Czech Republic

Czech mayor refutes rumor she is forgiving Romani residents' debts

Vsetín, 17.7.2014 20:51, (ROMEA) The official website of the town of Vsetín has posted a statement regarding recent allegations made against Mayor Táborská. A majority-society resident has reportedly verbally abused the mayor over information published by a local weekly.  full story

Analysis: Vlastimil Pechanec - neo-Nazi martyr or hard-core murderer?

Prague, 17.7.2014 18:37, (ROMEA) On 21 July 2014 it will be 13 years since Otto Absolon, a father of two young children, died at the hands of a local neo-Nazi, Vlastimil Pechanec, in the East Bohemian town of Svitavy. At the end of last month, Mr Absolon's murderer was conditionally released from prison.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister completing amendment to enhance ombud powers

Brno/Prague, 17.7.2014 17:17, (ROMEA) Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD) will be submitting a draft amendment to enhance the powers of the ombud within the next few weeks. The change would grant the ombud authority to request the Constitutional Court to abolish dubious laws and the authority to file anti-discrimination suits.  full story

Czech adoption at decade low, Romani children often "exported"

Prague, 17.7.2014 16:43, (ROMEA) Authorities in the Czech Republic received the lowest number of requests for adoption last year during the past decade, a total of 626 (see table below). In recent years the number of requests has been gradually declining.  full story

International stipends for Romani college students: deadline 21/7

Czech Republic and other 15 countries, 17.7.2014 15:31, (ROMEA) Roma Education Fund’s Scholarship Program (REF SP) announces yearly scholarship cycle of the Roma International Scholar Program (RISP) for the 2014 - 2015 academic year. The Program is designed to provide partial support to Roma students who are citizens of one of the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, and Ukraine, for pursuing Bachelor, Master, Doctorate, or Postdoctoral education outside their home country or country of residence. The aim of the scholarship is to promote academic mobility of Roma students and support their academic integration internationally.  full story

Czech social housing responsibility may shift to municipalities

Prague, 15.7.2014 23:02, (ROMEA) Who should provide social housing? Should municipalities be obligated by law to provide social housing for their residents?  full story

European Shoah Legacy Institute to narrow focus, attract other states

Prague, 15.7.2014 21:33, (ROMEA) The European Shoah Legacy Institute, which is based in the Czech Republic, should become more narrowly focused and its financing and work should involve more countries than at present. Those are the proposals made by Jiří Čistecký, the Czech Government's Special Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, in a report reviewed by the cabinet on 9 July.  full story

videoCzech homeless people make video at Prague train station

Prague, 15.7.2014 18:56, (ROMEA) A total of 29 homeless people are featured in a new video clip that was filmed at Prague's Masaryk train station (Masarykové nádraží). In the emotional clip, the homeless men and women sing the Czech national anthem, "Kde domov můj?" (Where is My Home?).  full story

Czech state to provide co-financing for some EU-funded nonprofit projects

Prague, 15.7.2014 17:40, (ROMEA) Nonprofit organizations will not have to raise their own co-financing for certain EU-funded projects in years to come as the Czech Finance Ministry originally proposed. The Czech state will continue to provide the necessary co-financing to ensure the provision of education, inclusion and social services by nonprofits.  full story

Czech Police arrest man who painted Nazi graffiti

Most, 15.7.2014 16:14, (ROMEA) Police have charged a 24-year-old man from the town of Litvínov (Most district) with displaying sympathy for a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms and criminal property damage. The man has admitted to spray-painting Nazi symbols on a building in the outskirts of the town of Most.  full story

Czech Radio: Romani priest values the trust people place in him

Jihlava, 14.7.2014 22:42, (ROMEA) A smartphone helps him with his sermons, he leads a rich social life, he goes to the gym, leads mountain hiking trips and designs his own vestments. He recently celebrated his 30th birthday and is the first Roman Catholic priest to come from a Romani environment in today's Czech Republic.  full story

videoCzech film festival awards film about Romani boxer

Karlovy Vary, 14.7.2014 17:23, (ROMEA) The International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary chose 15 projects out of 51 applicants to compete as part of its Works in Progress 2014 series for awards on 7 July. An international jury then selected the most promising film to receive a prize of EUR 10 000 worth of services from the festival's partner, Barrandov Studios.  full story

Water cut to Czech residential hotel, town must step in

Ústí nad Labem, 14.7.2014 16:00, (ROMEA) Dozens of people from the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem are without supplies of potable water. Iveta Kardianová, spokesperson for North Bohemian Water Supply and Sewerage (Severočeské vodovody a kanalizace - SČVK) says the building, a residential hotel, has been disconnected over hundreds of thousands of crowns in unpaid bills.  full story

Cyril Koky: Address Romani unemployment through responsible public procurement

Prague, 14.7.2014 6:48, (ROMEA) The high level of unemployment among the Romani population causes a stigmatizing factor that negative influences the majority society's position toward the Romani minority. The majority society sees the cause of unemployment more in Romani people themselves and in their "unwillingness" to work and will not admit the existence of systemic barriers in access to employment or of discrimination on the labor market.  full story

Commentary: "Are you baby-sitting all those children?"

Prague, 12.7.2014 23:42, (ROMANO VOĎI) My friend Petra causes a ruckus wherever she goes with her children. "Are you some kind of camp? Are you baby-sitting them for someone? Did you adopt them all?" total strangers unashamedly ask her on the street, in the shop, on the tram, even when she visits the emergency room.  full story

Czech ombud: Most problems concern social security

Prague, 12.7.2014 16:54, (ROMEA) Czech ombud Anna Šabatová has answered several quick questions for the magazine Romano vod'i:  full story

Brussels insists the Czech Republic allocate EU money directly for Romani inclusion

Prague, 12.7.2014 3:03, (ROMEA) The Czech Republic claims it has convinced the European Commission to back down from most of its 88 exceptions to the country's plans for drawing EU money. However, the Czechs have yet to reach agreement with the Commission on several topics, such as financing the inclusion of Romani people into society and the absence of a Service Act.  full story

Czech Deputy Culture Minister on Prima TV's antigypsyism

Prague, 12.7.2014 0:18, (ROMEA) The Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting in the Czech Republic has included among its priorities for 2014 more consistent monitoring of the stereotyping of minorities in the media. The council is primarily monitoring compliance with the provision of the Act on the Operation of Radio and Television Broadcasting that bans broadcasters from confirming prejudicial stereotypes against ethnic, racial or religious minorities in the programs they broadcast.  full story

Czech Education Minister: Pre-school education is important

Prague, 11.7.2014 22:53, (ROMANO VOĎI) Marcel Chládek, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports in the Czech Republic, has answered a few quick questions for Romano vod'i magazine::  full story

Response to adoptive mother's blog about Romea.cz article

Prague, 10.7.2014 20:42, (ROMEA) On Thursday, 3 July, news server Romea.cz published an article by Saša Uhlová entitled Adoption and foster care: "We had room at the table". That article, which was about foster care and the stories of those who decide to aid parentless children, touched on the book Year of the Rooster (Rok kohouta) by the author Tereza Boučková.  full story