Czech Republic

David Beňák on the Czech inclusive education debate, the invisible, and the unheard

23.3.2016 21:27 Educating all children together is a basic, normal approach to education that must be the standard in the Czech Republic. It is a good standard to set ourselves.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry not allowing party to add "Bloc against Islam" to its name

22.3.2016 19:58 The Czech Interior Ministry has denied permission to the Úsvit-Národní koalice (Dawn-National Coalition) political party to change its name to "Úsvit s Blokem proti islámu" (Dawn with the Bloc against Islam). Party chair Miroslav Lidinský informed journalists of the decision today.  full story

Analysis: Czech daily reprints eight-year-old dissenting opinions of Strasbourg judgment on racial discrimination in education

22.3.2016 18:20 The Czech daily Právo has published a report on the dissenting opinions of judges on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg stating that the Czech Republic lost the D.H. case at that venue in 2007 because the state had attempted to educate Romani people. The fact that the statements are eight years old did not prevent the daily from making them the main story of yesterday's edition.  full story

Analysis: Czech tabloid launches campaign against inclusive education

20.3.2016 18:30 The Czech tabloid Blesk launched a campaign against inclusive education several weeks ago. It began by spending a week depicting inclusive education to its readers by way of clichés, lies and myths about the destruction of the Czech school system.  full story

International experts: Friendly approach from teachers toward families essential to successful inclusive education

18.3.2016 18:17 International experts who presented at the recent "School for All" conference in the Czech Republic described several factors key to the success of educating children living with disabilities together with other children. Those factors include collaborating with families, a friendly approach from teachers, the involvement of other experts, emphasis on the progress of each pupil, and the societal perception that the inclusive model of education is the correct way forward.  full story

Czech real estate agency fined for refusing to lease to Roma

18.3.2016 14:51 The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (Česká obchodní inspekce - ČOI) has fined a real estate agent in Brno CZK 20 000 (EUR 740) for discriminating against Romani people interested in leasing housing through them. During a recorded telephone inquiry about an apartment for lease, the broker told the prospective tenants that the building owners did not want Romani people living there.  full story

Czech Republic: Two-day conference on inclusive education underway

17.3.2016 19:17 On Wednesday and Thursday 16-17 2016 March the "School for All" (Škola pro všechny) conference on inclusive education took place at Impact Hub Praha in the Czech capital. The aim of the conference was to discuss how an inclusive approach can interconnect various areas of education and transform the conception of the school environment.  full story

Czech right-wing radicals found guilty of inciting hatred of Jewish people, will appeal

16.3.2016 23:47 The chair of the ultra-right National Democracy party, Adam B. Bartoš, and his fellow party member Ladislav Zemánek are guilty of making anti-Jewish statements at the grave of Anežka Hrůzová in the Czech town of Polná. Judge Tereza Jedličková of Jihlava has handed down the verdict, which has yet to take effect.  full story

Czech NGO report finds Muslims and Roma most frequent victims of hate violence

16.3.2016 18:16 A total of 86 cases of hate violence in the Czech Republic were recorded during the year 2014 by the In IUSTITIA organization, which aids the victims of such crimes. The incidents most frequently happened because of the victims' actual or perceived ethnicity, nationality, or religious faith.  full story

Czech Republic: Museum of Romani Culture holds commemorative ceremony on anniversary of genocide of Bohemian and Moravian Roma

14.3.2016 19:48 A commemorative ceremony marking the first mass transport of Romani men, women and children from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the Auschwitz concentration camp was held last week in Brno. The trains to Auschwitz set out on 7 March 1943 from the local municipally-run animal slaughterhouses.  full story

Czech Republic: 1 200 local Holocaust victims commemorated in Tábor

14.3.2016 18:07 A commemorative ceremony today in the South Bohemian town of Tábor honored the approximately 1 200 people from the area who did not survive the Holocaust during the Second World War. The event, called REMEMBER! (PAMATUJ!) was held at the Church of Saint Philip and Jacob and at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Tábor, Jakub Smrčka of the Hadasa Tábor civic association, which organized the event, told the Czech News Agency.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry appealing municipal decision on gallows at anti-refugee hate demonstration

13.3.2016 19:07 The Czech Interior Ministry is appealing a municipal decision finding that those who brought mock-ups of gallows to a demonstration last year did not commit any wrongdoing. Prague City Hall will now be addressing the dispute.  full story

Czech activists file report of suspected crime after officials fail to produce permit used as pretext for denying them access to facility

11.3.2016 23:29 Activists running the Autonomous Social Center Klinika in the Žižkov quarter of Prague 3 say they have filed a report of a suspected crime with the police over the fact that the Prague 3 Building Works Authority claimed to them and to the owner of the facility where their center has been operating that because the building had been issued a permit for a different use, the continued operation of the center there was illegal. Now it turns out there is no record of such a use permit.  full story

Czech Police say they did not make a mistake when they failed to act against Nazi chants at public gathering

10.3.2016 20:52 The Czech Police did not make a mistake when they did not intervene against supporters of Czech President Miloš Zeman who chanted the slogans "Nothing but the nation" and "Pure race" last year on 17 November during a demonstration in Prague. Ivana Nguyenová, spokesperson for the Czech Police Presidium, has given that answer in response to a question posed by the Czech News Agency.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court receives motion to abolish inclusion in amendment to Schools Act

10.3.2016 18:03 The Czech Constitutional Court has received a proposal for the abolition of the planned inclusion that has been anchored in an amendment to the Schools Act adopted last year. As of 1 September this year, children with mild mental disability are to be gradually included into the classes of mainstream primary schools and to have special conditions for their instruction provided there for their education.  full story

Editorial: Czech Senator publishes untruths in defense of segregated school

10.3.2016 16:24 At the close of February, the Czech School Inspection (Česká školní inspekce - ČŠI) published its inspection report from its monitoring of the Primary School in the town of Krásná Lípa. In September 2015, Romani parents there had complained that their children had been concentrated into a single class.  full story

Czech prosecutor said Amnesty International report about discrimination of Roma in schools was "pseudo-research"

9.3.2016 19:07 The Czech daily Právo published a news item today citing an official notification released by State Prosecutor Zdeňka Galková last year in the matter of a report of suspected criminal behavior filed against the leadership of Amnesty International (AI) by the head of the Department of Education and European Funds at the Prague 9 municipal department, Martin Odehnal, who was previously the director of the Special Education Department at the Czech Education Ministry. Odehnal contacted police because of an AI report published last year called "Must Try Harder - Ethnic Discrimination of Romani Children in Czech Schools" ("Chce to více snahy - Etnická diskriminace romských dětí v českých školách").  full story

Czech activists and local opposition council members want proof of building's use permit, officials stall

8.3.2016 23:52 The governing coalition leading the Prague 3 Municipal Department did not approve the agenda item for today's council meeting, which was convened by opposition members of the council to address the issue of the Autonomous Social Center Klinika in the Žižkov quarter. In a tense atmosphere, the councilors spent more than two hours discussing whether to approve the agenda item and would not allowed the activists present to address the council during regular session.  full story

Czech Police investigating squatting of building by the Klinika Social Center

8.3.2016 17:14 The Prague 3 Municipal Council will be meeting to discuss the Autonomous Social Center Klinika. The session was convened by opposition members of the council who support the activists behind Klinika remaining at the facility in the Žižkov quarter.  full story

Czech Green Party chair describes hateful verbal assault on Prague public transport

5.3.2016 21:34 It's happened to me twice now, within a very short amount of time. I get on the tram, take a seat, and suddenly behind me, from the rear platform, someone starts yelling this to the whole tram car: "That's the creep who's inviting Muslims to our country to rape our Czech women, I'm telling everybody here, that's Matěj Stropnický, look at him" (the whole tram turns to look and a couple of people laugh at me) "the shame of our nation! What are you doing, you motherfucker? You wanna take me? Come on, get out, let's go!" (by now the tram is absolutely silent and, what's more, we're in a traffic jam).  full story