Czech Republic

videoEuropean Roma Spirit Awards: Impreuna, Roma Education Support Trust, Romea.cz, Spišský Hrhov, Sabiha Suleiman

11.10.2016 15:15 Yesterday the first-ever European Roma Spirit Awards were announced in Bratislava. The ceremony included a video greeting from EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani scholarship recipients study economics, history, IT, languages and medicine

11.10.2016 14:29 Hundreds of young Romani people are studying at college throughout the Czech Republic. Frequently they are the first people in their families ever to do so.
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Analysis: How extremism has changed over time

11.10.2016 10:17 Times change. During the 1930s, the ruling elites were discussing deporting refugees to Madagascar.  full story

Romani hockey player Dominik Lakatoš: My Dad is my biggest hero

11.10.2016 9:10 Ice hockey forward Dominik Lakatoš was born in 1997. He is the first Romani player ever to play professional hockey in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Republic: Five physically injured after Hitler is praised in local restaurant

10.10.2016 14:14 A physical conflict occurred between two different groups of people on the evening of Saturday, 8 October in a restaurant in the village of Chotutice near Český Brod (Kolín district). According to eyewitnesses, the conflict happened after a local customer declared he was sorry that Adolf Hitler hadn't managed to fully implement his "solution" for the "Romani question".  full story

Czech Human Rights Ministry: Database of Roma victims of the Holocaust project discussed with Working Group

10.10.2016 13:46 On Friday, 7 October 2016, the Working Group for the Redress of Romani people, which advises the Czech Government Council on Romani Minority Affairs, convened for the second time this year. Representatives of the Terezín Initiative Institute were invited and presented the Working Group members with their project on developing a database of Romani victims of the Holocaust.
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Czech PM: Hate attacks in UK after Brexit are future of Europe if EU falls

10.10.2016 9:25 On Friday, 7 October, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) said the British decision to leave the European Union has led to foreign nationals becoming targeted for assault in Britain. He believes a similar error must not be repeated in any other EU country, otherwise Europe will be smashed by its own hatreds and nationalism.  full story

Romani heroes: The "Black" Partisan, Josef Serinek

10.10.2016 8:23 Josef Serinek (1900-1974, sometimes also spelled Serynek), a Czech Roma who went by the code name of Černý ("Black"), was a soldier during the First World War, a prisoner of the Lety concentration camp during the Second World War, and later a Partisan commander. After the end of the Second World War he ran a pub called "U černého partyzána" ("At the Black Partisan's Place") in the Czech town of Svitavy.
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EUROPE: Roma Pride 2016 raised the issue of denying that Roma were Holocaust victims

10.10.2016 7:36 On Sunday, 2 October, the sixth annual Roma Pride event took place in a number of locations around Europe including Prague. Compared to previous years, there was significantly lower Romani turnout for it in Prague this year.  full story

Czech party revives anti-Romani slogan - "Gadje, get to work" - in Ústecký Region, and wins

9.10.2016 20:12 The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in Ústecký Region has revived a racist slogan from 2008 and struck an anti-Romani note in the run-up to this weekend's elections. The video clip published on the official Facebook page of the party begins with the sentence "Hey, gadje, why do you have time to sit down? Get to work so we'll have enough money for welfare!"  full story

Commentary: In a country with almost no refugees, why are they feared?

9.10.2016 19:32 "In two towns in the east of Germany on Friday evening small groups of local residents clashed with asylum-seekers. The scuffles resulted in four people suffering slight injuries," the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on Saturday, 1 October.  full story

Commentary: Czechs realize "anti-Gypsy" law - stricter than during totalitarian rule - applies to them too

9.10.2016 18:20 As of 1 October an amendment to the law on misdemeanors has taken effect in the Czech Republic. Each municipality will now have to publish a decree listing the kind of behavior that qualifies as disrupting nighttime quiet.  full story

Commentary: Monothematic parties lose, but carefully-expressed bigotry wins votes in the Czech Republic

9.10.2016 17:11 Of the anti-Romani or extremist-oriented parties that ran during the regional and Senate elections this weekend, the Freedom and Direct Democracy group (Svoboda a přímá demokracie - SPD), founded by Tomio Okamura, scored the biggest success, mostly by running in coalition with the Citizens' Rights Party (SPO), which is connected to Czech President Zeman. Bigoted candidates such as Jaroslav Doubrava and Liana Janáčková made it to the second round of the Senate elections, and Jiří Čunek, running for the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) scored a significant success in the Zlín Region.  full story

Commentary: Czech Regional and Senate elections - Roma didn't vote, Romani candidates didn't win

9.10.2016 14:15 The outcome of this weekend's elections to regional assemblies and to one-third of the Czech Senate in localities where a greater number of Romani people live did not demonstrate any significant voter preferences - rather, what was typical of those localities was a very low voter turnout. Romani candidates were not elected anywhere.  full story

Czech journalist Petr Uhl celebrates his 75th birthday: Always room for improvement on human rights

8.10.2016 20:57 The journalist, former dissident, signatory of Charter 77, former General Director of the Czech News Agency and the Czech Republic's first-ever Human Rights Commissioner, Petr Uhl, is celebrating his 75th birthday today, 8 October. The former commentator for the Czech daily Právo has also been a member of the board of public broadcaster Czech Television and of the Czech Government Human Rights Council.  full story

Analysis: Why the National Resistance members should be tried - 10 years of a failed hunt for hardcore neo-Nazis in the Czech Republic

8.10.2016 12:20 Two weeks ago, the latest round of the court proceedings against eight defendants charged with conspiracy and rioting with the aim of promoting Nazism in the Czech Republic began. According to the indictment, the defendants are the former hard core of an unregistered group called the "National Resistance" (Národní odpor - NO).  full story

Czech regional elections. Romani candidate for LEV21, Miroslav Jano: I don't like combining with the ultra-right, after this I'm out

8.10.2016 10:09 On Friday, 7 October and Saturday, 8 October, citizens of the Czech Republic will vote for regional assembly members and in some regions also for the one-third of the Czech Senate whose electoral terms are expiring. Political parties have also sent several candidates to the regional elections who are of Romani nationality.  full story

Czech Republic: Four concentration camps for Roma ran during WWII in Liberec - Part Three

8.10.2016 8:58 This is the final piece in our three-part series about the concentration camps for Romani people in Liberec that ran from 1939 until 1943 when the country was the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The series is based on articles by Ivan Rous in the books "Camps and Wartime Production" ("Tábory a válečná výroba") and "Blank Spaces in Holocaust Research" ("Bílá místa ve výzkumu holokaustu").  full story

Czech regional elections. Romani SocDem candidate Rudolf Polák: Pay must motivate semi-skilled laborers too

7.10.2016 20:52 On Friday, 7 October and Saturday, 8 October, citizens of the Czech Republic will vote for regional councilors and in some regions also for the one-third of the Czech Senate whose electoral terms are expiring. Political parties have also sent several candidates to the regional elections who are of Romani nationality.  full story

Czech Republic: Four concentration camps for Roma ran during WWII in Liberec - Part Two

7.10.2016 17:46 This is the second piece in our three-part series about the concentration camps for Romani people in Liberec that ran from 1939 until 1943 when the country was the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The series is based on articles by Ivan Rous in the books "Camps and Wartime Production" ("Tábory a válečná výroba") and "Blank Spaces in Holocaust Research" ("Bílá místa ve výzkumu holokaustu").  full story