Czech Republic

Karel Holomek: Roma should fundraise for removal of pig farm from concentration camp site

17.8.2015 1:06 Karel Holomek, a former dissident and current chair of the Society of Roma in Moravia (Společenství Romů na Moravě - SRNM), said during the Czech Government's official commemorative ceremony at the Lety by Písek memorial on 3 August that in addition to the Government taking an active approach toward the issue of the pig farm there, Romani people themselves should be active. Holomek believes Roma should take up a collection to raise funds for relocating the farm, part of which now covers the site of the former WWII-era concentration camp for Roma.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani Holocaust memorial to be created within two years in Hodonín

15.8.2015 20:17 The building of a memorial to the former labor and concentration camp at Hodonín by Kunštát is now continuing. "In July the construction site was handed over and digging work is currently underway at the site," Petra Holovková, director of the Hodonín Memorial department of the Jan Amos Comenius National Museum and Library, has told news server Romea.cz.  full story

Czech football fans hang up Islamophobic banner during match, team later apologizes

14.8.2015 21:07 During a football match on 2 August between the Bohemians 1905 and FK Jablonec teams, fans from Jablonec nad Nisou hung up a banner in the stands that insulted Muslims. The provocative caricature depicted a Nordic female carrying a shield inscribed with "Europe" and kicking a pig wearing a turban, who is dropping a copy of the Koran as a result.  full story

Romea.cz editor says Czech policy toward Roma full of chaos, poor concepts and populism

14.8.2015 2:10 Michal Komárek, the editor of news server Romea.cz, discussed the degree to which the Czech Republic is managing to solve its "Romani problem" during a radio program on the ČRo Plus station yesterday. The discussion was occasioned by the current session of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reviewing the situation in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech President, legislative heads say EU should beef up border protection, Czech Army should be ready if that fails

14.8.2015 1:08 The European Union should beef up the protection of its external borders according to Czech President Miloš Zeman, Czech Senate leader Milan Štěch and Czech Chamber of Deputies leader Jan Hamáček (both Social Democrats). If EU measures do not aid the situation, then the Czech Republic should enhance its own border protection because of the ongoing migration crisis.  full story

Czech media reopen dispute over Agency for Social Inclusion's approach to aiding Roma

13.8.2015 21:07 Czech commentator Petr Holub has revived the discussion on the future of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion with an analysis published on news server Echo24.cz. Holub believes that Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier began a fundamental change in the Agency's approach to social inclusion with his dismissal of the previous head of the Agency in April.  full story

Czech Education Ministry says inclusion will cost more than one billion crowns per year

11.8.2015 20:52 The recently approved amendment to the Schools Act that is meant to improve conditions for including disadvantaged children in mainstream schools could mean additional demands on the state budget in excess of one billion crowns in 2017 and 1.5 billion in 2018, according to Czech Education Ministry estimates. The ministry has now published online its Action Plan for Inclusive Education for 2016-2018.  full story

Czech court says asylum seekers must not be detained, Interior Ministry disagrees

7.8.2015 21:40 The Czech Police are not permitted to detain asylum seekers in refugee camps on the basis of suspicion that they might pose a flight risk as stipulated by the European Union's Dublin Regulation. Wednesday's edition of the Czech daily Lidové noviny reported that the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem has ruled against the practice.  full story

Czech paper unleashes hateful racist discussion online, may have committed crime

6.8.2015 20:30 A racist discussion online has been taking place on the Prostějovský večerník ("Prostějov Evening News") news server, and all it took was a few lines of text about a Romani woman who is reportedly receiving "an unbelievable CZK 51 000 a month for four children who aren't even hers from the state!" The online "trailer" for the entire article, which was only fully published in the print version, has been read by almost 100 000 people, several hundred of whom joined an ongoing online discussion beneath it which has been frequently absurd, but predominantly hateful and insulting.  full story

Czech Republic: International conference to discuss ethnic data collection options

4.8.2015 23:44 The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and Open Society Fund Prague are preparing to convene an international conference to review the permissibility of collecting ethnic data and methods for its accumulation and storage. Conference organizers informed members of the Working Group on Roma Education, which advises the Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs, of the project last week.  full story

Commentary: Czech media spread panic about asylum-seeker "uprising", ignore human rights issues

4.8.2015 1:23 Last Thursday evening the Czech news media delivered a dramatic, exciting report claiming that asylum-seekers in a camp in Bělá pod Bezdězem had "rebelled"! Roughly 50 were said to have attempted to escape the facility!  full story

Czech amendment will abolish municipal consent to housing benefits

31.7.2015 2:28 The dramatic, protracted dispute over an amendment which some experts believe could push more than 20 000 people in the Czech Republic "onto the street" has hit another milestone. The Government has tasked Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová with elaborating an amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress that will abolish municipal consent as a condition of the disbursal of housing benefits.  full story

Drahomír Radek Horváth: I don't know where to stand on fear of immigrants and Islam

30.7.2015 23:48 I am not a paranoid person and I don't generalize, I judge people by the quality of their character, not their skin color, I tolerate other opinions, religions, sexual orientations, etc. Simply put, as a member of a national minority I have "enjoyed" plenty of generalizations about Roma in my own life.  full story

Czech online discussions of refugees are full of hatred

30.7.2015 0:23 Three-quarters of the online contributions posted to Czech-language social networking or other sites that are about refugees are negative. Just one quarter of the 147 000 posts monitored in May and June expressed a desire to aid refugees.  full story

Czech NGOs criticize public broadcaster's reality TV show of schools for spreading anti-Roma prejudice

28.7.2015 20:45 Eight nonprofit organizations including ROMEA, o.p.s. have sent the Council on Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV) an open letter regarding public broadcaster Czech Television's "Class 8A" (Třída 8. A) reality television series. In their view the series, which began last year, contributes to the spread of prejudice and stereotypes about the Romani minority.  full story

Karel Holomek: Polemic with Václav Bělohradský about post-representative society

28.7.2015 1:17 Intra muros, extra muros – inside the "walls of Rome" or outside them: That is how Václav Bělohradský discusses earlier conceptions of society in an article published in the daily Právo entitled "Without nostalgia: On post-representational democracy", and he undoubtedly is right to do so. In the piece, he says he considers multiculturalism to be an "anti-Enlightenment utopia that has been going bankrupt before the eyes of
Europeans" for the last decade.  full story

Czech bank survey shows almost half of SMEs would not hire a Romani person

27.7.2015 21:18 The Czech daily Právo has published the results of a survey undertaken by the ČSOB bank which has found that 48 % of the 500 small and medium enterprises contacted would not employ a Romani person. Nine out of 10 firms surveyed said they would never hire a person who had been convicted of embezzlement, robbery, theft or any violent crime.  full story

Another Czech town's ban on sitting outdoors takes effect

27.7.2015 19:32 In mid-July a "Generally Binding Ordinance on securing local affairs of public order and improving the town's appearance" took effect in the Czech town of Bílina. The ordinance names activities that are banned because they could disturb public order or contravene good morals, the protection of public health, property and safety, or because they could disturb the town's aesthetic appearance.  full story

Yet another Czech tabloid news server perpetrates a racist hoax

26.7.2015 20:53 On 16 July the European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced a significant finding in the area of racial discrimination. The court did not pronounce judgment on anyone, but merely expressed a legal opinion which an EU Member State court should now follow.  full story

Czech, Polish and Slovak neo-Nazis protest migrants in Ostrava, target Roma area - 63 right-wing extremists detained

25.7.2015 22:02 Two demonstrations were held in the center of Ostrava today, one in support of receiving refuguees and against xenophobia, and the other, organized by football hooligans and neo-Nazis, against receiving refugees. After both events were officially ended, some anti-immigrant demonstrators attempted to make their way into the Přívoz quarter, where many Romani people live.  full story