Czech Republic

Czech regional elections. Romani candidate for the Greens/Pirates, Karel Karika: No more socially excluded localities

7.10.2016 13:18 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 regional elections: Romani ODS candidate Milan Horvát says small-town schools need good educators

6.10.2016 18:02 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 children's sports team called "Cyklon B" played a Romani team last weekend, organizers apologize

6.10.2016 16:14 The first Saturday of October in the Ládví neighborhood of Prague saw a sports tournament held for children living in state-run children's homes. Second place in the category of children aged 13 and older went to a team from the Dolní Počernice Children's Home who called themselves "Cyklon B", the Czech translation of Zyklon B, the brand name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s and infamous for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately one million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.  full story

Czech regional elections: Roma Democratic Party says job opportunities needed

6.10.2016 11:36 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: TODAY Václav Havel's 80th birthday to be marked by assembly on Wenceslas Square

3.10.2016 9:14 Wednesday, 5 October 2016 will mark 80 years since the birth of Václav Havel, and the occasion will be marked by a big assembly and concert on Wenceslas Square in Prague. The aim of the event is to remind people of Havel's life philosophy, his positions on various issues, and the values that he stood for.  full story

NGOs meet with Czech EdMin about the state hiring Roma and support for Romani students

5.10.2016 17:06 Deputy Education Minister Václav Pícl met with representatives of a National Working Group of 11 Romani nonprofit organizations from all over the Czech Republic on 3 October in his office at the ministry. "The aim of the meeting is to establish a constructive collaboration between established Romani nonprofit organizations and the Education Ministry. The coalition works with as many as 8 000 Romani people around the country and can be a bridge between the Romani community and the state administration," said Jelena Silajdžić, director of the Slovo 21 organization.
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Czech inspectors issue discrimination fines: Foreigners charged more, Roma refused service

5.10.2016 16:38 The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA) undertook 257 inspections during the second quarter of this year focused on discrimination in restaurants and shops, confirming suspicions of discrimination against consumers in five cases, or almost two per cent. Violations of legal regulations, such as dishonest sales, were found in 129 situations, i.e., at every other business that was inspected.  full story

Martin Dudi: I want to become a teacher or work with children from poor families

5.10.2016 14:52 Martin Dudi is a 22-year-old Romani student from Písek who comes from a family that does its best to uphold Romani customs and traditions and even still speaks the Romanes language. Until the age of three he only spoke Romanes at home, and he did not begin to use Czech until he went to preschool.  full story

Commentary: Corporal punishment at the "inclusive school"

4.10.2016 15:12 Recently I have been repeatedly asked to write something about inclusive education. The debate about this topic has become extremely polarized and I have not been able to figure out which end of the spectrum to start from if I want to avoid repeating arguments I have heard 100 times and adding fuel to the fire already burning around this subject.  full story

Czech town "celebrates" 10th anniversary of Romani evictions and creation of ghetto with fireworks

4.10.2016 12:14 Romani tenants of "container housing" in the locality of Poschlá on the outskirts of the Czech town of Vsetín would like to move away, ideally back into town. "We are from Vsetín, we want to remain living there and we would like to have the same conditions as everybody else," Marián Tulej, who administers the housing units, told journalists yesterday.  full story

Czech Police say activist's burning of Quran was neither a crime nor a misdemeanor

3.10.2016 7:49 Martin Konvička, the college instructor who used to represent the now-defunct Bloc against Islam, did not commit a criminal act when he set pages of the Quran on fire in front of a mosque in Brno this July, according to police. The situation was investigated after Brno city councilor Svatopluk Bartík filed a crime report against Konvička.  full story

Czech Republic: Islamophobes demonstrate in four towns with ultra-nationalist party

30.9.2016 14:45 Roughly 250 people, according to Czech Police estimates, assembled for a "Saint Václav demonstration" in Prague on 28 September, a state holiday officially called the Day of Czech Statehood. The event protested the alleged "Islamization" of Europe.  full story

Czech court reopens trial of promotion of neo-Nazism, now in its sixth year

27.9.2016 10:31 Three of the eight people who face charges of supporting and promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms stood in a renewed trial today before the District Court for Prague 1. They claim they are innocent.  full story

Tereza Heková: I treat others the way they treat me

27.9.2016 6:12 Tereza Heková is a Romani college student who graduated from secondary professional school in the Czech town of Most with a focus on Public Administration. Today she is focused on that same field at college and is in her third year of studying at the private CEVRO Institute.  full story

Roma Spirit Czech Republic: Deadline for nominations THIS FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER

26.9.2016 21:27 The final opportunity to nominate individuals and organizations for the 2016 Roma Spirit awards in the Czech Republic will be this Friday, 30 September. The mission of Roma Spirit, which is held by the Michael Kocáb Foundation in collaboration with the Open Society NGO (Otevřená společnost, o.p.s.) and the Museum of Romani Culture, is to appreciate and popularize the work of individuals and organizations who contribute to improving the situation of Romani people in the Czech Republic.  full story

Miroslav Kováč: Longtime racist politician hands out matches during Czech elections

26.9.2016 12:49 Liana Janáčková is a former Senator and longtime Mayor of the Municipal Department of Mariánské Hory in the City of Ostrava who is primarily infamous for her blatantly extremist position toward the Romani minority, and she is running for the Senate again this year. This time around she is running for the INDEPENDENTS (NEZÁVISLÍ) movement in the Ostrava-město precinct, while at the same time, in the elections to the Regional Authority, she is heading the candidate list for that movement in the Moravian-Silesian Region.  full story

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

26.9.2016 7:44 This is the first of a three-part series about the concentration camps for Romani people located in the Czech town of Liberec that ran from 1939 - 1943 when the country was the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The series is based on articles by Ivan Rous in his books "Camps and Wartime Production" ("Tábory a válečná výroba") and "Blank Spaces in Holocaust Research" ("Bílá místa ve výzkumu holokaustu").  full story

Commentary: A children's playground, common dialogue, and the media

25.9.2016 20:54 In mid-September the Lidové noviny daily paper opened up an important topic by publishing a sketch of an everyday experience at a children's playground in the Czech Republic. What followed was a passionate discussion about whether the article itself was inciting racism or whether it was analyzing the causes of racism, whether a person should "speak up" in certain situations or leave them in tears.  full story

Commentary: The Miss Roma competition does more harm than good

25.9.2016 18:29 On Saturday evening the "Miss Roma 2016" competition was held at the House of Culture in the Czech town of Hodonín for the 12th year in a row. I have always had mixed feelings about this contest, but I have never before publicly discussed what bothers me about it because it was always clear to me that it involves a significant emancipatory charge for some Romani community members.  full story

Adriana Trejtnarová: Romani people are receiving support - we are studying

23.9.2016 13:41 She is studying at the Czech Agricultural University, she is interested in diplomacy and social affairs, and she isn't afraid to share her opinions with the public.
Adriana Trejtnarová (age 21) has come a long way already in her life.  full story