World

Austrian Chancellor criticizes Czech Republic for rejecting EU quotas on refugee reception

25.8.2015 19:33 Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann criticized the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries and Poland for rejecting redistribution quotas for refugees within the European Union. Speaking on the "Morgenjournal" program on radio station Ö1, Faymann declared that without quotas it will be impossible to stabilize the situation on the EU's external borders which are being crossed by thousands of refugees primarily from Africa and the Middle East, but Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka has a different opinion on the matter.  full story

France: Roma immigrants evicted, travelling community kept from halting

24.8.2015 21:22 British newspaper The Independent reported on 16 August that a shantytown known as Samaritain in La Courneuve suburb north of Paris was slated for demolition "within days". The 80 families living there, most of them Romani, were not scheduled for rehousing by the local council  full story

Ethnic, religious, sexual minorities now suffering more discrimination in occupied Crimea and Donbas

23.8.2015 20:55 The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency reports that human rights activists have issued a report entitled "In the Crosscurrents: Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Ukraine" that finds discrimination has significantly increased against minorities in occupied Crimea and Donbas. Dimitrina Petrova, Executive Director of the Equal Rights Trust, presented the report at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.  full story

Council of Europe: Rejecting refugees on religious basis is pure discrimination

23.8.2015 0:51 Slovakia has found itself at the center of world media attention and under fire from the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, considered the "watchdog of democracy" on the continent, because of the country's willingness to mainly receive a group of Christians from among the barrage of refugees heading for Europe. Big international media outlets did not notice the Slovak plan until several weeks after Bratislava began speaking of it in June.  full story

videoBulgaria: Romani dwellings demolished in Varna

21.8.2015 22:13 Radio FOCUS in Bulgaria reports that houses built illegally by their Romani occupants in the Maksuda quarter of the Mladost municipal department of the city of Varna began undergoing demolition yesterday. Residents reportedly threw rocks at police and attempted to attack them during the demolition.  full story

Macedonia announces state of emergency over refugees

20.8.2015 20:10 Macedonia has declared a state of emergency at its northern and southern borders over an unprecedented influx of refugees heading across its territory in order to reach the European Union and plans to deploy the Army. Reuters reports that the Macedonian Interior Ministry announced the move today.  full story

Hungary: Roma forcibly displaced in Miskolc as Budapest markets Roma neighborhood to tourists

19.8.2015 18:14 The news server www.neweasterneurope.eu reports that members of the Romani community in Hungary are still being evicted in the eastern city of Miskolc despite international pressure and a Supreme Court ruling against the process. The news server likened the local authorities' policy to "ethnic cleansing" and said it sets a dangerous precedent.  full story

Germany: Neo-Nazi murderer turned his life around to become a clergyman

18.8.2015 19:46 The preacher Johannes Kneifel knows what the saying "People can change" means. The strapping 33-year-old with reddish-blond hair has a rebirth of his own behind him.  full story

Croatia adopts law recognizing rape as a war crime

17.8.2015 19:56 The Global Fund for Women reports that on 29 May the Croatian Parliament passed legislation recognizing rape as a war crime. It will take effect in January and compensate war rape survivors through free counseling, legal and medical aid and a monthly financial stipend.  full story

Helsinki Agreement marks 40th anniversary

17.8.2015 0:01 Rudolf V. Perina, the U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia, has released an opinion piece that was reprinted by the Slovak daily Hospodarske Noviny on 29 July to mark the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, which concluded the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a process that resulted in the creation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The piece explains how Helsinki became the basis for international criticism of various countries' human rights records.  full story

Czech scandal of pig farm on Holocaust site has a precedent - in Germany

15.8.2015 19:28 For 20 years, domestic and foreign organizations have been protesting against the operation of an industrial pig farm on the territory of the former concentration camp at Lety by Písek, Czech Republic. Few in the Czech Republic know, however, that a similar problem existed for decades in Germany.  full story

Former German Foreign Minister says today's attacks on migrant facilities reminiscent of Nazism

14.8.2015 19:14 Attacks on residential hotels for migrants in Germany remind former German Foreign Affairs Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher of his youth during Nazism. Genscher made that statement in an interview for the 6 August issue of the Die Zeit weekly.  full story

Azerbaijan: Lengthy sentences sought for human rights defenders accused of fraud

13.8.2015 3:34 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD) has reported that a fourth hearing has been held in the Azeri Government's case against Leyla Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) and her husband Arif Yunusov, who also works for the IPD. On 6 August the court was asked to sentence Yunus to 11 years in jail and Yunusov to nine years on charges of fraud  full story

Albania: Romani neighborhood demolished for road, residents likely homeless

11.8.2015 1:09 The Roma Virtual Network has published a message from Brisilda Taco, a self-identified Romani activist in Tirana, Albania, about recent home demolitions there. The activist reports that on 23 July, the Albanian Government began to demolish Romani-occupied houses in Selita.  full story

France: Human rights organizations protest forced evictions of Romani people

6.8.2015 23:35 The European Roma Rights Centre and the Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH), a French human rights organization, issued the finding last month that up to 4 000 forced evictions of Romani people have taken place in France during the first half of 2015. The organizations say the confiscation of the Romani people's property during these incidents is even worse for them than the displacement is.  full story

Bulgaria Must Stop Its Anti-Roma Attacks

5.8.2015 0:12 Since May, anti-Roma protests in Bulgaria have led to Roma families being attacked and beaten. Riots escalated after tensions rose between Roma and non-Roma in Garmen, in southwest Bulgaria, and Orlandovzi in Sofia. Dozens have been injured.  full story

Europe marks Roma Holocaust Memorial Day from Georgia to Ireland

4.8.2015 22:52 Both official and private commemorations and messages of solidarity were sent across Europe on the occasion of 2 August, not only in the EU-28 countries but in places as far-flung as Georgia. This past April the European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing 2 August as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.  full story

Gallup poll shows Roma isolation from Bulgarian society has intensified over the last 20 years

2.8.2015 20:58 Radio Bulgaria reports that as the Decade of Roma Inclusion comes to a close, Roma are still permanently excluded from Bulgarian society, according to a representative Gallup International poll. Researcher Dimitar Ganev said the poll was conducted in response to inter-ethnic tensions in May and June of this year.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum calls for moment of silence, noon, 2 August, International Remembrance Day of the Pharrajimos

31.7.2015 1:46 The European Roma and Travellers Forum is calling for the observation of a moment of silence at noon on Sunday, 2 August, in memory of the Romani victims who were murdered on the night of 2 August and early morning hours of 3 August 1944 in “Zigeunerlager BIII” at Auschwitz – Birkenau. The Roma Holocaust, or Pharrajimos, is considered the biggest tragedy in the history of the Roma in Europe.  full story

Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner: Time to cure amnesia about the history of Roma in Europe

30.7.2015 20:03 Nils Muižnieks, the Human Rights Commissioner at the Council of Europe, has written in advance of the 2 August commemorations of the 1944 murder of Romani people at Auschwitz that Europe's amnesia about the history of the Roma needs to be cured. Referencing the historical events at Auschwitz in particular, he writes: "Knowledge about both the Roma uprising and the liquidation of the 'Gypsy camp' remains limited in European societies today."  full story