World

Council of Europe: Refugees and violence against Romani people are current problems

25.4.2015 1:24 Last year was a bad year for fundamental human rights in the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe (CoE). CoE Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks says in his regular report that the reasons for this are the crisis around refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, the conflict in Ukraine, and attacks on media freedom.  full story

Germany: SS volunteer charged with participating in 300 000 murders at Auschwitz

22.4.2015 21:24 On Tuesday, 21 April 2015, the trial of 93-year-old Oskar Gröning, who worked in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, began under intense media scrutiny. Gröning, who is charged with participating in the deaths of 300 000 Jewish people, recognized in his opening statement that he bears moral responsibility for his actions and said he believes the court must decide whether he is criminally culpable.  full story

Czech PM wants to increase aid to refugees after 900 drown near Italy, EU convenes extraordinary summit

21.4.2015 21:09 Yesterday foreign ministers from EU countries were slated to review the situation of thousands of people dying in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to get to Europe. Federica Mogherini, the head of European diplomacy, asked over the weekend for this point to be added to the agenda of yesterday's meeting after yet another in a series of accidents at sea evidently cost the lives of as many as 900 people Saturday.  full story

Romani Studies scholars don't like what they've learned so far from cooperation with Council of Europe and EC

20.4.2015 22:24 Professor Yaron Matras of the University of Manchester has released a paper summarizing the achievements to date of the European Academic Network on Romani Studies (EANRS), a Joint Programme of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Commission (EC) that is ending on 31 May.  full story

Roma Education Fund scholarship deadline is 11 May 2015

Czech Republic, 13.4.2015 23:34, (ROMEA) The Roma Education Fund's scholarship program has announced its scholarship cycle for the 2015-2016 academic year; the deadline to apply is 11 May 2015. Through an open academic competition, the scholarship program offers a stipend to Romani students who are either citizens of or have permanent residency in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia or Turkey and who are attending Bachelor's, Master's or doctoral studies at state-accredited colleges.  full story

Norway apologizes to Roma for WWII-era discrimination, promises compensation

Prague, 11.4.2015 23:59, (ROMEA) Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has apologized for the discrimination perpetrated by Norway against its Romani population prior to and during the Second World War. She also promised the Norwegian authorities would pay Romani people compensation for the measures undertaken against them at that time.  full story

Statement by Secretary of State John Kerry on International Roma Day

8.4.2015 10:27 On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I honor all Roma on International Roma Day.  full story

8 April: Romani people worldwide celebrate International Romani Day

8.4.2015 1:00, (ROMEA) International Romani Day is celebrated annually by Romani people worldwide on 8 April. On this day, Romani people commemorate the historic First World Romani Congress, organized by Comité International Rom (CIR) in Orpington, England in 1971.  full story

ERTF: We are Roma - this is what we are

7.4.2015 10:25 We mark International Roma day by celebrating the rich Romani culture and the diverse contributions of Roma to our societies. On this day, the Roma can stand up and proudly say “We are Roma: this is what we are.”  full story

Slovakia: Mayor and Romani residents say police brutalized them, police deny it

Slovakia, 4.4.2015 2:25 Approximately 200 - 300 Romani people gathered on 3 April outside the local authority in the municipality of Vrbnica (Michalovce District) to protest a police intervention that took place during a house-to-house search there on Thursday, 2 April code-named "100". Mayor Jaroslav Tokár held a press conference to report that several people had been injured during what he said was a brutal police intervention.  full story

US Ambassador to OSCE: Roma issues are Europe's unfinished human rights business

3.4.2015 23:30, (ROMEA) In advance of International Romani Day on 8 April, US Ambassador to the OSCE Daniel B. Baer held a press conference about how the OSCE works on Roma issues. Journalists from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Slovakia and the United States joined the teleconference, including Romea.cz.  full story

Czech women kidnapped in Pakistan two years ago are back home

30.3.2015 0:32 Antonie Chrástecká and Hana Humpálová, two Czech women kidnapped in 2013 in Pakistan, have given interviews to the Turkish press agency Anadolu after their recent release claiming that they do not know which group was behind their abduction and that their kidnappers never identified themselves. Reportedly the worst part of their captivity was the beginning, when they had to get used to the sudden change and feared their captors.  full story

Computer game lets white people experience what it's like to be a bullied minority

29.3.2015 23:48 Players of the computer survival game Rust can no longer choose what their avatar looks like but will have an appearance randomly assigned to them. The gaming websites Gamerspot.com and Kotaku.com have reported on the change.  full story

videoRomea.cz interviews authors of the "official" version of the Romani anthem

28.3.2015 19:02, (ROMEA) Does there now finally exist an official, standardized form of the Romani anthem? Has the situation in which hundreds of various versions of the anthem were being played for different occasions at different places now been overcome?  full story

videoIs this the official version of the international Romani anthem?

27.3.2015 22:45, (ROMEA) The authors of the Rromaanthem.org website are claiming that for the first time in history, the international Romani anthem, "Gelem, gelem", now exists in an official, standardized form. The anthem has been recorded in three versions: A choral one, an instrumental one, and a solo vocal one.  full story

videoWorld Water Day: Let's talk about Roma in Europe

22.3.2015 18:42, (ROMEA) Most of us take clean water for granted. It is abundant, provided directly in our homes, and checked continuously to ensure it meets quality and safety standards. Images of long treks to access water, sometimes through difficult or dangerous terrain, are associated in our minds with other continents, where we imagine that this time-consuming and labour-intensive task is a part of daily life for some people. Yet all across Europe there are people living without access to clean water and many of them are Roma.  full story

Ukraine: Roma in Transcarpathia fear hunger, mobilization and the police

21.3.2015 23:59, (ROMEA) News server Romea.cz has interviewed Romani studies scholar Michael Beníšek about the everyday life of Romani people in the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod and its environs, their concerns, identity and language, their relationship toward the gadje, their love of Bollywood films and the new wave of Romani refugees from Transcarpathia now entering Britain with Hungarian passports. Beníšek studied Indology and Romani Studies at the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he then remained at the Romani Studies Seminar as an educator  full story

Fedor Gál: Czech President should not go to Moscow

21.3.2015 20:06, (ROMEA) In an interview for the Czech News Agency, Slovak sociologist and former dissident Fedor Gál, who celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday, said that nostalgic recollections of the communist era 25 years after the fall of the regime are incomprehensible to him. The founding member of the "Public against Violence" movement said he also does not understand why people hate the politicians them themselves elect.  full story

videoEuropean Platform for Roma Inclusion meets in Brussels

Brussels, 19.3.2015 19:01, (ROMEA) The ninth session of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion took place in Brussels earlier this week, attended by Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, as well as by a delegation from the Czech Republic led by Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dientsbier. Through this initiative, the European Commission facilitates a broader dialogue between the Member States, nonprofit organizations and Romani representatives with respect to inclusion and integration policies.  full story

Council of Europe says there are still too many Romani children in the Czech "special schools"

12.3.2015 20:08, (ROMEA) The proportion of Romani pupils in "special schools" continues to be disproportionately high in the Czech Republic, but measures seeking to introduce inclusive education - the enrollment of all children into mainstream schools - could bring about positive change. Those are the findings adopted by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers today.  full story