Czech Republic

Czech Platform for Social Housing says Gov't social housing concept entrenches trafficking in poverty

Brno/Ostrava/Prague, 10.12.2013 20:32, (ROMEA) The Platform for Social Housing is not satisfied with the new social housing concept drafted by the Czech Regional Development Ministry. News server Romea.cz presents the platform's press release in full translation here:  full story

Czech Police arrest hooligan for assaulting two Romani bus passengers

Prague, 10.12.2013 18:24, (ROMEA) The Czech Television program "Na stopě" ("On the Trail") has reported on a classic case of hate violence that took place just before 3 AM on 2 November on night bus number 511 in Prague. Two aggressive assailants attacked two Romani passengers whom eyewitnesses said were obviously physically weaker than them.  full story

Czech Helsinki Committee and ROMEA send open letter to political parties on Human Rights Day

Prague, 10.12.2013 16:20, (ROMEA) The Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor - ČHV) and the ROMEA civic association have sent Czech political parties an open letter on the occasion of Human Rights Day detailing current deficiencies in the human rights area at the level of the Government and Parliament. Below is a translation of the letter and responses from the three political parties that have responded to it.  full story

Czech Republic: Rioters assault Romani children's choir in Hodonín

Hodonín, 10.12.2013 3:36, (ROMEA) Several youths assaulted the members of the children's choir Čhavorenge last Friday night in the Czech town of Hodonín. The injuries suffered were abrasions; none of the 19 young singers needed medical treatment.  full story

Czech Police need help identifying Romani assault victim

České Budějovice, 10.12.2013 3:15, (ROMEA) Police in České Budějovice are requesting assistance with an unusual search - they need to identify not a perpetrator, but a victim who was brutally assaulted by a violent youth this past summer on Piaristické Square. Detectives have already apprehended the perpetrator of the attack after video footage of it was posted online (available at http://www.romea.cz/cz/zpravodajstvi/domaci/mladik-brutalne-zautocil-na-chodce-v-ceskych-budejovicich-napadeny-byl-zrejme-rom).  full story

Dreaming of Europe: What to do with rising ultra-right party influence in the EU?

Prague, 10.12.2013 2:29, (ROMEA) It seems that some politicians in the European mainstream are slowly beginning to wake up from their democratic dream. For the time being it's just a few individuals, but at least some are starting to realize that the growth in voter preference for extremist political parties in Europe is a real danger.  full story

Commentary: Czech Senator says Romanes language lacks future tense

Prague, 6.12.2013 23:11, (ROMEA) Edward Said, the renowned post-colonial critical theorist, once said that the Roma are the only group about which anything can be said "without challenge or demurral". Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the founders of modern linguistics, noted that few other subjects have sparked as much fantasy, illusion or prejudice as language.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani parents learn how to get their children into mainstream schools

Czech Republic, 6.12.2013 17:35, (ROMEA) Roughly 150 Romani parents have attended seminars in 10 towns around the Czech Republic to learn how to prevent their children ending up in the "practical primary schools". Thanks to role-playing scenarios, the parents have rehearsed how to reject official offers that their offspring be assigned to such schools.  full story

Czech NGOs ask senators to distance themselves from their colleagues' racism

Prague, 6.12.2013 0:20, (ROMEA) At the instigation of the Czech Professional Society for Inclusive Education, (Česká odborná společnost pro inkluzivní vzdělávání -ČOSIV), an open letter has been written to the senators currently serving in the Czech Parliament. In the letter, the signatories refer to a recent plenary session in the Senate that featured racist and xenophobic remarks and ask the senators to publicly distance themselves from such statements in order to preserve the political culture and dignity of the institution they represent.  full story

Czech rapper disqualified from competition for promoting violence against women

Prague, 5.12.2013 21:47, (ROMEA) News server Musicserver.cz has reported that the conveners of the Czech Nightingale (Český slavík) music competition have disqualified the rapper Martin Pohl, who performs under the nickname "Řezník" (Butcher) from the category of Internet Star without any warning and instead declared the performer Johny Machette the victor in that category. The organizers reject charges of censorship and say they excluded the rapper because they found his lyrics to describe "wrongful acts".  full story

Czech Police arrest right-wing extremists who were arming themselves

Prague, 5.12.2013 17:26, (ROMEA) Detectives from the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu - ÚOOZ) arrested five men from the Bruntál and Olomouc areas at the end of November and charged them with possessing weapons without permits. During house searches the detectives found weapons, dozens of kilograms of gunpowder, explosives and ammunition, as well as ultra-right themed materials.  full story

Czech EdMin presents Council of Europe its measures for fewer Roma in special ed

Prague/Strasbourg, 4.12.2013 17:33, (ROMEA) As many as 28 % of the pupils attending the "practical schools" (formerly the "special schools") in the Czech Republic are of Romani origin. Those are the results of an investigation by the Czech School Inspectorate, which counted the number of Romani schoolchildren attending schools designed for children with light mental retardation this past September.  full story

Commentary: Senator Doubrava the Czech equivalent of Kotleba in Slovakia

Prague, 4.12.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) I am convinced that every social group, including senators, includes a few cunning hucksters. Czech Senator Doubrava (Severočeši.cz) definitely belongs to that category.  full story

Czech School Inspectorate: One-third of "practical school" pupils are Romani

Prague, 3.12.2013 17:39, (ROMEA) As many as 28 % of the pupils attending schools providing special education are of Romani origin. Those are the results of an investigation by the Czech School Inspectorate, which conducted a census of Romani schoolchildren at schools designed for children with light mental retardation this past September.  full story

Czech report on Roma: Socially excluded localities grow along with youth unemployment

Prague, 3.12.2013 16:19, (ROMEA) Last week the Czech Government reviewed its Report on the State of the Romani Minority for 2012. The document confirms that Romani people continue to occupy an adverse position in the areas of education, employment, housing and security.  full story

Czech Senate rejects EU efforts to improve Romani integration

Prague, 3.12.2013 1:00, (ROMEA) The Czech Senate has rejected a proposal from the European Commission for EU Member States to introduce social measures targeting Romani people, saying that the delivering of aid according to ethnic criteria is unconstitutional. The senators agreed that Romani integration, given the diversity of Romani communities, should be conducted nationally according to local conditions.  full story

Amnesty International Czech Republic strongly objects to senators' remarks about Roma

Prague, 1.12.2013 18:10, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz previously reported, a recent session of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on recommendations from the Council of the EU about Romani integration measures included remarks by some senators which revealed their antigypsyism, crassness, ignorance of the issue, and sense of superiority combined with a need to ridicule others. News server Romea.cz reached out to several figures from the NGO sphere and politics and asked them their opinion of the Senate's performance.  full story

Analysis: Czech media uninterested in civil society critique of senators' antigypsyism

Prague, 29.11.2013 22:26, (ROMEA) The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic is part of our democratic system and should therefore honor the Constitution of the Czech Republic, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms that is a part of that constitutional order. Senators who speak during sessions of the upper chamber are representing the Czech Republic as a democratic state governed by the rule of law to the nation and the rest of the world.  full story

Slovak PM: Growth in extremism can be confronted by better solving "the Romani question"

Prague, 29.11.2013 21:03, (ROMEA) Speaking in Prague yesterday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said government can confront the growth in extremism by "managing to solve the so-called Romani question." He was responding to a question about what would stop the growing popularity in the Central European region of people like Slovak right-wing extremist Marian Kotleba.  full story

Czech figures say Senate session on Roma integration full of collective blame, hatred, ignorance and racism

Prague, 29.11.2013 18:51, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz reported earlier this week, the recent session of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on EU recommendations for Romani integration measures included statements by some senators that were a testament to their antigypsyism, their crassness, their ignorance of the issue, and their sense of superiority combined with a need to ridicule others. News server Romea.cz has reached out to several leading figures from the NGO sphere and politics and asked them for their opinions of the Senate's performance.  full story