Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Homegrown Romani funeral procession mistaken for refugees

16.10.2015 21:08 In recent months a tragicomic scenario has played itself out more than once in which ordinary inhabitants of the Czech Republic have been mistaken for refugees. Last Sunday this scenario repeated itself in Znojmo, when a funeral procession by local Romani people accompanying a deceased relative to her final resting place was mistaken by a bystander for a group of refugees.  full story

Czech Deputy PM: Responsible politicians go against the "voice of the people" to do the right thing

15.10.2015 19:01 Disadvantaged children should attend "normal" schools, people should not live in residential hotels in ghettos but in normal apartments, women should be paid the same as men and more must be done to protect women from violence, and society must learn how to avoid an energy crisis. These are interrelated topics, but we are not used to considering them as such.  full story

Czech Public Defender of Rights says human rights are being violated at the Bělá-Jezová detention facility

14.10.2015 19:23 Anna Šabatová, the Czech Public Defender of Rights, declared yesterday that the situation of children and families with children living in the Bělá-Jezová detention facility for refugees run by the Czech Interior Ministry near Mladá Boleslav is so serious that it amounts to a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. Šabatová said children there are living in objectively worse conditions than Czech prisoners do.  full story

Czech city enacts ordinance banning "sitting in problem areas"

13.10.2015 19:55 An ordinance has taken effect in 11 selected localities of the Czech city of Most restricting options for spending time outside by banning seating on freestanding walls or on chairs brought outdoors, as well as forbidding the use of barbecue grills. Similar ordinances apply in other towns in the Ústí Region such as Duchcov, Krupka and Litvínov.  full story

Czech Defense Minister unshaken by poll revealing extremism in the Army, sociologist says it reflects society

12.10.2015 7:53 An opinion survey among soldiers that discovered some Czech Army personnel hold extremist views also revealed some positive results, according to Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický (ANO). "The soldiers have my full trust and I stand behind the Army 100 %," he said after Chief of General Staff Josef Bečvář presented the findings of the survey to MPs on the Defense Committee in the Czech lower house on 7 October.  full story

Czech Republic: Activists sentenced for stunt to draw attention to a suicide say police made hateful, racist remarks

8.10.2015 5:31 News server Aktuálně.cz reported on 6 October that a verdict has been handed down in the case of two activists who tried to draw attention in June to the story of a man from Ostrava who committed suicide out of fear that he would become homeless after his eviction from a residential hotel. The local authority where the man was living did not approve his request for housing benefits, which meant he would no longer be able to afford to stay in the facility.  full story

Vice-Mayor of Czech Republic's second-largest city calls xenophobia the national hobby

6.10.2015 6:06 Brno Vice-Mayor Matěj Hollan (Žít Brno - Live Brno) has engaged in a sharp exchange with South Moravian Governor Michal Hašek over comments Hollan made about xenophobia in Czech society. "[During the Holocaust] there was majority-Czech anti-Semitism, which we love to forget about today, and the anti-Gypsyism of that time, which a big segment of society dismisses today, because to this day verbally sending 'Gypsies' to the gas chambers is the national hobby. These are modes of behavior and thought that are deeply rooted among the Czech public. Reading the debates today about Muslim refugees is essentially absolutely the same as reading the remarks that used to be made about the Jewish refugees. Back then the Jews (and the 'Gypsies') were to blame for everything, and today it's the Muslims (and the 'Gypsies')," Hollan wrote.  full story

Czech police and soldiers practice protecting borders in case migration wave rises

3.10.2015 22:47 Czech Police officers and soldiers conducted joint exercises on 30 September at 06:45 CET to practice reinstating controls at the border with Austria. Czech Police President Tomáš Tuhý announced the exercises to the press shortly before they were about to begin.  full story

Commentary: Won't Czech education reform just rename the schools (again) without achieving equality for Roma?

3.10.2015 1:09 Confusion, incessant attacks by critics, and uncertainties - these are evidently the main characteristics of the current state of Czech education reform. The proposals now on offer are yet another attempt to close the country's "special schools" and achieve inclusion.  full story

Compensation for victims of forced sterilization raised at OSCE event on Roma

2.10.2015 2:27 Speaking at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on 1 October, two Romani civil society members raised the urgent issue of the Czech Government's decision not to compensate the victims of forced sterilizations, human rights abuses that have taken place over the course of decades in the former Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including into the 21st century. Karolina Mirga of the Ternype network raised the issue as well as the continued presence of an industrial pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma at Lety in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Government rejects bill to compensate victims of illegal sterilizations

1.10.2015 9:35 Victims of illegal sterilizations perpetrated over decades apparently will not be receiving compensation from the Czech state according to a proposal developed by the team of Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD). Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (ČSSD), after a nighttime cabinet session, told journalists early this morning that the Government disagrees with the proposal, but would not give details.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani author Andrej Giňa has passed away

1.10.2015 0:40 On 30 September the author Andrej Giňa passed away at the age of 79 after a difficult illness.  full story

Czech Gov't reviewing bill to compensate illegally sterilized women

30.9.2015 19:46 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier is submitting a bill to the cabinet that legislates an apology, CZK 300 000 (EUR 11 000) in compensation, and coverage of medical treatment for women who have been illegally sterilized. Czech Deputy Human Rights Minister Martina Štěpánková, who informed Czech Television of the legislation today, estimated that several hundred women might get the chance to receive compensation.  full story

Czech Roma Spirit 2015 - last day for nominations tomorrow

29.9.2015 22:42 The Roma Spirit awards in the Czech Republic opened up their nomination process for the fifth time this past July. The mission of Roma Spirit is to appreciate the work of individuals and organizations contributing to improving the situation of Romani people in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech town segregating Roma in housing and at school - mayor says integration will only happen over his "dead body"

29.9.2015 18:18 Milan Volf, Mayor of the Czech town of Kladno, says it is impossible to move those living in the town's excluded localities into regular apartment buildings and that he believes the per-child allowances offered by the state are like a business opportunity that is motivating families in ghettos to grow exponentially larger. He made those remarks in an interview on 23 September for news server E15.cz  full story

Czech Deputy PM to meet with Defense Minister about scandalous internal Army survey leak

28.9.2015 18:22 Czech Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš, the chair of the governing ANO movement, wants to meet with his fellow party member Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický to discuss the findings of an internal Army survey. Babiš announced the plan yesterday on TV Prima's "Partie" program.  full story

Czech Education Minister: Amended law won't close schools but will change curriculum

25.9.2015 20:22 School closures are not planned in the Czech Republic in connection with legislation on inclusion that will come into force on 1 September 2016. Czech Education Minister Kateřina Valachová (for the Czech Social Democrats) made that announcement at a press briefing on 23 September.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister says EU allocating CZK 10 billion to inclusion

24.9.2015 23:31 Approximately CZK 10 billion (EUR 370 million) should come to the Czech Republic from the EU to promote social inclusion over the next few years. The funds could be distributed between 70 different cities and municipalities.  full story

Czech Republic is the last European country to institutionalize children under three

24.9.2015 20:02 "The Czech Republic has been criticized for this for more than 20 years. Other countries consider our system unbelievable. We are the last country in Europe that makes it possible to place children under the age of three in institutions. All of Europe is ahead of us on this," said Věduna Bubleová, chair of the Child and Family Association during yesterday's session of the Czech Parliament's Social Affairs Committee.  full story

Czech Army's own survey shows officers are racist, Defense Minister suspects a set-up

24.9.2015 18:19 According to internal materials produced by the General Staff of the Czech Army, aggression, racism, sharp disagreement of generals and soldiers with the Czech Republic's foreign policy and military position, and xenophobia are the main security risks now extant among the Army's officers and soldiers. Army psychologists based those findings on a survey of 816 employees of the General Staff.  full story