Czech Republic

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

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