World

Fundamental Rights Agency: Hate crimes a reality in the EU

Prague, 27.11.2012 16:44, (ROMEA) The EU Fundamental Rights Agency has issued the following press release:  full story

Sweden: Racist murderer of immigrants gets life in prison

Stockholm, Sweden, 25.11.2012 21:22, (ROMEA) The racist assailant who terrorized the inhabitants of the southern Swedish town of Malmö for two years has been sentenced to life in prison. Peter Mangs (age 40) shot at dark-skinned immigrants and long evaded police despite an intensive manhunt for him. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that he was arrested in 2010 and has now been sentenced on two counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, and three counts of assault. The court also ruled that Mangs must pay the families of his victims compensation in the amount of 1.2 million Swedish crowns.  full story

Greek neo-Nazi party may be linked to planned attack on mosque

Athens, Greece, 24.11.2012 20:37, (ROMEA) The Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports that the Greek neo-Nazis who won seats in Parliament this year are evidently linked to a planned Molotov cocktail attack on a mosque there. Proof of this is the case of a 22-year-old man who was recently arrested in central Greece and told police he had planned to carry out such an attack on the basis of instructions received from the radical Golden Dawn party. The party had earned his "gratitude" mafia-style by finding him work.  full story

Thousands sign Czech petition for "practical schools"

Prague, 23.11.2012 19:42, (ROMEA) Some parents and teachers are defending the Czech Republic's former "special schools", which are still attended in large numbers by Romani children today, including children who are not disabled. A petition to preserve the schools has received more than 75 000 signatures. Authors of the petition plan to deliver it to the Czech Education Ministry today.  full story

Romani people deported from France say they are starving in Romania

Timisoara, Romania, 21.11.2012 18:09, (ROMEA) Czech Radio reports that Romani people who have been deported from France to Romania are saying they will die of hunger if they stay there. They blame the Romanian authorities and view the decisions of several EU countries to forcibly deport them back to their native country as based in populism  full story

Poland: Breivik-inspired terrorist attack by antisemitic xenophobe foiled

Warsaw, 20.11.2012 22:32, (ROMEA) The Office of the Public Prosecutor of Cracow has announced that Polish police have foiled a planned bomb attack against high representatives of the country. The would-be assassin has been arrested in the southern city of Cracow.  full story

Estonia: Denial of Stalin-era deportations could become a crime

Tallinn, 20.11.2012 17:42, (ROMEA) The Estonian Justice Ministry has prepared a bill that would make it a crime to deny the Stalin-ordered deportations which affected thousands of people in the country during the Soviet era. The Delfi press agency, based in the Baltics, reports that Estonian courts would be able to sanction the approval or denial of the deportations to Siberia during the rule of dictator Joseph Stalin with prison sentences of up three years without the possibility of parole.  full story

USA warns its citizens of racist violence in Greece

Athens, Greece, 19.11.2012 16:52, (ROMEA) The Embassy of the United States of America in Athens has warned US citizens traveling to Greece that racist violence has revived there. Agence France-Presse reports that NGOs are ascribing the violence to Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party currently seated in the Greek Parliament.  full story

Discrimination in Holocaust Remembrance: The Ultimate Irony

New York, 19.11.2012 1:36, (ROMEA) How much more time will pass before Roma and Sinti (“Gypsies”) are sufficiently, publicly and regularly recognized as one of two ethnic groups slated for complete extermination in the Holocaust? What will it take for Holocaust education to include Romani persecution in a way that teaches not only who Romani people are, but also the very relevant continuities in European Nazi ideology?  full story

Czech EdMin wants stricter criteria for practical school enrollment

Prague, 17.11.2012 20:00, (ROMEA) The Czech Education Ministry wants to change the methods used for evaluating candidates for the practical (previously called the "special") schools. Within two years, preparatory classes at these schools will be closed, as will pupils' so-called diagnostic stays in them. Those are the conclusions of working materials which the ministry will present in December to the Council of Europe. The materials, which have been made available to the Czech Press Agency, are the ministry's response to a five-year-old European Court of Human Rights judgment according to which 18 Romani pupils were unjustifiably transferred to "special schools".  full story

Czech Republic: Romani students meet with CoE Human Rights Commissioner

Prague, 16.11.2012 16:00, (ROMEA) A round table was held in Prague this week between those involved in the D.H. case, Romani student representatives, First Deputy Education Minister Jiří Nantl, and Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks. Video of the press conference held after the round table is available at http://www.romea.cz/cz/video/konference-seminare/sestrih-tiskove-konference-po-kulatem-stolu-ucastniku-pripadu-d-h-a-romskych-studentu (in Czech only).  full story

Michael Mates investigated over Gypsy comment in PCC election statement

Hampshire, 16.11.2012 12:28, (ROMEA) Hampshire police refer two complaints alleging use of racist language by candidate to neighbouring force for investigation.  full story

Germany: Schleswig-Holstein officially protecting Roma and Sinti

Kiel, Germany, 15.11.2012 22:08, (ROMEA) German news server Spiegel Online reports that the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany has become the first in the country to incorporate protection for Romani and Sinti people into its state constitution. Members of the Romani and Sinti minorities now have the right to protection and support equivalent to that of two other minorities living in the state, the Danish and the Frisians.  full story

Czech Embassy Protest Over School Apartheid

London, 15.11.2012 15:17, (ROMEA) Showing solidarity with events in Ostrava, Prague and elsewhere, Roma and supporters from several countries protested outside the Czech Embassy in London on 13 November against the failure of authorities there to end apartheid in schools despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.  full story

Protest At Czech Embassy Over Denial Of Roma Children’s Rights

London, 27.10.2012 21:51, (ROMEA) Five year ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Czech Republic must end the segregration of Roma children into “special schools” where education is said to be severely substandard.  full story

Ultra-right growing in former East Germany

Germany (eastern part), 12.11.2012 17:19, (ROMEA) The German media reports that the Friedrich Ebert Foundation is informing the public that during the last six years, the number of people advocating opinions typical of the ultra-right in the former East Germany has significantly increased. The foundation says the proportion of persons holding such beliefs has risen from 6.6 % to 15.8 %.  full story

Former Czech Human Rights Minister on Romani issues

Prague, 12.11.2012 16:54, (ROMEA) News server Novinky.cz has published an extensive interview with former Czech Human Rights Commissioner Michael Kocáb. Romea.cz is publishing in translation the sections of that interview related to his most recent time in politics, including his approach toward Romani issues.  full story

Poland: 15 000 neo-Nazis clash with police in Warsaw

Warsaw, 12.11.2012 15:56, (ROMEA) Warsaw was all but transformed into a war zone yesterday as neo-Nazis clashed with police officers on the anniversary of the country's independence. Dozens of people were injured, 120 demonstrators were arrested, and total chaos reigned in the streets.  full story

Germany: Murder charges brought against last member of neo-Nazi group

Berlin, 9.11.2012 21:20, (ROMEA) One year after the discovery in Germany of the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground (NSU), which investigators say is responsible for the murders of nine immigrants and one policewoman, federal prosecutors have filed charges against its only living member, Beate Zschäpe. The High Court in Munich, where Zschäpe will be tried, made the announcement yesterday. Prosecutors have charged her with participating in 10 murders and creating a terrorist association. Press reports say she faces life in prison if convicted.  full story

Analysis: Kristallnacht and its connection to Europe today

Prague, 9.11.2012 20:03, (ROMEA) During the late night hours of 9 November and the early morning hours of 10 November 1938, the Nazis in occupied Austria, the occupied border region of the Czech lands, and Germany murdered Jewish people and captured them for the concentration camps. A total of 267 synagogues were burned down or otherwise demolished, 7 500 Jewish apartments and shops were ransacked, 91 Jewish people were directly murdered during the pogrom, and 30 000 ended up in death camps.  full story