News

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.
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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.
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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

Director of Czech NGO says Karlovy Vary Region suffers in terms of education

6.3.2017 13:28 In the year 2001, Trappist monks chose to use the agricultural area of a former Baroque-era estate in the town of Nový Dvůr as a monastery and initiated the creation of a nonprofit organization called Český západ (Bohemian West) in the excluded localities of the Teplice and Toužim area. The headquarters of the NGO are located one kilometer away, in the town of Dobrá Voda, near a prefabricated apartment building inhabited predominantly by Romani community members.  full story

Researcher finds first photograph of Romani community member as a Czechoslovak soldier, seeks those who remember Imrich Horváth

6.3.2017 10:47 Recently news server Romea.cz published a call for those who have eyewitness testimony about the fate of a forgotten participant in the Second World War. Czechoslovak soldier Imrich Horváth was awarded several military honors, but military historians have kept silent about him.  full story

Czech court fines politician for bribery and extortion in attempt to buy votes of Romani people

6.3.2017 9:38 News server Aktuálně.cz has reported that on 24 February the Municipal Court in Prague upheld the first-instance conviction of a former council member of the Prague-Letňany Municipal Department, Jan Mikulecký (for the Civic Democratic Party - ODS), over events during the 2014 municipal elections. Mikulecký must pay a fine of CZK 100 000 [EUR 3 700] for bribery and extortion or spend nine months in prison.  full story

Slovak President vetoes law to end runoff voting for Regional Governors

6.3.2017 8:36 Slovak President Andrej Kiska has vetoed a law on abolishing runoff elections for the Governors of Regional Administrations. The press department of the Office of the Slovak President informed the Czech News Agency of the veto on 24 February.  full story

Interview with Fedor Gál: It took me years to get that "solving the Romani problem" is nonsense

6.3.2017 7:44 When, eight years ago, we entered into the story of Natálka, the Romani infant who suffered burns during a neo-Nazi arson attack on her home in Vítkov, we had a messianic complex, Slovak sociologist Fedor Gál says in an interview for HlídacíPes.org, excerpted in translation below. A group of people from various professions got together to "supervise" how the family was managing to cope with the tragedy.  full story

European Commission reports Roma six times more likely to be poor in the Czech Republic than non-Roma

5.3.2017 8:25 The European Commission has published an analysis of the economic situation in the EU Member States, finding that while the Czech Republic is assessed relatively favorably from the perspective of economic indicators, there are several structural problems limiting the country's potential. Those problems are, for example, education, employment, and the social situation of some disadvantaged population groups.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani child adopted by a non-Romani family tells his story

4.3.2017 11:31 Otakar Chládek (age 21) was born in and grew up in the Pardubice Region and holds a certificate as a waiter from the Zámek High School for Crafts, Services and Trades in Žamberk, Czech Republic. He currently is attending a medical course for emergency medical technicians and would like to complete his secondary education after that.  full story

Czech court rules that school ethnically discriminated against Romani children by rejecting their enrollment

3.3.2017 12:35 The Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinova discriminated against two Romani preschoolers when it refused to enroll them into first grade in 2014, according to a ruling by the District Court there. The court found that the school was attempting to unjustifiably regulate the number of Romani children in the first grade class.  full story