Czech Republic

Julius Zajac: Let's defend Europe together, beginning with unity

15.11.2015 23:23 After the terrorist attacks in France, antagonism in the Czech Republic is growing against the so-called "optimists" ("sluníčkáři"). Who are they?  full story

Interview with Czech psychologist: Children's homes no substitute for parental love

13.11.2015 21:54 "I decided that instead of attempting to rescue 100 children at once, I would take one, two or three to be my own," Martina Vančáková told herself while still a student - and she and her husband today do actually care as foster parents for two Romani siblings in addition to their own two biological children. News server Romea.cz interviewed Vančáková, the psychologist who founded the "Our Romani Child" project at the Foster Care Center in Prague, about what children living in children's homes undergo, how to support the healthy identity of Romani children in a non-Romani foster family, and how to work with one's own prejudices.  full story

Czech Republic: Assembly announced in Prague in support of hunger-striking foreign detainees

12.11.2015 20:46 Evangelical clergyman Mikuláš Vymětal, who is working with foreign nationals protesting their detention in the Czech Republic by going on hunger strike, has informed the media of new developments in their situation: "The foreign nationals who are continuing their hunger strike to protest their detention in the facility at Drahonice were told by police officers at around 7 AM today that they should prepare to leave the facility. They were not told where they will be going. Yesterday evening police instructed them to take down signs the detainees had posted in the rooms where they are locked up that read 'Freedom' and 'We Are Not Terrorists'. The leadership of the detention center ultimately abandoned the idea of removing them because he concluded after interviewing them that they are peaceful. Today at 16:00 there will be an assembly in Prague at Klárov in the park near the Malostranská metro station to support the hunger strikers."  full story

Czech academics: Promoters of hate want to trample on the anniversary of 17 November

12.11.2015 18:54 Tomáš Zima, the Rector of Charles University in Prague, and the Deans of its Faculties headquartered at Albertov in Prague have issued a statement against the possible abuse of the upcoming 17 November holiday by people espousing bigotry, hatred and intolerance. While the academics do not give concrete details in their statement, it is known that a demonstration by the Bloc against Islam has been planned for the state holiday next Tuesday at Albertov.  full story

Czech Republic: Asylum-seekers on hunger strike, number of injured rising

11.11.2015 21:09 The situation in a refugee facility in the Czech town of Drahonice (Louny district) escalated in the late afternoon today. The Czech Police report that two asylum-seekers have injured themselves and another injured himself after attempting to attack a member of the security forces there.  full story

Czech Gov't Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma holds two-day meeting on Romani affairs

11.11.2015 19:55 Inclusive education, the Romani Integration Strategy to 2020 and proposals from the Czech Interior Ministry in the areas of crime prevention and increasing safety in socially excluded localities have been discussed today and yesterday by experts in Romani affairs from all over the Czech Republic in the town of Pardubice. The meeting is being held by the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Romani Community Affairs.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister: We face a crisis fed by fear

11.11.2015 18:36 "We are facing a crisis fed by fear. In the debate being conducted about the refugee crisis, security measures are being constantly emphasized, but not much is being said about the humanitarian aspects," Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier says.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion wants to focus more on activation and community work

10.11.2015 23:46 The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is preparing to open up centers in three regions in January. Branches of the Agency should open in Ostrava, Prague, and Ústí nad Labem.  full story

Czech reporter's articles promote anti-Romani stereotypes through half-truths and manipulation

9.11.2015 21:49 The Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES and its Internet portal iDNES.cz have published a series of articles describing the development to date of a project in the town of Přerov spearheaded by local councilor Jiří Kohout, who has also been chair of the Public Affairs (VV) party since last year. The aim of the project was supposed to be (and still is) the employment of persons who have long been unemployed.  full story

Romani evictees seek compensation from town, Czech Supreme Court to review case

9.11.2015 4:38 The case of the Romani residents of Vsetín who were removed from its territory and relocated to villages outside of the Zlín Region nine years ago will be addressed by the Czech Supreme Court. The Romani plaintiffs believe the town violated their fundamental human rights by removing them.  full story

Commentary: Czech conference of Islamophobes moved from the Senate to a hotel

9.11.2015 0:11 This was the appropriate place: The Hotel Svornost in Dolní Počernice. The sponsors were also appropriate, with costs being covered by the clubs of senators from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the North Bohemians (Severočechy) and the "Citizens' Rights Party" (Strana práv občanů - SPO).  full story

Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry plans financing of social housing as discussion of new law proceeds

8.11.2015 1:22 The Czech Labor Ministry is counting on a big portion of the money now used for housing benefits being transferred in the future into the financing of the country's social housing system. The money should be transferred to municipalities.  full story

Czech sociologists: Economic crisis contributed to rising exclusion, but society is mainly to blame

8.11.2015 0:26 Why has there been growth recently in the number of excluded localities and the number of people living in them? Czech MP Ivan Gabal, who is also a sociologist, and his colleague from the GAC company, Karel Čada, have contributed their analysis of the issue to the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny.  full story

Czech study shows most non-Romani parents seek schools with few or no Romani pupils

7.11.2015 21:55 Children from socially excluded areas who do not receive adequate support during preschool age are more at risk of school failure than their non-excluded peers. That is the finding of a study focused on the inclusion of preschool-aged Romani children presented on 5 November by the Open Society Fund Prague.  full story

Commentary: The Czech Interior Minister's "Potemkin village" of a refugee facility

6.11.2015 20:44 Czech Interior Minister Chovanec invited European diplomats to visit the detention facility for refugees at Bělá-Jezová yesterday. Journalists from Aktuálně.cz report that in preparation for the visit he removed most of the detainees from the facility and installed completely new benches and a children's playground on the grounds.  full story

Czech Republic: European ambassadors tour criticized refugee detention facility

6.11.2015 18:45 Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) gave ambassadors from other European countries a tour of the detention facility for refugees at Bělá pod Bezdězem in the Mladá Boleslav area. The camp has been criticized because of the allegedly poor approach it takes towards the asylum-seekers detained there and was to be toured yesterday by Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová (ČSSD), who has child welfare as part of her portfolio.  full story

Czech Government approves proposals for solving housing problems in excluded localities, critics not satisfied

6.11.2015 4:48 On 19 October the Czech Government approved a report on the state of socially excluded localities in the Ústecký Region submitted by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier that includes proposals for how to solve the problems of ghettos in the Czech Republic in general. The report reviews the situation in municipalities with socially excluded localities that have collaborated with the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and includes motions, recommendations and brief proposals for addressing the problem areas of education, employment, housing, indebtedness, social services and social work.  full story

Czech court acquits activist who used removable paint on sidewalk in front of Parliament

4.11.2015 23:18 Today the Prague 1 District Court acquitted two activists who used removable paint to outline the figure of a man and write the name "Tomáš" on the sidewalk in front of the Czech lower house in July. Judge Dana Šindelářová said no crime had been committed and there had been no intention to commit property damage.  full story

Marek Szilvási: Czech Government should stop gambling with the country's reputation - the fight for compensation for forced sterilization is not over

4.11.2015 19:15 I remember being with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) just a couple of months when I was invited to Ostrava to an informal meeting with the Group of Women Harmed by Coercive Sterilization, an informal collective of harmed self-advocating Romani women. The meeting was organised by the local Life Together NGO in early April 2012 to celebrate the fact that after years of local activism, lawsuits and advocacy struggles, the Government’s Council for Human Rights had finally recommended the Government develop a compensation scheme for involuntarily sterilized women. A month earlier, the Group, Life Together and the ERRC had sent an official letter welcoming this government commitment. I took an early morning train and after a half-day journey from Budapest to Ostrava, I was warmly welcomed by the Life Together staff and the Romani women activists, whom until then I knew only through phone calls and email correspondence. After shedding my water-soaked coat I entered the second room and was introduced to Monika Šimúnková, the Czech Government’s Human Rights Commissioner, and Kateřina Valachová, now the current Minister of Education, who was at that time working for the Ombudsman. The atmosphere was relaxed, almost festive, and I soon succumbed to it and started expecting this controversy soon to be over.  full story

Karel Holomek: We should approach migrants through a sober examination of the facts

4.11.2015 0:09 The most recent opinion I have come across in the broad, endless debate about the refugees and what to do with them comes from Roman Joch (Lidové noviny, 15 October). In his opinion piece, he has presented the horrifying vision of author Jean Raspail's novel The Camp of the Saints, in which European civilization is destroyed by hordes of refugees who take what they do not have away from those who are incapable of holding onto what is theirs because of some sort of chimerical kindness and limitless tolerance.  full story