News

Commentary: Too soon to assess inclusive reforms in education

9.1.2017 7:57 The number of Romani pupils being educated with assessments of "mild mental disability" remains essentially the same this year as it did last year. Current data from the Czech Education Ministry basically confirm the previous findings from enrollments into first grade regarding the reassigment of children from the former "practical schools" into mainstream ones - namely, that no massive transfers of pupils have happened.  full story

Model is shocked by Czech racists' response to him, incident now an international embarrassment

9.1.2017 7:26 The scandal of racist commentaries being posted to Facebook in response to the international Lidl retail chain's use of a black model in an advertising flier in the Czech Republic has drawn media attention in many European countries including Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. The news has reached the model himself, who lives in Hamburg, Germany.  full story

Charter 77 veterans critique Czech Government for forgetting about human rights

9.1.2017 6:50

The signatories of the Charter 77 document gathered in Prague's Lucerna complex on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its creation Saturday, as did other dissidents who played a key role in its organization. The conference, called "The Charter through Its Own Eyes", was preceded by a celebration featuring not just recollections of the circumstances of the creation and operation of the opposition initiative, but also a critique of the current Czech Government as deviating away from an active defense of human rights abroad.

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Czech officials will not prosecute complaints that election advertisement was racist

7.1.2017 10:03 A campaign video produced by the TOP 09/ Live Brno (Žít Brno) ticket for use in last year's regional elections has been assessed by the Brno State Prosecutor as not racist. Czech Television reported the decision on 4 January, referencing Ivo Hahn, a spokeperson for the prosecutor's office.  full story

Czech Republic: Number of Romani pupils educated according to reduced standards is practically unchanged

6.1.2017 12:41 The number of Romani children educated according to reduced standards remains practically unchanged this school year compared to last, according to a report about the "qualified estimates" of the number of Romani children in the primary schools published yesterday by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. "In the primary schools, according to current estimates, 85.4 % of Romani pupils are being educated within the framework of the mainstream standards, 12.8 % of Romani pupils are being educated in programs designed for pupils with 'mild mental disability', and the remaining 1.8 % of Romani pupils are being educated according to the Framework Education Program for Special Primary School, designed for a more profound degree of mental disability," says a press release from the ministry.  full story

Documentary film "FC Roma" nominated for the Czech Film Critics' Award

6.1.2017 9:50 "FC Roma", a documentary film by Rozálie Kohoutová and Tomáš Bojar showing racial issues through the eyes of a football club comprised predominantly of Romani players competing in a district-level championship, has been nominated for the Czech Film Critics' Award for 2016. In the year 2014, some clubs did not want to play with the FC Roma club, but the situation has changed today and the team is no longer just winning through forfeiture.  full story

Firms support much-criticized Lidl chain with funny campaigns against racism in the Czech Republic

6.1.2017 8:56 Apparently few people in 21st-century Czech Republic anticipated what might happen when a chain store used a photograph of a black model in an advertising leaflet. Discussions have been unleased online in which the racist portion of Czech society's "decent consumer patriots" found it necessary to soothe their nerves, so irritated by looking at a dark-skinned model in a Czech (!) flier, by sending to the Lidl chain many calls for a boycott, insults, and vulgarities.  full story

NGO representatives from 20 countries attend ODIHR/OSCE round table on monitoring demonstrations and keeping them nonviolent

6.1.2017 8:06 Last month the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held a three-day round table on the topic of monitoring public assemblies and demonstrations during which representatives of nonprofits from 20 countries, including a representative of the ROMEA organization in the Czech Republic, presented their experiences with monitoring demonstrations and working with local authorities and police during public assemblies. Roughly 35 representatives from 20 countries worldwide attended.  full story

New initiative challenges Czech Government to adopt social housing law by the end of the month

6.1.2017 7:26 Yesterday representatives of a new intiative called "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) organized a "happening" in front of the Office of the Government in Prague to challenge cabinet members to fulfill their campaign promise to adopt a law on social housing. The initiative wants the Government to do so by the end of January.
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Czech Republic: Romani musicians give benefit concert for families of girls killed in hit-and-run in England

6.1.2017 6:36 Today, 6 January, at the Arena Club in Děčín, Czech Republic, a concert will be given by Romani musicians and the profits will be donated to the families of the two girls who tragically died after a man driving a car ran into them as they were crossing the street in the English town of Oldham. One girl died on the spot and her cousin succumbed to her injuries in hospital.  full story

Czech Republic: Two-day European conference on Romani education to take place in Prague

5.1.2017 11:51 On 17 and 18 January an international exchange conference called "It Is Not Too Late" (Ještě není příliš pozdě) will take place at Prague City Hall (Mariánské náměstí 2). The program will feature primarily examples of good practice in the area of educating members of the Romani minority.  full story

Analysis: What happened to the Czech social housing law?

5.1.2017 10:24 Reporter Saša Uhlová, writing in Deník Referendum, has provided us with a very open description of the state of preparations for the law on social housing in the Czech Republic. A so-called national-level "Social Housing Office" (Úřad pro sociální bydlení) has made it into the law just because local authorities are refusing to administer social housing.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister says he will shop at Lidl after racists criticize its use of a black model

5.1.2017 8:45 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka has expressed support through his Facebook profile for the Lidl chain of stores after a wave of hateful, racist reactions arose online in response to Lidl's use of a black male model to advertise their sports clothing collection. "I have decided to buy some new sports clothes at Lidl Czech Republic. Normally I don't follow flier events, but this time the advertisement rather caught my attention. :-) If I practice, maybe I'll run like Usain Bolt someday," the minister posted to his profile.  full story

Poland: Solidarity march with Muslims planned in Elk after xenophobic unrest continues

5.1.2017 8:05 In the Polish town of Elk, anti-foreigner unrest has been continuing after the death on New Year's Eve of a young Polish man during a scuffle with the employees of a kebab restaurant there. Police have already arrested at least 24 local residents and charged most of them with disturbing the peace.  full story

Stázka Brodníčková: I wouldn't have come this far without my foster mother

5.1.2017 7:12 This is the story of a girl in the Czech Republic named Stázka whose biological mother is Romani. In September last year she enrolled in the secondary school for pedagogy in Blansko.  full story

Czech academic and education official discuss qualified estimates of Romani pupils

4.1.2017 10:50 Speaking on the "Crossing the Line" (Přes čáru) program on the Radio Wave station of public broadcaster Czech Radio, Czech Deputy Education Minister Stanislav Štech has discussed the findings of last year's qualified estimates of the numbers of pupils of Romani origin in the Czech primary schools, numbers that are sometimes inaccurately referred to as a "head count". Anthropologist Dana Moree was also in the studio to analyze the problems of such a "head count" and the reasons for it.  full story

Germany: Green Party head criticizes approach taken by police in Cologne on New Year's Eve

4.1.2017 9:27 The chair of the German Green Party, Simone Peter, has criticized the approach taken by police in Cologne during New Year's Eve celebrations there, alleging that the officers were asking people to identify themselves based solely on their appearance and tweeted a term to describe persons from North Africa that could be perceived as insulting. Approximately 1 700 female and male police officers in Cologne oversaw the celebrations of the end of 2016, many more officers than were on duty at the end of 2015, when there were reports of women being assaulted and bothered en masse, predominantly by immigrants from North Africa.  full story

Czech Republic: Protest tomorrow about social housing law

4.1.2017 8:24 On Thursday, 5 January at 10 AM the "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) initiative will hold a "happening" and press conference in front of the Office of the Czech Government to officially launch their campaign for the adoption of a law on social housing. The initiative wants to remind the governing parties of the pledge they made in their program declaration to see through the adoption of such a law during their time in office.  full story

Renáta Kováčová: Tragic death in UK of two Romani girls from Czech Republic sparks horrible online commentary

4.1.2017 7:30 Most of us have probably heard about the tragedy that happened on New Year's Eve in Great Britain when a driver ran into two young girls from the Czech Republic and then left the scene without providing them first aid. One girl died on the spot and the other also succumbed to her injuries later.  full story

Singer Monika Bagárová on Romani identity: Nothing to be ashamed of

4.1.2017 6:44 On 2 January, Story magazine published an interview with 22-year-old Romani singer Monika Bagárová. The interview was conducted during the preparations for her performance during the opening of the Roma Spirit awards ceremony in the Czech Republic last month.  full story