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Czech Vice-Mayor says Czech Govt's method for collecting data about Romani people is "inhumane"

16.3.2017 10:55 The Czech town of Liberec is refusing to send a report about the state of the Romani minority to the Regional Authority for delivery to the Office of the Czech Government. Such a report has, for years, served as background material for a nationwide report on that issue.  full story

Czech association of local residents wants to clean up and revive the Předlice ghetto

15.3.2017 7:57 "We are a group of people, non-Roma and Roma, who can no longer watch the situation in the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem, where most of us live. We do not want
Předlice to continue to be considered the worst neighborhood in the Czech Republic, to persist as a ghetto. We want to put Předlice back on its feet, solve its problems, and activate its inhabitants," reads the manifesto of the AMARE Předlice association, which was created at the beginning of this year.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani quintuplets finally receive donations

15.3.2017 7:22 Last week the City of Prague disbursed roughly CZK 616 000 [EUR 23 000] to the mother of the first-ever quintuplets in the Czech Republic, Alexandra Kiňová, from the
collection to which people had contributed in support of her children. Vít Hofman, spokesperson for Prague City Hall, announced the news on Monday.  full story

"Baruvas" Romani student meeting in Brno, Czech Republic confirms that education makes sense

14.3.2017 7:11 "It was a brilliant feeling to see Romani people around me who are interested in education, who are motivated, who have dreams and vision. I am glad that none of us are alone in this now. Personally, it gave me a lot of new energy and appetite to work on myself even more, because I have the hope that it makes sense to do so," says Martin Dudi, a student of Philosophy and Religion at the South Bohemian University who attended a meeting of Romani college and high school students, "Baruvas", that took place in Brno during the first weekend in March.  full story

Czech HateFree campaign will continue in a different form, Govt issues statement fully backing its manager

13.3.2017 6:55 The Czech Government's HateFree Culture campaign will continue next year in a different form. Deputy Human Rights Minister Martina Štěpánková informed members of the
lower house of the decision on 7 March.  full story

Czech online media pro believes turning on critical thinking is easier than censoring the Internet

12.3.2017 21:06 At the beginning of March, the ROMEA organization used its Facebook page to broadcast a second live educational webinar, this time featuring lecturer Pavel Kasík, an editor at Technet.cz, and a young student of andragogy, Denisa Maková on how to discuss fake news on the Internet and social networking sites with others. "Whenever anybody believes he or she knows something, it's very difficult to demonstrate to that person that basically he or she does not," Kasík said in the introduction, describing one of the problems he has encountered during his work in the media.  full story

Czech disinformation outlet misinforms readers that a refugee camp "like Calais" is growing in Prague

11.3.2017 21:29 The dissemination of disinformation and fake news to manipulate Czech readers takes various forms. A fresh example from the Czech tabloid Parlamentní listy demonstrates that the images used in news reporting play a significant role in such efforts.  full story

Czech Government approves social housing bill, ANO insists on reservations

11.3.2017 12:02 The long-anticipated, much-discussed social housing bill will now make its way to the Czech Chamber of Deputies. The bill's authors claim it should reduce trafficking in poverty and was approved by the Government on 8 March, according to cabinet spokesperson Martin Ayrer.  full story

Czech Republic: NGO disagrees with court that principal discriminated against Romani preschoolers

11.3.2017 10:45 The Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) organization has issued a statement of support for the principal of the Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinova which, according to a judgment by the District Court in Ostrava, discriminated against two Romani preschoolers when it refused to enroll them into first grade in 2014. The organization disagrees with the court that principal Kamil Krahula behaved in a discriminatory fashion when making that decision.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister wants Lety concentration camp memorial administered by Museum of Romani Culture, relative of victims disagrees

11.3.2017 8:03 Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jan Chvojka declared on the occasion of a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the Romani Holocaust held on Tuesday, 7 March at the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno that he intends for the Museum to administer the memorial to the victims of the Romani Holocaust at Lety u Písku instead of the current administrator, the Lidice Memorial. "The minister will advocate for administration of the memorial at Lety to fall under the Museum of Romani Culture," the minister's press spokesperson, Michal Kačírek, confirmed to news server Romea.cz on 9 March.  full story

Germany: Trial begins of right-wing extremists who used Czech fireworks to make bombs

9.3.2017 14:56 On 7 March the trial began in Dresden under extraordinary security measures of eight right-wing extremists charged with carrying out a series of bomb attacks against their political opponents and refugees. The seven men and one woman, who also procured the material for their explosives in the Czech Republic, face many years in prison if convicted.
 full story

Are dogs being abused in Romani settlements in Slovakia? Romea.cz asks the authorities and experts

9.3.2017 14:06 A group called the Animal Rights Association (Sdružení za práva zvířat) in Bratislava, Slovakia, recently posted information to the Facebook profile of its "Czechoslovak Spay-and-Neuter Program" about its activity in Romani settlements there. The association is doing its best to aid dogs who, as they have documented through photographs, are frequently to be found in an underfed state in those localities.  full story

French court fines Jean-Marie Le Pen for abusive remarks about Romani people - again

9.3.2017 12:39 A French appeals court has fined the founder of the ultra-right party Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, for abusive remarks he made about Romani people in 2013. The Czech News Agency reports that Last April's fine of EUR 8 000 has been reduced to EUR 5 000 but does not specify why.  full story

Amnesty International and European Roma Rights Centre: Situation for Romani children in Slovakia is not improving

9.3.2017 10:09 According to non-governmental human rights organizations, Romani children in Slovakia are being systematically denied their right to education and to protection from discrimination in compulsory education. Most of these children are segregated into all-Romani classes or all-Romani schools or into "special schools" intended for children with "mild mental disability", warn Amnesty International (AI) and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in a joint report.  full story

Czech Police propose charging four people for neo-Nazi graffiti on businesses in the HateFree Zone

9.3.2017 8:52 Police in Prague, Czech Republic have proposed charging four people with spray-painting neo-Nazi symbols on businesses and cafes involved in the Czech Government's
HateFree Zone project. Prosecution of a fifth defendant has been temporarily suspended.
 full story

Slovak opposition movement wants to ban mosque construction

7.3.2017 11:04 An opposition movement in Slovakia called "We Are A Family - Boris Kollár" (Jsme rodina-Boris Kollár - JRBK) wants to ban the construction of mosques there. The movement has justified its proposal by alleging that mosques represent a security risk.  full story

Analysis: The 2016 arson attack on Klinika Social Center - are the Czech Police incompetent, or omniscient?

7.3.2017 9:58 How can we recognize the democratic rule of law? In addition to many other factors, equality of all before the law is one sure way.  full story

Germany: More than 3 000 attacks on refugees in 2016

7.3.2017 8:39 German authorities registered almost 10 violent attacks against immigrants daily during the course of 2016. A total of 560 people, 43 of them children, were injured during them.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister responds to US report by asserting Government is addressing Romani issues

7.3.2017 8:06 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has emphasized that the Czech Government is doing its best to improve the position of
Romani people and also to eliminate corruption through specific legislative measures. In a statement sent to the Czech News Agency yesterday, Chvojka responded to the US State Department's annual report about the state of human rights in the world, which reproachse the Czech Republic for corruption, the social discrimination of Romani people, and the stigmatization of people infected with HIV.  full story

US State Department reproaches Czech Republic over corruption, discrimination against Romani people

7.3.2017 7:10 The Czech Republic is continuing to grapple with corruption, the social discrimination of Romani people, and the stigmatization of persons infected with HIV. Those are the findings for that country in the most recent annual report from the US State Department about the state of human rights in the world.  full story