Features and Commentary

Breaking News No More: Life for Roma in Greece a Year after “Maria”

Greece, 27.10.2014 23:50, (ROMEA) For Lefteris Konstantinidis, a 34-year-old lawyer, a normal day in his new office is busy. The phone rings often; he runs around printing new case files and continues to take on new clients. His schedule is exhausting, but he still enjoys his work.  full story

Commentary: Islamic fanaticism is repulsive - and so is European fanaticism

Prague, 15.10.2014 19:47, (ROMEA) We are horrified by the blind violence of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and most recently by the so-called Islamic State. We are right to be horrified, as their merciless recklessness combined with fanaticism and the conviction that they own the one and only truth is repulsive, and we are all dealing with this - discussing it, theorizing about it and writing about it.  full story

Czech ombud: Discrimination against Roma underreported

Brno, 10.10.2014 19:08, (ROMEA) In a recent interview with Czech ombud Anna Šabatová, news server iDNES.cz touches on many current topics related to her work. In addition to discussing the much-publicized case of Muslim nursing students who left their studies because of a school's ban on head scarves, the ombud answered questions about her deputy, Stanislav Křeček, the adoption of children by registered same-sex couples, and extensive discrimination against Romani people in housing, on the labor market, and in other areas of life.  full story

The Purge: Czech local and Senate elections in 2014

Prague, 9.10.2014 23:01, (ROMEA) Aggression, hatred and vulgarity: These are the main features of the campaign in the runup to this weekend's local and Senate elections in the Czech Republic. What's more, intolerance, racism and xenophobia are not just fads being followed by what are traditionally extremist, obscure, small movements and parties.  full story

Commentary: Mayors and racism in the Czech Republic

Prague, 9.10.2014 0:28, (ROMEA) The "inadaptables" are once again scoring points in the runup to the local elections. Just as they did four and also eight years ago, many local politicians are competing to see who can promise a more aggressive intervention against the "inadaptables", subliminally understood to mean homeless people, migrants, Romani people and anyone else not favored by society (for various, often irrational reasons).  full story

Czech trial of alleged neo-Nazi hard core postponed indefinitely

Prague, 7.10.2014 23:48, (ROMEA) Yesterday the third-instance trial of the allegedly hardcore members of a group called National Resistance (Národní odpor - NO) began in the Czech Republic. Its alleged members face up to eight years in prison for promoting Nazi propaganda as an organized group.  full story

Commentary: Czech mayoral candidate would use EU money on the wrong problem

Prague, 7.10.2014 18:54, (ROMEA) Martin Štěpánek, a candidate for mayor in the upcoming local elections in Ostrava, has recently explained the vision behind his campaign slogan, "I reject trafficking in poverty", in an interview for the Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES (published Monday 22 September). At first glance it might seem that this striking slogan is aimed at the abuse of welfare by the owners of residential hotels for the socially vulnerable - the "traffickers in poverty".  full story

Violeta Naydenova: Jourová must be more active on Romani issues than her predecessor

Brussels, 2.10.2014 23:42, (ROMEA) Violeta Naydenova, a Bulgarian Romani analyst for the Open Society Foundations, has commented in the EU Observer that Věra Jourová, the Czech EU Commissioner-designate for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, should be much more active when it comes to addressing Romani issues in EU countries. Naydenova says Jourová should do more than her predecessor to combat anti-Romani attitudes and discrimination.  full story

Czech Republic: Roma claim police apply double standard

Kadaň, 1.10.2014 20:01, (ROMEA) Fear of going out onto the street alone, terror after being threatened with having one's throat cut and run over by a car, a feeling of hopelessness that neither the police nor anyone else can guarantee justice and the right to a dignified life. Police indifference to Romani residents and sympathy for the local skinhead brawlers who terrorize Roma living in the Czech town of Kadaň - all of this is leading local Romani residents to feel that a double standard applies to law and order there.  full story

Czech ombud says her deputy's article was totally out of line

Brno, 1.10.2014 18:15, (ROMEA) Anna Šabatová, the Czech Public Defender of Rights (the ombud) has sharply criticized her deputy, Stanislav Křeček, for authoring an article critiquing the work of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. "[Mr Křeček's article] contravenes all of the principles of the work of the ombud, which are to maintain competence and confidentiality, to have a thorough knowledge of all the circumstances of a case, to listen to the other side, and what is most important, to propose measures for improving a situation should it be unsatisfactory," she has written in the daily Lidové noviny, which published Křeček's critique.  full story

Czech Agency for Social Inclusion director responds to Deputy Ombud's critique

Brno/Prague, 1.10.2014 17:25, (ROMEA) Czech Deputy Ombud Stanislav Křeček has written a critique of the activity of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in the town of Duchcov for the daily Lidové noviny (Agentura, která nepomůže, LN 25. 9.) I would welcome it if next time he would spend more time studying our work, as it is evident from his article that he knows almost nothing about it or the situation in Duchcov.  full story

Czech NGO's hands tied on hopeless situation of Romani migrants from Slovakia

Prague, 30.9.2014 20:34, (ROMEA) In recent weeks the field social workers at the Prague branch of the People in Need association have been confronted with the desperate situations of Romani people from Slovakia who, in fear for their lives, decided to leave their home country with the unclear notion that they might find assistance in Prague. The following is a description of a dramatic two days in the life of the Prague branch of that NGO, as described by one of its social workers.  full story

Czech ultra-right leader rails against Arab spa clients

Teplice, 29.9.2014 22:15, (ROMEA) Several people were arrested by police on Saturday during an assembly convened in the town of Teplice by the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS). Police spokesperson Dan Vítek announced the arrests.  full story

Renata Berkyová on wall demolition in Slovakia: What principles do we honor?

Prague, 18.9.2014 17:54, (ROMEA) Several days ago a report came out about the demolition of a wall at the Luník VIII housing estate in Košice, Slovakia and a visit paid by activists to the residents of Ostrovany there. The media reports that this was the work of activists from abroad, including the Czech Republic.  full story

Interview with Romani psychologist Andrea Tibenská

Hradec Králové, 16.9.2014 19:06, (ROMEA) ANDREA TIBENSKÁ is from the town of Prievidza in Western Slovakia. She works as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.  full story

Gwendolyn Albert: Seven UN agencies issue joint statement on stopping forced, coercive, and involuntary sterilization

Imperial Beach, California (USA), 20.8.2014 15:20, (ROMEA) In May 2014, seven UN agencies - the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNAIDS, the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund, UN Women and the World Health Organization – jointly issued an interagency statement on eliminating forced, coercive and involuntary sterilization. The document reviews the many circumstances under which children, men and women have been sterilized against their will around the world and provides clear guidance to governments and the medical profession on how to bring these human rights abuses to an end.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: Okamura and those like him speak the language of criminals

Prague, 4.8.2014 21:17, (ROMEA) To tell you the truth, we traditional Czech Romani and Sinti people are no longer surprised by the remarks made by the Okamuras, Klauses, Čuněks, Doubravas, Řápkovás or Janáčkovás. During the time we have been living in the Czech lands, we have gotten used to quite a lot.  full story

Commentary: Behind Europe's trend of aggression, intolerance and stupidity

Prague, 24.7.2014 22:02, (ROMEA) As this year's elections to the European Parliament have confirmed, it is no accident that populism and right-wing extremism are gaining strength throughout Europe. This is part of a trend we have been able observe for the last five to 10 years.  full story

Rytmus: It's narrow-minded to be upset by my photos with the Gypsies

Prague, 23.7.2014 19:27, (ROMEA) Slovak recording artists Patrik "Rytmus" Vrbovský and Dara Rolins are featured on the cover of the August issue of the Czech edition of ELLE. Their controversial photo shoot in a Romani settlement has prompted a wide range of responses.  full story

videoRomani opera singer Miro Bartoš: You can't save the world, but you can help individuals

Prague, 21.7.2014 23:35, (ROMEA) Miro Bartoš and his sister Bohunka are among the few Romani people who have managed to escape an environment that did not give them much of a chance. Both siblings have graduated from music conservatories.  full story