Czech Republic

Speech by Miroslav Brož at Lety by Písek

13.5.2016 13:56 It is mid-May and we have assembled, as we do every year, to honor the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust, to remember the victims of the Lety concentration camp, and to remember the victims of the genocide perpetrated against the Romani people.  full story

Czech Republic: "Romani Resistance Days" to involve symbolic blockade of Lety pig farm, protest in Prague

12.5.2016 14:14 The Konexe association is preparing a program to honor the memories of the victims of the Romani Holocaust and the heroic uprising of Romani people at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The events will take place from 13-16 May in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech report on extremism for last year: 307 events, anti-refugee protests replaced anti-Romani ones

8.5.2016 16:59 Czech extremists held 307 events last year, 16 more than in 2014. They assembled most frequently in Prague, and police reported protests outside of facilities for foreign nationals as a new phenomenon.  full story

Czech Republic: Traditional commemoration of the Romani victims of Nazism next week at Lety by Písek

6.5.2016 14:11 The traditional commemorative ceremony honoring the Romani victims of Nazism at the site of the Lety Memorial will take place this year on Friday, 13 May. The ceremony is being held, as it has been every year, by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (VPORH), which brings together the former Romani prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps and the surviving relatives of the victims of those camps.  full story

Prague City Hall joins Czech Government's "HateFree" campaign despite Prague City Assembly vote against it

6.5.2016 13:22 Prague City Hall has decided to join the "HateFree Culture" campaign calling for tolerance of minorities and refugees despite a decision by the Prague City Assembly not to do so. The decision to join the campaign was taken on 3 May by the Prague City Council.  full story

Academic research finds no differences between Czech and Romani pupils' delinquent behavior

6.5.2016 9:39 According to a new study performed by the University of Kentucky in collaboration with the Institute for Psychology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and published in the prestigious Journal of Criminal Justice, no differences were found between Czech and Romani pupils attending the same schools when it came to alcohol use, school misconduct, or theft. The website of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic reported the publication on 2 May.  full story

Czech Republic: Terezín Commission refuses NGO request to officially fly the LGBTQ and Romani flags during commemoration

5.5.2016 22:26 Jan Munk, the director of the Terezín Memorial who also chairs the Commission for the Preparation of the Terezín Commemoration, has refused a request from 14 organizations that the LGBTQ (rainbow) and Romani flags be flown next to the flags of various states during the 15 May event. "At the national cemetery in Terezín where this commemoration takes place, the flags of all the nations whose members fell victim to Nazi persecution and who passed through the concentration camps are flown during the commemoration ceremony. For many of those people, their distressing journey began by being transported to Terezín. To our great surprise, there is no Romani flag flown at Terezín even though, together with Jewish people, it is the Roma as a group who were affected most by Nazi persecution in the Czech lands," the organizations said in an open letter.  full story

Czech President says he vetoed education amendment because of inclusion

5.5.2016 8:53 Czech President Miloš Zeman has vetoed an amendment to the Schools Act that would introduce mandatory school-leaving examinations in mathematics and places in preschools for two-year-old children. Jiří Ovčáček, spokesperson for the Office of the President, communicated the news to the Czech News Agency yesterday.  full story

Commentary: Czech tabloid quotes Romani man as opposing inclusive education, other Romani representatives respond

3.5.2016 7:52 The Czech tabloid Blesk.cz has been engaged in a campaign to prevent the closure of the separate special needs schools and to prevent the abolition of the "Appendix to the Framework Education Program on Mild Mental Disability". As part of that campaign, the tabloid chose to contact Andrej Lučka, the regional chair of the Romani Democratic Party in Rokycany and the chair of the "Help Roma" organization (and apparently a special school graduate himself), who told the tabloid, among other things, that he will "Defend [his] practical and special school at any cost, even with pitchforks".  full story

Czech Republic's quarterly report on extremism: Ultra-right trend is anti-immigration, ultra-left is unable to unify

2.5.2016 9:46 The main topics taken up by Czech extremist groups during the first quarter of 2016 were a critique and rejection of the European Union and migration. The Czech Interior Ministry published its Summary Situation Report on Extremism on 26 April.  full story

Czech Republic: Neo-Nazis try to provoke local Roma in Přerov during 1 May protest

2.5.2016 7:20 An assembly and march by about 30 neo-Nazis from the National Regeneration (Národní obroda - NO) group took place yesterday in Přerov. The leader of the NO, Pavel Matějný, gave a speech very similar to those he has given to previous such assemblies.
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videoCzech Republic: 1 May assemblies against refugee reception and against xenophobia, right-wing extremists verbally assault journalists

1.5.2016 17:22 Since the early morning hours of 1 May there have been peaceful demonstrations, marches, and traditional assemblies throughout the entire Czech Republic. One demonstration against tax havens and xenophobia was attended by 250 people and began on the Square of the Republic in Prague.  full story

Czech lower house committee recommends not expanding ombudsman's powers

1.5.2016 15:04 The Czech lower house may not decide to expand the powers of the Public Defender of Rights (ombudsman) after all, as on 29 April its Constitutional Law Committee recommended supporting amendments that would remove from a proposed Government bill the option for the ombudsman to ask the Constitutional Court to repeal legislation in whole or in part and the option for the ombudsman to bring public interest lawsuits in cases of discrimination. The plenary could decide on the bill this month.  full story

Prague council members for ODS say Government's EU-funded "HateFree" campaign is an example of left-wing "extremism"

1.5.2016 13:53 Prague City council member Matěj Stropnický (Green Party/Trojkoalice) proposed earlier this week that City Hall become a "HateFree Zone", but his motion did not receive enough votes to pass. In a resolution that did pass, however, the City Council rejected violence no matter what political ideology inspires it.  full story

Czech Police charge racist activist Adam B. Bartoš with crimes against humanity

1.5.2016 12:49 On 29 April the Prague Police charged the chair of the ultra-right National Democracy group, Adam B. Bartoš, with three counts of crimes against humanity. Police say he has committed those crimes through the content of his book and other writings he has published, as well as through his public speeches.  full story

Czech activist acquitted of assaulting police officer

30.4.2016 16:42 On 28 April the Municipal Court in Prague acquitted activist Kateřina Krejčová of allegedly assaulting a police officer at a demonstration. According to the verdict, the activist not only never intended to injure the officer, but could not have injured him even if she had wanted to.  full story

Czech Republic: Criminal investigation to be sought over Romani Democratic Party's annual report

30.4.2016 15:02 Czech MPs from the Audit Committee in the lower house, which is in charge of monitoring political parties' annual reports, are of the opinion that the annual financial report of the Romani Democratic Party for 2015 contains a falsified auditor's statement. The MPs are apparently planning to file a criminal report in the matter.  full story

Czech Government condemns vandals for painting Nazi symbols around Prague

30.4.2016 14:19 At a cabinet session Thursday the Czech Government condemned those responsible for the vituperative graffiti that appeared at several locations in Prague last weekend. The perpetrators drew predominantly Nazi symbols on various buildings.  full story

Czech daily: Police investigations of hate attacks are remarkably ineffective

30.4.2016 13:34 The online news server Lidovky.cz has published a summary of recent hate attacks in the Czech Republic and the developments to date in their investigations. The article describes the circumstances of five cases, each of which has received particular media attention.  full story

Czech Republic: 11 organizations call on Terezín to fly the LGBTQ and Romani flags during traditional commemoration

29.4.2016 11:22 Eleven organizations working on LGBTQ and Romani topics have called on the Terezín Memorial to fly the LGBTQ (Rainbow) flag and the Romani flag next to the flags of nations whose members fell victim to Nazi persecution. "To our great surprise, there is no Romani flag flown at Terezín even though, together with Jewish people, it is the Roma as a group who were affected most by Nazi persecution in the Czech lands. More than 90 % of the interwar Romani population did not survive racial persecution and the war itself," the organizations write in an open letter to the members of the Commission for the Organization of the Terezín commemoration, which news server Romea.cz is publishing here in full translation.  full story