News

Amnesty International and European Roma Rights Centre: Situation for Romani children in Slovakia is not improving

9.3.2017 10:09 According to non-governmental human rights organizations, Romani children in Slovakia are being systematically denied their right to education and to protection from discrimination in compulsory education. Most of these children are segregated into all-Romani classes or all-Romani schools or into "special schools" intended for children with "mild mental disability", warn Amnesty International (AI) and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in a joint report.  full story

Czech Police propose charging four people for neo-Nazi graffiti on businesses in the HateFree Zone

9.3.2017 8:52 Police in Prague, Czech Republic have proposed charging four people with spray-painting neo-Nazi symbols on businesses and cafes involved in the Czech Government's
HateFree Zone project. Prosecution of a fifth defendant has been temporarily suspended.
 full story

Slovak opposition movement wants to ban mosque construction

7.3.2017 11:04 An opposition movement in Slovakia called "We Are A Family - Boris Kollár" (Jsme rodina-Boris Kollár - JRBK) wants to ban the construction of mosques there. The movement has justified its proposal by alleging that mosques represent a security risk.  full story

Analysis: The 2016 arson attack on Klinika Social Center - are the Czech Police incompetent, or omniscient?

7.3.2017 9:58 How can we recognize the democratic rule of law? In addition to many other factors, equality of all before the law is one sure way.  full story

Germany: More than 3 000 attacks on refugees in 2016

7.3.2017 8:39 German authorities registered almost 10 violent attacks against immigrants daily during the course of 2016. A total of 560 people, 43 of them children, were injured during them.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister responds to US report by asserting Government is addressing Romani issues

7.3.2017 8:06 Czech Human Rights Minister Jan Chvojka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has emphasized that the Czech Government is doing its best to improve the position of
Romani people and also to eliminate corruption through specific legislative measures. In a statement sent to the Czech News Agency yesterday, Chvojka responded to the US State Department's annual report about the state of human rights in the world, which reproachse the Czech Republic for corruption, the social discrimination of Romani people, and the stigmatization of people infected with HIV.  full story

US State Department reproaches Czech Republic over corruption, discrimination against Romani people

7.3.2017 7:10 The Czech Republic is continuing to grapple with corruption, the social discrimination of Romani people, and the stigmatization of persons infected with HIV. Those are the findings for that country in the most recent annual report from the US State Department about the state of human rights in the world.  full story

Director of Czech NGO says Karlovy Vary Region suffers in terms of education

6.3.2017 13:28 In the year 2001, Trappist monks chose to use the agricultural area of a former Baroque-era estate in the town of Nový Dvůr as a monastery and initiated the creation of a nonprofit organization called Český západ (Bohemian West) in the excluded localities of the Teplice and Toužim area. The headquarters of the NGO are located one kilometer away, in the town of Dobrá Voda, near a prefabricated apartment building inhabited predominantly by Romani community members.  full story

Researcher finds first photograph of Romani community member as a Czechoslovak soldier, seeks those who remember Imrich Horváth

6.3.2017 10:47 Recently news server Romea.cz published a call for those who have eyewitness testimony about the fate of a forgotten participant in the Second World War. Czechoslovak soldier Imrich Horváth was awarded several military honors, but military historians have kept silent about him.  full story

Czech court fines politician for bribery and extortion in attempt to buy votes of Romani people

6.3.2017 9:38 News server Aktuálně.cz has reported that on 24 February the Municipal Court in Prague upheld the first-instance conviction of a former council member of the Prague-Letňany Municipal Department, Jan Mikulecký (for the Civic Democratic Party - ODS), over events during the 2014 municipal elections. Mikulecký must pay a fine of CZK 100 000 [EUR 3 700] for bribery and extortion or spend nine months in prison.  full story

Slovak President vetoes law to end runoff voting for Regional Governors

6.3.2017 8:36 Slovak President Andrej Kiska has vetoed a law on abolishing runoff elections for the Governors of Regional Administrations. The press department of the Office of the Slovak President informed the Czech News Agency of the veto on 24 February.  full story

Interview with Fedor Gál: It took me years to get that "solving the Romani problem" is nonsense

6.3.2017 7:44 When, eight years ago, we entered into the story of Natálka, the Romani infant who suffered burns during a neo-Nazi arson attack on her home in Vítkov, we had a messianic complex, Slovak sociologist Fedor Gál says in an interview for HlídacíPes.org, excerpted in translation below. A group of people from various professions got together to "supervise" how the family was managing to cope with the tragedy.  full story

European Commission reports Roma six times more likely to be poor in the Czech Republic than non-Roma

5.3.2017 8:25 The European Commission has published an analysis of the economic situation in the EU Member States, finding that while the Czech Republic is assessed relatively favorably from the perspective of economic indicators, there are several structural problems limiting the country's potential. Those problems are, for example, education, employment, and the social situation of some disadvantaged population groups.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani child adopted by a non-Romani family tells his story

4.3.2017 11:31 Otakar Chládek (age 21) was born in and grew up in the Pardubice Region and holds a certificate as a waiter from the Zámek High School for Crafts, Services and Trades in Žamberk, Czech Republic. He currently is attending a medical course for emergency medical technicians and would like to complete his secondary education after that.  full story

Czech court rules that school ethnically discriminated against Romani children by rejecting their enrollment

3.3.2017 12:35 The Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinova discriminated against two Romani preschoolers when it refused to enroll them into first grade in 2014, according to a ruling by the District Court there. The court found that the school was attempting to unjustifiably regulate the number of Romani children in the first grade class.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani-owned business distributes clothing, food and hygiene supplies to the needy in Teplice

1.3.2017 8:15 On 21 February the Romani-owned New Age Company organized a "GOOD WILL" („DOBRÉ VŮLE“) event in Teplice, Czech Republic. Employees used their own resources to put
together packages with clothing and hygiene supplies as well as refreshments and distributed them to homeless people and the socially vulnerable in the park near the train station.  full story

videoRomani entrepreneur Vladimír Michalčík: I always wanted to succeed in business

1.3.2017 7:58 Vladimír Michalčík, our guest on "Ten Minute Insight", actually embodies the saying that "Even if you hit rock bottom you can get back on your feet and change your life". He and his brother Roman have established two successful firms together with their friends.  full story

PHOTO GALLERY: Refugees living in abandoned warehouses in Belgrade, Serbia

1.3.2017 7:13 In several abandoned warehouses near the main train station in Belgrade, Serbia, roughly 1 200 refugees, predominantly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, are surviving in shocking hygienic conditions and low temperatures. Nighttime temperatures there at the end of January were around 15 degrees below zero Celsius.  full story

Czech tabloid uses old video from French taxi drivers' protest, claims it is of current protests by immigrants

28.2.2017 7:32 The Czech tabloid news server ParlamentníListy.cz has used its Facebook profile to manipulate its readers once again. The server has published year-old video footage of protesters throwing tires at cars as they drive by, captioning the footage with the sentence "This is Paris".  full story

Romani social worker on growing up at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech Republic

27.2.2017 7:09 Anna Siváková, now age 21, was born in and grew up at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech Republic. After graduating from the local primary school there she decided, unlike many of her schoolmates, to continue her studies beyond compulsory education, graduating from the high school in Most with a focus on social work.  full story