Czech Republic

Czech lower house supports ratification of foreigners' rights, except to vote

Prague, 23.1.2015 20:46, (ROMEA) Yesterday during the opening round of negotiations on ratifying the international Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at local level, the Czech lower house expressed support for the Government's proposed approach. Some MPs, however, urged caution regarding ratification of the treaty.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion publishes Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities

Prague, 23.1.2015 18:01, (ROMEA) The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has published a document that will be the basis of its work in towns and villages during the next EU-funded programming period. The detailed material is called the Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities  full story

Czech extremism report: Islamophobic group uses cyber-bullying

Prague, 23.1.2015 16:35, (ROMEA) The ultra-right scene in the Czech Republic has recently focused on "combating Islam". The most active group is the Czech Defense League (CZDL), represented by "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" (IvČRN) on the Facebook social networking site.  full story

Czech Republic: Experts believe schools will not open to the disadvantaged or to Romani children

Prague, 23.1.2015 3:03, (ROMEA) Czech society is divided, elitist, incapable of achieving consensus and intolerant. It is not likely that even the best-intended attempts at reforming the primary schools will succeed any time soon.  full story

Romea.cz exclusive: Romani quintuplets' family responds to critique

Milovice, 23.1.2015 1:16, (ROMEA) A recent interview with Ms Klára Vítková-Rulíková on news server Ona.Dnes.cz about the family of Romani quintuplets has sparked a wave of passionate debate on the Czech internet. Vítková-Rulíková, the founder of the Club of Twins and Higher Multiples (Klubu dvojčat a vícerčat - KDV) discussed private family matters in that interview, among other things, accused them of wasting food, and said they were incapable of establishing a functioning system of care for their children, all of which then culminated in her claim that without her direct aid, the family risked having their children taken away by the state.  full story

Czech Republic: Five charged in brawl between Romani customers and security guards in Ostrava

Ostrava, 22.1.2015 0:18, (ROMEA) Police have charged five people so far in connection with last week's serious scuffle between Romani customers and security guards at a gaming room in the Ostrava-Bělský Les neighborhood. On Tuesday a 29-year-old man was charged with rioting in relation to the incident.  full story

Czech Republic: Romea.cz asks NGOs if they still want to change the world or just raise money?

Prague, 21.1.2015 22:55, (ROMEA) Are nonprofits still able and willing to contest majority thinking and those in power? Or are they unable to risk such conflict because they might lose their grants from individual donors and state institutions?  full story

Czech Constitutional Court rejects ex-Senator's complaint against fine for racism

Brno, 21.1.2015 16:03, (ROMEA) The Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud - ÚS) has rejected a complaint from former Czech Senator Vladimír Dryml against a fine of CZK 20 000 that he must pay for verbally attacking a doctor from Yemen. The sanction was levied by the Czech Senate's Committee on Immunity, according to which Dryml's remarks were racially motivated.  full story

Czech Republic: Director of Terezín memorial against NGO honoring Romani victims separately

Terezín, 21.1.2015 0:21, (ROMEA) The Konexe association is planning to hold an event to honor the Romani victims of the Holocaust at Terezín on the same day that the official commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz will take place. Konexe is concerned that Romani victims will either not be remembered at all or will not be sufficiently remembered by the official event.  full story

Czech Republic: ROMEA helps tutor socially disadvantaged children

Kladno, 20.1.2015 21:58, (ROMEA) From September to December 2014, socially disadvantaged children received regular tutoring at the Pařížská Primary School in Kladno as part of a project called "Education for successful integration". One ambition of the project was to involve Romani college students as tutors.  full story

Czech MP didn't see neo-Nazis at anti-Islamic demo, but Romea.cz did!

Prague, 20.1.2015 20:01, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that Czech MP Jana Černochová (Civic Democratic Party - ODS) is defending her participation at a demonstration at Prague Castle convened by a group called "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" by saying she didn't see any Nazis demonstrating with them. Reporters with news server Romea.cz, however, saw Vlastimil Pechanec with two friends at the demo; Pechanec was sentenced in 2003 to 17 years in prison for a racially motivated murder in the town of Svitavy.  full story

Commentary: Disabled children don't have to sit in the corner

Prague, 19.1.2015 18:05, (ROMEA) The recent remarks by Czech President Miloš Zeman about inclusion have sparked a stormy discussion here. "I am not an advocate of the opinion that children who are handicapped in a certain way should be placed into classrooms with non-handicapped pupils, because that is unfortunate for both," the President said at the Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí as part of his visit to the Pardubice Region  full story

Czech Republic: Demonstration at Terezín will demand Romani victims of Holocaust be honored

Terezín, 19.1.2015 16:35, (ROMEA) During the commemorative ceremony on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January, a demonstration demanding that Romani victims of the Holocaust be honored will take place at Terezín. The protest is being convened by the Konexe association, which among other things has long fought to see the pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma at Lety by Písek be removed  full story

Czech film critics nominate film about Roma for prize

Prague, 18.1.2015 22:06, (ROMEA) Six nominations for the Czech Film Critics AWard, which will be handed out for the fifth time on 24 January at Prague's Archa Theater, have been garnered by director Petr Václav's film "The Way Out" (Cesta ven). Jiří Mádl's debut "To See the Sea" (Pojedeme k moři) received five nominations and Andrea Sedláčková's "Fair Play" received four.  full story

Commentary: Czech President's remarks supported discrimination against Romani children

Prague, 17.1.2015 23:28, (ROMEA) "Handicapped children should not attend classes together with non-handicapped children" - that is approximately what Czech President Miloš Zeman said last Wednesday during a visit to a Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí. His words have sparked a firestorm of criticism from experts and politicians.  full story

Czech Republic: Protests against Islam and for religious freedom in front of Prague Castle

Prague, 17.1.2015 22:07, (ROMEA) Roughly 600 people, according to police, gathered yesterday evening in front of Prague Castle for a demonstration convened by the "We Don't Want Islam in the Czech Republic" initiative. The protest assembly lasted for roughly one hour and took place without any larger incidents.  full story

Czech Republic's "Romani elite" are under pressure

Brno/Trimice, 17.1.2015 3:04, (ROMEA) In addition to the charges of producing and distributing illegal drugs recently filed against a local Romani councilor in Trmice, Marcel Cichý, there is another, less dramatic and less visible problem affecting the country's Romani elite. The matter is a serious one nonetheless: One of the few media outlets focusing on Romani people, the magazine Romano hangos, is in a deep crisis and its original editors are in a state of conflict with one another.  full story

Czech Police investigate brawl between gaming room bouncers and Romani customers in Ostrava

Ostrava, 16.1.2015 19:47, (ROMEA) A large group of Romani customers attacked security guards on Wednesday at a gaming room in Ostrava-Bělský Les. The scuffle between the bodyguards and the customers happened
after members of the security team removed two Romani customers from the premises.  full story

Czech Republic: Local party believes Romani member is innocent of drug charges

Trmice, 15.1.2015 17:30, (ROMEA) Detectives have charged Marcel Cichý, a primary school teacher and local councilor in Trmice elected for the "Together for Trmice" movement, with illegal distribution of drugs. News server Romea.cz publishes a statement on his arrest from the "Together for Trmice" movement in full translation here:  full story

European Commission not satisfied with Czech response to discrimination of Romani children

Brussels/Prague, 15.1.2015 16:57, (ROMEA) According to new information reported by Czech Television, the European Commission is not satisfied with the response of the Czech Government regarding the issue of the discrimination of Romani children in the schools. An official response to the Government will be sent by Brussels within the next few weeks.  full story