in human rights report

26.6.2015 0:14 The Czech Republic continues to discriminate against the Romani minority in many areas, and political representatives of the country have been contributing to this recently to an increasing degree. Those are the results of the report published today by the U.S. State Department evaluating the approach toward human rights that has been taken by various countries during 2014.  full story

UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues: The so-called “Roma issue” is not merely a poverty question

25.6.2015 20:23 All Independent Experts of the UN are required by the Human Rights Council (HRC) to present annual reports on their work during one of the HRC's regular sessions in Geneva. Based on an HRC resolution adopted in 2014, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Rita Izsák, was invited to present an additional study on the human rights situation of Roma worldwide, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of anti-Gypsyism.  full story

European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network calls on EU to fund Romani "watchdog" groups

25.6.2015 17:49 In an open letter to EU officials, the ERGO Network has welcomed the European Commission's annual communication on Roma Integration and is calling for a "targeted funding strand" for Roma NGOs engaged in "watchdog" work. ERGO thanked the officials for acknowledging the need to combat anti-Gypsyism.  full story

Bulgaria: Roma at home and abroad respond to violence committed during anti-Romani protests

25.6.2015 0:18 On 23 June 2015, Jovan Damjanović, president of the Belgrade-based World Roma Organization, sent an open letter to the Bulgarian Prime Minister expressing his organization's surprise over the recent violent anti-Romani protests that have taken place in Sofia and elsewhere. "I expect that you will do everything to avoid the use of force against the Roma community and I urge that, in accordance with international conventions and the rights of national minorities, you will provide all human and civil rights of Roma in the Republic of Bulgaria," the letter reads.  full story

Czech Republic postpones reception of Syrian children, rejects EU summit on migration

23.6.2015 16:18 The daily Právo reported yesterday that the Czech Interior Ministry has suspended preparations to relocate 14 Syrian children and their families, roughly 70 persons total, from Jordan to the Czech Republic. The children were supposed to be treated for serious diseases.  full story

Dragan Ristic: Anatomy of an Idea - The European Roma Institute

23.6.2015 22:58 Dragan Ristic is a guitarist, lyricist and vocalist with the music group KAL. A citizen and resident of Serbia, he holds a Master's in Film Theory from the University of Belgrade.  full story

Italian court rules that official camps for Roma only are discriminatory as evictions continue

23.6.2015 19:28 On 9 June the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) reported the Italian media as saying that approximately 100 Romani people are to be evicted from a facility called the Ferrotel building by the Municipality of Cosenza and relocated to an official, segregated tent camp. A total of 400 Romani people now living in the informal Vaglio Lise camp there have also been targeted for removal for some time.  full story

Bulgaria: Roma respond to anti-Romani protests in the capital

23.6.2015 16:57 On 14 June the FOCUS News Agency cited police reports that a protest against the "lawlessness of Roma people" on 13 June had resulted in several injuries in the Orlandovtsi district of Sofia, Bulgaria. A brawl reportedly broke out between non-Romani and Romani residents there.  full story

EU and UN criticize Hungary for local treatment of Roma and border fence plans

22.6.2015 23:40 On 16 June, politics.hu reported that EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said the Miskolc council's recent moves with respect to the housing of Romani people contravene both the EU's Roma Integration Framework Strategy and Hungary's own Roma Strategy. The Commissioner made the statement in response to a written question submitted by MEP Péter Niedermüller (Democratic Coalition) in March.  full story

Hungary erecting four-meter-high fence against migrants on its border with Serbia

18.6.2015 22:00 The Hungarian Government wants to build a four-meter-high fence along its border with Serbia to stop the influx of illegal migrants. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on 17 June that the Government has called on the Interior Ministry to design the appropriate project by next Wednesday, according to the MTI agency.  full story

European Court for Human Rights says internet portal operators responsible for insulting online posts

16.6.2015 22:59 Today the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that the operators of internet portals are responsible for insulting commentaries posted online by their users. The judgment in the case of a large Estonian online news server could impact the operation of such portals in all the member states of the Council of Europe, which includes the Czech Republic.  full story

UN side event on discrimination as a root cause of Romani marginalization

15.6.2015 20:03 Tomorrow, 16 June, a side event to the UN Human Rights Council session will further discuss the findings and recommendations of the recent study released by the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues on the human rights situation of Roma. The report was officially presented on 15 June.  full story

VIDEO: UN Human Rights Council review of anti-Gypsyism

15.6.2015 9:00 Rita Izsák, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, will present her study of the human rights situation for Romani people worldwide before the United Nations Human Rights Council at 18:00 today, Monday, 15 June 2015. The entire session of the HRC begins at 09:00 and can be followed live at the link below.  full story

European Roma Institute proponents respond to analysis by the European Roma and Travellers Forum

12.6.2015 0:30 On 21 May, in advance of a Council of Europe meeting to discuss the possible founding of a European Roma Institute, the European Roma and Travellers Forum published its analysis of the “revised concept paper on the creation of a European Roma Institute”. The full document of the ERTF assessment can be found here.  full story

Deadline for OSF RIO Barvalipe School funding is 1 July

10.6.2015 22:01 The Roma Initiatives Office (RIO) of the Open Society Foundations has opened a call for organizations interested in running a Barvalipe School to provide a creative experience for Roma university graduates interested in progressing from academia to public leadership. Proposals are invited from Roma NGOs in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey for projects providing opportunities to rebuild Roma dignity and pride, as well as develop competence, confidence and self-reliance among Roma university graduates between the ages of 25 and 35.  full story