Czech Republic

Czech towns begin to "produce" hundreds of newly homeless people after law has potentially catastrophic effect

3.6.2015 21:13 Reality has turned out differently than Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová believed it might. "Most municipalities behave rationally, they know they cannot afford to create dozens or hundreds of homeless people," she said last week.  full story

Tasks awaiting the Czech Education Ministry need more than a temporary replacement in charge

3.6.2015 19:16 Even though it may seem that Marcel Chládek is leaving office primarily because he has not treated women and colleagues not involved with sports well at the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, there are more reasons than that for his dismissal. The degree of his misconceived ideas, such as the distribution of tablet computing devices to schoolchildren, or the introduction of "practical" classes in the primary schools, had in fact exceeded all tolerable limits.  full story

Does the Czech Human Rights Minister grasp the purported dispute between the "ethnic" and "social" approaches to inclusion?

3.6.2015 17:35 Two important events took place recently that may fundamentally influence the approach to Romani integration policy and combating socially excluded localities for a long time to come. A new report on socially excluded localities was presented by the GAC company, and several hours later, Czech Human Rights Minister Dienstbier announced that the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion will be Radek Jiránek.  full story

Commentary: Not everyone has luck or talent - response to Julius Zajac about options for ghetto children

3.6.2015 15:40 Julius Zajac's recent commentary presented a proud, self-aware perspective on the problems of Roma - in his view the key to overcoming these problems is education, and anyone can access a decent education in the Czech Republic. Racism, he says, does not stand in the way.  full story

Czech town rejects residential hotel tenants' applications for housing benefits across the board

2.6.2015 14:41 Town councilors for the municipality of Bohumín have rejected all 124 applications for housing benefits submitted by individuals who are accommodated in residential hotels on their territory. Such rejections could impact as many as 210 such facilities throughout the country.  full story

REF Seeks a National Selection Board Member in Czech Republic

1.6.2015 13:16 Roma Education Fund Scholarship Program announces its call for applications for a National Selection Board (NSB) position for the Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP), who will participate in the evaluation and selection process of scholarship beneficiaries for REF Scholarship Program (REF SP) for the academic year 2015-2016, in Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion sees more staff quit over allegedly untransparent hire of new director

30.5.2015 8:19 Wednesday's announcement of the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion, Radek Jiránek, has not managed to halt the departure of another 10 employees. Notice has been given, for example, by the interim director, Alena Zieglerová, by an expert in debt counseling, and by a lawyer with the Government department.  full story

SURVEY: Romani figures respond to the choice of Jiránek as director of Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion

27.5.2015 20:22 Radek Jiránek, head of the Crime Prevention Department at the Czech Interior Ministry, is the new director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

Czech Republic: Number of socially excluded localities has doubled since 2006 to 606

27.5.2015 13:42 The number of socially excluded localities has almost doubled in the Czech Republic since the first Analysis of Socially Excluded Romani Communities and Localities in the Czech Republic and the Absorption Capacity of Entities Working in this Area was presented on 6 September 2006. That year the number of impoverished apartment complexes, impoverished neighborhoods and whole streets was estimated at 300, while now it is estimated to number 606 such localities in 297 municipalities.  full story

Czech Republic: Open Society Fund explains its financial cooperation with owner of tabloid Extra.cz

27.5.2015 8:13 The Open Society Fund Prague (OSF Prague) has announced a scholarship fund to support Romani college students in collaboration with Jan Barta, the owner of the tabloid publication Extra.cz. News server Romea.cz has asked OSF Prague whether they consider it problematic to collaborate with the owner of a tabloid whose Editor-in-Chief, Pavel Novotný, makes no secret of the fact that he manipulates "Romani topics" to increase readership.  full story

Czech trial of arson attack reviews neo-Nazi groups

26.5.2015 9:04 In mid-May the Regional Court in Plzeň continued with the trial of the allegedly organized groups operating from 2011-2012 under the names of Blood & Honour and Combat 18 (the number 18 is a synonym for Adolf Hitler's initials) on the territory of the Czech Republic. The nine-member group, according to the indictment, is said to have promoted neo-Nazism and some of its members are said to have perpetrated arson attacks on occupied and unoccupied buildings, to have supported racial hatred, to have perpetrated various forms of violence with a tendency to terrorism, to have denied the Holocaust, and to have committed violence against a particular group and its individual members.  full story

Interviews with rival Czech academics about the Institute of Ethnology, the Roma, and social inclusion

25.5.2015 10:36 Does an "ethnic" approach to the integration of Romani people represent the threat of their isolation and nationalism? Is it artificial and risky?  full story

Julius Zajac: I will never recognize a self-appointed Council of Elders

25.5.2015 7:52 So: Now we have a Council of Elders. How its members intend to aid the integration of Romani people into Czech society is unclear.  full story

Commentary: Who has gone nuts? Holomek is misinformed

24.5.2015 23:29 In connection with the gradual destruction of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion by Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier's team, as well as the discussion about the new format for state interventions that those promoting exclusively "Romani" measures want to promote in public policy, many contradictory claims are being made about who has thought what and what was supposed to work for whom. It is a bit tendentious and unfair for some members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs and for Romani publicists to claim that People in Need somehow denies Romanipen and the ethnic dimension of the situation of the Romani minority in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister speaks of a "cult of personality" around the director he fired

24.5.2015 20:09 Speaking today on the Prima television station's "Partie" program, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has already identified replacements for some of the staffers of the Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion who have given their notice in connection with his dismissal of Martin Šimáček as its head. On Friday his spokesperson told the Czech News Agency that the minister had not yet begun to look for replacements and would wait until Šimáček's successor is chosen before opening up the positions to applicants.  full story

Czech Republic: Khamoro Festival starts today in Prague

24.5.2015 18:42 The best Romani artists from all over the world are now heading to Prague and then to Plzeň. Today is the first day of the 17th annual Khamoro Festival, which is the best-known, biggest Romani festival in the world.  full story

Karel Holomek: The Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion has gone nuts, the Roma need a legitimate political partner

24.5.2015 7:37 Last week several dozen Romani figures assembled and issued a declaration expressing their ambition to become representatives of the Romani community in the Czech Republic. News server Romea.cz has learned that the author of that declaration is the famous Romani activist, journalist and politician Karel Holomek.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion may see even more quitters

23.5.2015 15:54 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has not yet begun to look for replacements for the 14 staffers of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion who have given notice because of their disagreements with him. The announcing of those hiring procedures will wait until a new director is found for the Agency.  full story

Commentary: What will the Agency be like once its employees give notice?

23.5.2015 14:30 On 21 May, 14 employees of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion gave their notice. The resignations happened more than one month after the dismissal of Agency director Martin Šimáček, which jump-started a crisis within that institution and a tempestuous discussion about its future and about Romani integration policy.  full story

Alexander Oláh: A brief report on the emancipation, integration, and participation of Roma

23.5.2015 8:02 It is completely surprising, but the current Romani Integration Strategy is actually beginning to be implemented. This has never been the case before - the previous Romani Integration Concept was mostly about photographs of former Human Rights Minister Micahel Kocáb and was basically never implemented at all.  full story