World

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

Commentary: America's "Bloody Sunday" 50 years on - racism is not yet defeated

9.3.2015 20:53 Fifty years ago, police in Selma, a town in the southern United States, attacked a peaceful demonstration by roughly 600 activists, most of them Black. Officers used tear gas and truncheons, and images flew around the world of one of the organizers, Amelie Obynton, lying unconscious on the ground.  full story

Ukraine: Terrorist attack in Kharkov results in four dead, hopelessness and insecurity

1.3.2015 20:19, (ROMEA) In the Czech Republic, the bloodshed caused by the shooting in Uherský Brod, the worst such incident in Czech history, has overshadowed media coverage of a terrorist attack committed last weekend against those participating in the "March for Dignity" in Kharkov to mark the first anniversary of the victory of the Maidan uprising. Throughout Ukraine, concerns have multiplied that a new phase of the civil war might be beginning in Kharkov involving an expansion of the war zone and the destabilization of the tense local situation in the run-up to municipal elections this fall.  full story

Amnesty International: Discrimination against Roma persists in the Czech Republic

25.2.2015 23:57, (ROMEA) The annual report of the global human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) says 2014 was a devastating year for all people trapped in suffering war zones and those fighting for human rights."We must hope that, in retrospect, 2014 will seem like a slump to the very bottom, from which we rebound to build a better future," said AI Secretary-General Salil Shetty.   full story

Self-proclaimed Islamic State trying to recruit Roma in the Balkans

25.2.2015 21:21, (ROMEA) The radical self-styled Islamic State movement is doing its best to exploit the unstable economic and social situation of Romani people in the Balkans to recruit them to join their military services. Romani activists are warning local Roma of the danger connected with such extremism and are trying to stop the progress of IS and other radical groups in the Romani community.  full story

Commentary: Russian propaganda claims both "Jews" and "Nazis" now rule Ukraine

Prague, 4.2.2015 2:01, (ROMEA) Every kind of propaganda involves various absurdities, and the current propaganda in favor of Russia, as well as the propaganda coming straight from Russia, is no exception. The greatest paradoxes come from the generalizations this propaganda involves.  full story

Czech Republic only accepting Christian refugees from Syria

Prague, 4.2.2015 0:58, (ROMEA) Mayor Jana Syslová of Červený Újezd (Teplice district) says she has a problem. Pavel Fousek, the owner of a camp facility previously used to house refugees, is now accommodating socially vulnerable people, including ex-convicts and Romani people, on his property.  full story

Human Rights Watch report mentions Czech Republic for discrimination of Roma in education

Prague, 30.1.2015 0:30, (ROMEA) The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued its annual report today which found that European Union countries overall have made some progress in advancing human rights. The report also mentions the European Commission's move to initiate infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic over its discrimination of Romani children in the education system.  full story

Commentary: Invisible Romani victims and an anti-Muslim crusade

Prague, 28.1.2015 21:47, (ROMEA) This year's anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz seemed like a delayed whipping up of a call to arms. The alarm was sounded without a clear enemy.  full story

Liberation of Auschwitz marked by survivors

Oświęcim, Poland, 27.1.2015 23:54, (ROMEA) Today's commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, held at the former Nazi extermination camp, was a challenge to the world not to forget the horrors of the Holocaust or allow them to be repeated. The Nazis murdered more than 1.1 million people, most of the Jews, in the camp, as well as Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war.  full story

International Romani charity says helping others is a joy

27.1.2015 22:08, (ROMEA) A Czech Romani man and a Slovak Romani man have established a small charity organization abroad and begun aiding impoverished Romani children. They have delivered a first installment of aid to Romani settlements in Slovakia and are planning to deliver more in future.  full story

videoVIDEO: World commemorates 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz

Oświęcim, Poland , 27.1.2015 15:53, (ROMEA) Approximately 300 former prisoners and the representatives of 42 countries, including 12 Presidents, several crowned heads of state and half a dozen Prime Ministers are marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet Army with a gathering at what was once the "Gate of Death". The commemoration is being attended by French President François Hollande, German President Joachim Gauck, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while Russia (at odds with the Western world over the conflict in Ukraine) will be represented by Sergei Ivanov, the head of Putin's presidential office; the Czech delegation is led by Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.  full story