Czech Republic

Czech ombud could get more powers, Government to review proposal

Prague, 5.12.2014 23:54, (ROMEA) The Czech ombud will evidently be granted new powers to approach the Constitutional Court with motions to rescind controversial laws or parts thereof. The ombud will also get new powers to file public lawsuits over discrimination.  full story

Czech Republic: Roma to demonstrate against racism in Ostrava tomorrow, neo-Nazis to counter-demonstrate

Ostrava, 5.12.2014 22:18, (ROMEA) On Saturday 6 December at 14:00 a demonstration against racism will take place in Ostrava on Svatopluk Čech Square in the Přívoz quarter, followed by a march to Prokešovo Square. At 13:30 neo-Nazis have announced they will be gathering on Prokešovo Square and are convening a counter-protest through neo-Nazi websites and social networks.

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Czech MP will not be prosecuted for controversial remarks about communist history

Brno, 5.12.2014 19:54, (ROMEA) Czech Television reports that police have shelved the case of Czech MP Marta Semelová (Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia - KSČM), who will not be prosecuted for her controversial remarks about events such as the murder of Milada Horáková or the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. Pavel Šváb, spokesperson for the South Moravian Regional Police, confirmed the information to the Czech News Agency.  full story

Czech court sentences brawlers who sparked anti-Romani demos to probation

České Budějovice, 4.12.2014 23:42, (ROMEA) Yesterday a District Court handed down its verdict in the case of a brawl that launched unrest at the Máj housing estate in the town of České Budějovice in the summer of 2013. A group of six defendants was given suspended sentences ranging from one to two and a half years for bodily harm and rioting.  full story

Analysis: Czech SocDems also responsible for oppression of Romani children

Prague, 3.12.2014 23:48, (ROMEA) The Czech Government's response to the European Commission's opinion that the country is oppressing Romani children in the schools is a surprisingly harsh one. Not only does the Government object to the opinion that something of the sort has been going on, it all but openly reproaches Brussels for getting involved in such matters at all.  full story

Czech Police charge more people with vote-buying

Most district/Teplice district, 3.12.2014 22:58, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that the Czech Police are prosecuting two more men for vote-buying in northern Bohemia. A total of four people have been charged with the crime, one of whom has already been sentenced by the court.  full story

Czech Republic: Ultra-right wants their freedoms to trump those of others

Ostrava/Prague, 3.12.2014 22:07, (ROMEA) Some Romani residents of Ostrava have decided to demonstrate against the violence to which they are very often subjected there. Most recently a Romani youth was beaten up in the Moravská Ostrava - Přívoz municipal department.  full story

Czech Republic: Approximately 30 % of children educated as mildly mentally disabled are Romani

Prague, 3.12.2014 20:36, (ROMEA) Nursery schools in the Czech Republic will begin organizing "preparatory classes" as of September 2015 which all children age five will be obliged to attend. The Czech Education Ministry is planning to allocate up to CZK 100 million for the transformation and to use money from EU funds for it.  full story

Czech Republic: Demonstrations against racism planned in Duchov, Ostrava and Prague

Duchcov/Ostrava/Prague, 1.12.2014 19:17, (ROMEA) Romani people in the Czech Republic are planning to respond to a recent assault on a Romani youth in Ostrava through several actions. The youth told his rescuers that he had been attacked and beaten by a small group of football hooligans in front of a supermarket in the municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz.  full story

Czech ombud: Number of Romani children in special education must be reduced

Brno, 28.11.2014 21:26, (ROMEA) Anna Šabatová, the Public Defender of Rights (ombud) wants the Czech Republic to reduce the number of Romani children attending what used to be called "special schools" (today’s so-called "practical schools") because the state should assist them with undergoing classic instruction in the primary schools. The former "special schools" are intended for children with mild mental disability, not for schoolchildren who are not disabled and just need help, Šabatová said in a statement for the Czech News Agency.  full story

Commentary: When socialists give up on equality

Prague, 25.11.2014 18:54, (ROMEA) The Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) is sitting in a Government that has now frozen welfare, supports discrimination against Romani children and refuses to address a local coalition with the extreme-right DSSS. In this context, it is understandable that people are now tending to vote for parties outside the system.  full story

Regional SocDems ok local coalition with ultra-right, Czech PM insists local cell must close

Ústí nad Labem, 24.11.2014 23:23, (ROMEA) The Ústí Regional leadership of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) has not closed the Duchcov cell of the party over its coalition with the ultra-right Workers Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) and has also not expelled any of its members involved. According to the head of the regional ČSSD organization, Radek Scherfer, there is no reason to do so.  full story

Poll: Most Czechs believe Roma should be educated in regular schools

Prague, 24.11.2014 21:46, (ROMEA) Romani children, according to most Czechs, should be educated in regular classes in the primary schools. A survey performed in September by the Center for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM) found that 59 % of respondents agreed with such a statement while roughly one-third disagreed.  full story

Czech experts say new law will facilitate wrongful enrollment into "practical schools"

Prague, 24.11.2014 20:22, (ROMEA) Some experts are concerned that an amendment to the Schools Act will facilitate the recommendation of children for enrollment into the "practical schools" even without a diagnosis of mild mental retardation. The most recent concerns have been prompted by new language in the bill discussing "impairment of cognitive abilities", but the same group of experts has criticized other formulations in the Government's bill that they claim are ambiguous.  full story

Czech football hooligans attack Romani youth, Roma plan to demonstrate

Ostrava, 24.11.2014 19:32, (ROMEA) Romani people in Ostrava and elsewhere in the Czech Republic are determined to do everything they can to make sure the football hooligans who allegedly assaulted a Romani 17-year-old over the weekend don't get away with it. In Ostrava a group of Romani activists, business people and others from all over the city is now forming who are resolved to demonstrate if need be to draw attention to the case.  full story

Czech Govt approves response to Brussels denying Roma discrimination in schools

Prague, 24.11.2014 18:18, (ROMEA) The Czech Republic is objecting to the European Commission's charges that the state discriminates against Romani children in the schools. The country's official stance was approved today by the Government and Czech Radio's Radiožurnál station has a copy of the document.  full story

International conference on Romani homelessness held in Czech Republic

Prague, 21.11.2014 21:52, (ROMEA) On Wednesday 22 October an international conference was held in Prague's Lichtenstein Palace that was interesting both in terms of its focus and in terms of who participated. Organizers wanted to foster an exchange of information about various models of housing for people experiencing social problems and compare them with the options now available in the Czech Republic, especially since the country is on the brink of designing its Social Housing Act.  full story

Czech Police charge man with vote-buying in Litvínov

Litvínov/Litoměřice , 21.11.2014 21:12, (ROMEA) Police have charged a 24-year-old man in Litvínov (Most district) with vote-buying. Regional Police spokesperson Alena Bartošová told the Czech News Agency that detectives say the man offered money and a party with free refreshments to dozens of socially vulnerable people in exchange for their votes.  full story

Does the new Czech reality TV show frame Romani children as ineducable?

Prague, 21.11.2014 18:06, (ROMEA) A new reality show called "Class 8 A" (Třída 8. A) has just been through its fifth Thursday episode before 10 PM on Czech Television's channel 1. The show is a spinoff of the very successful Swedish program "Klass 9 A", where several charismatic teachers arrive to teach a class of immigrants and, after roughly half a year of duelling with cultural models and their pupils' personal deficiencies, reach a happy ending as girls in headscarves and black guys with the crotches of their pants down by their knees fall into the arms of the Nordic-looking intellectuals/teachers.  full story

Analysis of Czech, German and Hungarian trials of terrorist hate attacks

Prague, 21.11.2014 0:33, (ROMEA) In August of this year I reported that the trial of the alleged members of the international neo-Nazi network Blood & Honour here in the Czech Republic would begin in the fall. At the start of 2012 those defendants were charged with various crimes, including an arson attack on a building occupied by Romani families in the West Bohemian town of Aš.  full story