World

Norwegian populists want begging ban, opposition says the law targets Romani people

Oslo, 17.6.2014 22:10, (ROMEA) The Norwegian Government is planning to ban begging in public spaces. The proposal is part of an amendment to a law that Parliament began discussing yesterday.  full story

European Grassroots Antiracist Movement holds Roma conference in Czech Republic

Prague, 16.6.2014 16:02, (ROMEA) From 12 - 15 June 2014 a preparatory meeting of activists with the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement (EGAM) took place in Prague to work on the upcoming European Roma Pride celebrations. The meeting was organized by the Konexe association together with the EGAM network.  full story

From Siberia to Jerusalem: Israel's first Gypsy police officer

Jerusalem, 15.6.2014 22:21, (ROMEA) After spending her childhood in a Gypsy tribe on the frozen plains of Siberia, Tania Leontieff discovered that her mother had Jewish roots. She immigrated to Israel alone and converted, and is about to become a policewoman in Jerusalem.  full story

London: Roma Protest As Fascists Gather

London, 15.6.2014 22:16, (ROMEA) Even as Roma speakers addressed an audience at the United Against Fascism conference in London yesterday [14 June] on the rising frequency of attacks by neo-Nazi groups across Europe, members of the English Defence League were gathering in a menacing crowd outside TUC Congress Hall.  full story

UN Human Rights Commissioner disturbed by rising xenophobia in Europe

Geneva, 14.6.2014 20:36, (ROMEA) On 10 June the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, expressed concern over rising racism and xenophobia in Europe. In her remarks opening the 26th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Pillay referenced the results of May's elections to the European Parliament, in which ultra-right parties scored gains.  full story

Patrolling the Streets with Hungary’s Roma Police

Budapest, 14.6.2014 13:18, (ROMEA) I was born into a poor family in central Hungary, in an environment with little opportunities. Thankfully I was supported by the Open Society Foundations with financial aid to complete my high school diploma. If I hadn’t managed this, I don’t know where I would be today. At the age of 21, I enrolled at a police academy in Budapest and immediately declared my Roma heritage.  full story

Romanian Court Judgment Affirms the Responsibility of Authorities to Provide Adequate Housing to Evicted Romani Community

Bucharest, 14.6.2014 8:55, (ROMEA) The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) welcomes the judgment of the Constanţa Court of Appeal in southern Romania which found that the Tulcea municipality is liable for inadequate housing conditions it had provided to a previously evicted Romani community. The court awarded financial compensation to the plaintiffs for the moral damage they suffered. The ERRC supported the evicted Romani community in taking the case before the national courts.  full story

Young Roma demand UN representation

Sri Lanka, 13.6.2014 23:53, (ROMEA) During the World Conference on Youth in Sri Lanka last month a declaration was issued by young Roma demanding representation for the Romani nation at the United Nations. News server Romea.cz publishes the declaration in full:  full story

Ukrainian Roma: The government treats us like stepchildren

Kiev, 13.6.2014 23:21, (ROMEA) Ukrainians are enduring a serious hangover after the euphoria of Maidan. Romani people in Ukraine are also being most painfully affected by the current crisis.  full story

videoFamous Romani players in world football

Prague, 27.5.2013 22:32, (ROMEA/HATTRICK) Just a few notes by way of introduction: The first famous Romani man or Gypsy to join his country's football team was Rab Howell of England. The small center-half for Sheffield United (height 165 cm, weight 57 kg) first wore the famous uniform with the three lions on 9 March 1895 in a match between England and Scotland that was played at Derby. It was a victorious debut. The English won 9:0 and Howell scored a goal. He was always proud of his Romani heritage. By the way, the first Black player did not join the English national team until 83 years later (Viv Anderson in 1978).  full story

Holocaust survivors want Poland to arrange more school trips to Auschwitz

Warsaw, 12.6.2014 16:58, (ROMEA) The International Auschwitz Committee (IAC), which brings together Holocaust survivors worldwide, has called on the Polish government to financially support excursions by schoolchildren to the memorial at the former Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz. Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reports that the number of Polish visitors to Auschwitz has sharply fallen in recent years.  full story

International Islamic organization demands apology from Czech President, he won't budge

Prague, 11.6.2014 22:21, (ROMEA) The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned the recent remarks made by Czech President Miloš Zeman during the celebrations of Israel's Independence Day at the end of May. Commenting on the recent attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Zeman said attacks by Islamist fanatics are an outcome of their ideology.  full story

Historians warn against reviving Ukrainian nationalism

Ukraine, 10.6.2014 21:14, (ROMEA) The promoters of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine have a clear opinion of the government in Kiev: They are "Banderites and Fascists". Czech President Miloš Zeman has now become the most recent figure to mention the personality of 20th-century Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera.  full story

Albright says Roma not respected in Czech Republic and elsewhere

Prague, 10.6.2014 18:45, (ROMEA) Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking at a conference of the Prague branch of the American think-tank the Aspen Institute, expressed her views on the strengthening of extremist parties in Europe as confirmed by the recent elections to the European Parliament, as well as on the position of Romani people in Europe. A native of Prague, Albright said she is following with great distress the lack of respect enjoyed by Romani people in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.  full story

Czech NGO to host US students this summer to study social exclusion

Prague, 6.6.2014 23:31, (ROMEA) From June until August, six students from Lehigh University in the American state of Pennsylvania will participate in a study abroad visit to the Czech Republic. The students will be hosted by Inclusio, a nonprofit group that focuses on support for the inclusion and integration of minorities in the Czech Republic.  full story

France: 70th anniversary commemorations of D-Day

Normandy, France, 6.6.2014 20:38, (ROMEA) Since midnight, thousands of people have been commemorating the 70th anniversary of the landing of the Allied troops in Normandy, an event that became the turning point of the Second World War and forecast the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany. During a nighttime vigil at Pegasus Bridge, the first jump by British paratroopers was commemorated, while on Ohama Beach people waited emotionally for the dawn, the moment when, 70 years ago, the first Allied soldiers stepped onto French soil.  full story

Czech Republic: Khamoro World Roma Festival closes with gala concert in Prague

Prague, 4.6.2014 17:51, (ROMEA) Dozens of people watched on Saturday as a painting of a Romani angel was created outside before their eyes on náměstí Republiky (Square of the Republic) in Prague. Romani artist Zoran Tairovic produced the work live as part of the Khamoro World Roma Festival.  full story

Meet the EU Parliament’s (Likely) First-Elected Feminist Party Member

Stockholm, 24.5.2014 17:36, (ROMEA) Europe's parliamentary elections are expected to end this weekend with a surprising first: The first-ever member elected from a feminist party to the European Parliament. Less surprising is the likely MEP’s country of origin, Sweden. The bastion of gender equality has a nine-year-old feminist political party, the Feminist Initiative (which also has outposts in Germany and France), and it is on track to secure the 4 percent of the country’s vote necessary to send a representative to the EU’s legislative body. At the top of the party’s batting order is Soraya Post, 57, a longtime human rights activist who spoke to the Cut from Stockholm, where she’s wrapping up her campaign.  full story

Switzerland: Hitler salute in public not always a crime

Lausanne, Switzerland, 23.5.2014 20:37, (ROMEA) According to the Swiss Supreme Court, giving the Nazi salute is not an unpermitted act of racist discrimination if the gesture is meant solely as an expression of personal conviction. The Associated Press reports that the court has released a ruling entitled "Hitler salute in public not always punishable".  full story

Czech priest asks local Muslims to condemn Sudanese death sentence for pregnant women, they agree

Prague, 22.5.2014 1:22, (ROMEA) Tomáš Halík, a much-loved priest who was recently awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize, has sent an open letter to all Muslims in the Czech Republic asking them to clearly speak out against the fact that a court in Khartoum, Sudan has sentenced a pregnant woman to death for refusing to convert to Islam. The letter was published today by the Press Center of the Czech Bishops' Conference.  full story