Czech Republic

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion sees more staff quit over allegedly untransparent hire of new director

30.5.2015 8:19 Wednesday's announcement of the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, Radek Jiránek, has not managed to halt the departure of another 10 employees. Notice has been given, for example, by the interim director, Alena Zieglerová, by an expert in debt counseling, and by a lawyer with the Government department.  full story

SURVEY: Romani figures respond to the choice of Jiránek as director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion

27.5.2015 20:22 Radek Jiránek, head of the Crime Prevention Department at the Czech Interior Ministry, is the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

Czech Republic: Number of socially excluded localities has doubled since 2006 to 606

27.5.2015 13:42 The number of socially excluded localities has almost doubled in the Czech Republic since the first Analysis of Socially Excluded Romani Communities and Localities in the Czech Republic and the Absorption Capacity of Entities Working in this Area was presented on 6 September 2006. That year the number of impoverished apartment complexes, impoverished neighborhoods and whole streets was estimated at 300, while now it is estimated to number 606 such localities in 297 municipalities.  full story

Czech Republic: Open Society Fund explains its financial cooperation with owner of tabloid Extra.cz

27.5.2015 8:13 The Open Society Fund Prague (OSF Prague) has announced a scholarship fund to support Romani college students in collaboration with Jan Barta, the owner of the tabloid publication Extra.cz. News server Romea.cz has asked OSF Prague whether they consider it problematic to collaborate with the owner of a tabloid whose Editor-in-Chief, Pavel Novotný, makes no secret of the fact that he manipulates "Romani topics" to increase readership.  full story

Czech trial of arson attack reviews neo-Nazi groups

26.5.2015 9:04 In mid-May the Regional Court in Plzeň continued with the trial of the allegedly organized groups operating from 2011-2012 under the names of Blood & Honour and Combat 18 (the number 18 is a synonym for Adolf Hitler's initials) on the territory of the Czech Republic. The nine-member group, according to the indictment, is said to have promoted neo-Nazism and some of its members are said to have perpetrated arson attacks on occupied and unoccupied buildings, to have supported racial hatred, to have perpetrated various forms of violence with a tendency to terrorism, to have denied the Holocaust, and to have committed violence against a particular group and its individual members.  full story

Interviews with rival Czech academics about the Institute of Ethnology, the Roma, and social inclusion

25.5.2015 10:36 Does an "ethnic" approach to the integration of Romani people represent the threat of their isolation and nationalism? Is it artificial and risky?  full story

Julius Zajac: I will never recognize a self-appointed Council of Elders

25.5.2015 7:52 So: Now we have a Council of Elders. How its members intend to aid the integration of Romani people into Czech society is unclear.  full story

Commentary: Who has gone nuts? Holomek is misinformed

24.5.2015 23:29 In connection with the gradual destruction of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier's team, as well as the discussion about the new format for state interventions that those promoting exclusively "Romani" measures want to promote in public policy, many contradictory claims are being made about who has thought what and what was supposed to work for whom. It is a bit tendentious and unfair for some members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs and for Romani publicists to claim that People in Need somehow denies Romanipen and the ethnic dimension of the situation of the Romani minority in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister speaks of a "cult of personality" around the director he fired

24.5.2015 20:09 Speaking today on the Prima television station's "Partie" program, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has already identified replacements for some of the staffers of the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion who have given their notice in connection with his dismissal of Martin Šimáček as its head. On Friday his spokesperson told the Czech News Agency that the minister had not yet begun to look for replacements and would wait until Šimáček's successor is chosen before opening up the positions to applicants.  full story

Czech Republic: Khamoro Festival starts today in Prague

24.5.2015 18:42 The best Romani artists from all over the world are now heading to Prague and then to Plzeň. Today is the first day of the 17th annual Khamoro Festival, which is the best-known, biggest Romani festival in the world.  full story

Karel Holomek: The Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion has gone nuts, the Roma need a legitimate political partner

24.5.2015 7:37 Last week several dozen Romani figures assembled and issued a declaration expressing their ambition to become representatives of the Romani community in the Czech Republic. News server Romea.cz has learned that the author of that declaration is the famous Romani activist, journalist and politician Karel Holomek.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion may see even more quitters

23.5.2015 15:54 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has not yet begun to look for replacements for the 14 staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion who have given notice because of their disagreements with him. The announcing of those hiring procedures will wait until a new director is found for the Agency.  full story

Commentary: What will the Agency be like once its employees give notice?

23.5.2015 14:30 On 21 May, 14 employees of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion gave their notice. The resignations happened more than one month after the dismissal of Agency director Martin Šimáček, which jump-started a crisis within that institution and a tempestuous discussion about its future and about Romani integration policy.  full story

Alexander Oláh: A brief report on the emancipation, integration, and participation of Roma

23.5.2015 8:02 It is completely surprising, but the current Romani Integration Strategy is actually beginning to be implemented. This has never been the case before - the previous Romani Integration Concept was mostly about photographs of former Human Rights Minister Micahel Kocáb and was basically never implemented at all.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion staffers resign after meeting with PM

23.5.2015 6:37 The crisis at the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, which began with the unexpected dismissal of its director, entered a new phase on 21 May when 14 employees gave notice. News server Romea.cz publishes their joint statement in full translation below.  full story

Václav Havel's 1995 speech at the unveiling of the Lety memorial

22.5.2015 11:26 This year marks the 20th anniversary of the unveiling of the modest memorial to the victims of the so-called "Gypsy camp" at Lety by Písek by Czech President Václav Havel. News server Romea.cz publishes the speech he made on that occasion in full translation here.  full story

Czech ethnology students' strike does not achieve removal of director, but they have bigger plans

22.5.2015 9:58 A strike by some ethnology students at Charles University in Prague has not succeeded in its aim of removing Marek Jakoubek, director of the Institute of Ethnology, from his post. "The strike is over, but our initiative is not," the students announced on 12 May.  full story

New director of Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion will be announced next week

22.5.2015 8:09 Seven candidates have applied for the position of director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. A three-member hiring committee met on 18 May to review their applications.  full story

They weren't just victims: Roma, forgotten heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance

21.5.2015 7:59 History has treated them just as unfairly as contemporary society often does. The brave Romani people who fought as partisans or as soldiers against the Nazis are heroes who are invisible today.  full story

Commentary: Will the pig farm on the Roma Holocaust site still be part of the Czech reality in 2020?

20.5.2015 8:23 What takes place around the pig farm in Lety by Písek continues to tell us important, interesting things about Czech society, about the level of our public discussions, about the nature and purpose of protest, about communications inside the Romani community, and about pro-Romani and Romani activists here. Much has already been written about the scandal of this farm, which is located on the site of a former concentration camp where hundreds of Romani people perished and from which others were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz, and the basic arguments about and problems with the farm are absolutely clear.  full story