Jana Baudyšová

Roma Holocaust Memorial Day marks the Nazi murder of Roma and Sinti at Auschwitz on 2-3 August 1944

2.8.2018 9:27 On 2 and 3 August 1944 the Nazis murdered 2 898 Roma and Sinti in the gas chambers of the concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Roma and Sinti all over Europe, therefore, commemorate 2 August as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.  full story

Now that evictees are housed, Czech local government attacks NGOs and the poor

25.7.2018 12:20 The last remaining evictees from two closed residential hotels have finally moved out of the gym at a school in the excluded locality of Předlice and into rental housing. After their previous contracts were not extended, 25 tenants evicted from the Modrá residential hotel in the Střekov quarter of Ústí nad Labem ended up living in the gym temporarily at the beginning of July.
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Czech landlord pressured to leave Civic Democratic Party for trafficking in poverty, he denies the accusation

25.7.2018 5:59 Martin Kuba, the chair of the South Bohemian regional association of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), has met with his party colleague, Jan Zedník, seeking an explanation of Zedník's business enterprises leasing apartment units in socially excluded localities. News server lidovky.cz reports that Kuba has proposed cancelling Zedník's party membership.  full story

Czech court rules in favor of songwriter's widow, xenophobic band loses prize named after him without authorization

22.6.2018 8:40 The Czech organization that gave a music award named after the songwriter Karel Kryl to the frontman for the xenophobic Ortel band, Tomáš Ortel, have lost their appeal of the lawsuit filed against them by the songwriter's widow. The Gold Award for the Legacy of Karel Kryl was given to Ortel last spring by a group called People for the People (Lidé lidem) that actually was not authorized to use the songwriter's name at all.
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Czech Supreme Court closes case of vote-buying at Romani housing estate, public interest of secret recording was key

5.6.2018 10:05 The Czech Supreme Court has closed a case about vote-buying in the runup to local elections in 2014 at the Chanov housing estate. The case charged Hana Jeníčková, the former Vice-Mayor of Most from the "Association of Most Residents for Most" who later became an opposition city councilmember, and Jan Hašek, former director of the city's sports hall, with attempting to buy votes from local residents.  full story

Romani community member David Beňák now director of the Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion

2.6.2018 19:16 As of yesterday, the director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is David Beňák, previously vice-minister for the Human Rights Section at the Office of the Government. He will take over the job after its having been entrusted to acting director Radka Soukupová for the last seven months.  full story

Residential hotels closing in Czech city, Romani tenants have yet to find substitute accommodation

1.6.2018 19:22 The inhabitants of two residential hotels in the Czech city of Ústí nad Labem that will close at the end of June still do not know where they will be moving. During their housing search they are encountering the need to pay deposits they cannot afford, as well as discrimination from landlords.
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EU Agency for Fundamental Rights finds Czech Republic the place that rejects Romani people the most

30.4.2018 15:29 The lives of many Romani people in Europe are similar to the lives of people living in the poorer countries of the world, according to a report released earlier this month by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) entitled "A persisting concern: anti-Gypsyism as a barrier to Roma inclusion". The main problems Romani people face daily in the EU include hunger, poor hygienic conditions, and youth unemployment, according to the report.  full story

Brutal assailant attacks Romani woman in front of her children, Czech Police can't get their stories straight

23.3.2018 16:48

A brutal assailant attacked Lucie Badyová in front of her seven-year-old son and three-year-old daughter last Thursday afternoon on Kapitána Jaroše Street in the Czech town of Kadaň. He punched her, knocking her to the ground and continued his brutal assault as she was prone.

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Slovakia: Second Romani schoolchild dies after February car accident

23.3.2018 15:26 A tragic car accident that happened in February near Poprad, Slovakia in the village of Spišské Bystré has now claimed its second victim at the hospital in Martin. One week after the accident a 12-year-old girl named Vanesa succumbed to her injuries there, and now her 14-year-old sister Alžběta has succumbed to her own injuries as well.  full story

Czech MP from the far right is a trafficker in poverty

19.3.2018 8:29 Lubomír Volný, an MP in Tomio Okamura's "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) movement and a regional assembly member, has been renting properties for five years to the same impoverished families that the SPD customarily labels as "inadaptables" or "parasites", making money from the very welfare system that the SPD otherwise rejects as costly and dysfunctional. Public broadcaster Czech Television has reported on his business dealings in detail during an episode of Reportéři ČT that aired on 12 March.  full story

Czech anti-immigration activist launches book on the premises of the lower house, ultra-conservatives support it

18.3.2018 10:19 Petr Hampl, the anti-immigration and anti-Islam activist and sociologist, has launched his new book about Islam and the alleged "Islamicization" of society on the premises of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. Hampl is known for having publicly expressed support for the father who filmed himself urging his preschool-aged daughter to hit a pillow with a baseball bat while pretending she was hitting a Muslim or a Romani person, and his book launch was attended by the son of former Czech President Václav Klaus and by other MPs.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry's quarterly report on extremism: Politicians exploited fears of immigration

19.2.2018 8:19 The Czech Interior Ministry's report on extremism for the final quarter of 2017 says a total of 54 events organized by extremists took place last year in the Czech Republic. Of those, 47 were organized by left-wing extremist entities, 20 events more than compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.  full story

Czech prosecutor indicts shooter for murder, refutes police report that he was responding to victim driving into people

14.2.2018 7:20 The gunman who shot a 34-year-old Romani man to death on Jirkovská Street at the Písečná housing estate in Chomutov last May has been charged with murder and property
damage and faces between 12 and 20 years in prison if convicted. The case will be tried by the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem.  full story

Former Czech Human Rights Minister says the entire country should campaign against denial of Romani genocide

11.2.2018 7:17 On Wednesday, 7 February, former Czech Human Rights Minister Michael Kocáb commented at a press conference announcing the results of the fundraising drive called "THEY WANT TO GAS THEM, WE WANT TO SEND THEM TO SCHOOL!" about the recent remarks made the chair of the SPD party, who is also the vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies. He highlighted the responses of politicians who have objected to Czech MP Okamura's remarks, which in his view have crossed a certain line.  full story

Czech football fans who assaulted African man on Prague tram have not been banned from matches

9.2.2018 6:39 Fans of the football club Sigma Olomouc who assaulted a man from West Africa last November on a Prague tram have not yet been banned from attending the club's matches despite the fact that club spokesperson Petr Pelíšek, responding to the incident in the fall, said the club was prepared to cooperate with police on measures to ban them. News server Olomoucký deník reported last week that Sigma Olomouc does not yet know the identity of the perpetrators of the incident.  full story

Czech Republic: Unique "Memory of the Roma" project keeps historical memory alive through video

7.2.2018 7:33 Over a cup of coffee in her apartment in Rokycany, Czech Republic, 67-year-old Květa Tůmová Tomášová recalls the stories of her family, whose roots are in the Šariš region of eastern Slovakia. She talks about labor camps, partisans, the Second World War, the postwar migration to the Czech Republic, her childhood in Rokycany, and the classroom where she and her brother Mírák were the only Romani children.  full story

Czech MP apologizes for "imprecision", then urges people to read historian who calls the Romani Holocaust a "myth"

4.2.2018 8:48 The chair of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" party (SPD), Czech MP Tomio Okamura, who is a vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, responded through Facebook on 2 February to the Museum of Romani Culture's request that he apologize for his deceptive remarks about the concentration camp for Romani people at Lety u Písku. In his statement, Okamura apologizes for his imprecise remarks about the fencing of the camp at Lety u Písku before proceeding to quote Jan Rataj, a history professor who alleges that the Protectorate's "Gypsy Camps" were not concentration camps and who said in an interview for the tabloid Parlamentní listy that to call them such is to perpetuate a "myth" that is being politically exploited.  full story

Czech Republic: Romafuturismo Library holds its grand opening TODAY

1.2.2018 7:18 Today, 1 February, the grand opening of the Romafuturismo Library will take place at the tranzit office gallery and lecture space (Dittrichova 13, Prague 2). A marathon reading will begin at 7 AM and end at 7 PM of the book Narodila jsem se pod šťastnou hvězdou (A False Dawn) by the eminent Romani author Elena (Ilona) Lacková.  full story

Czech Government approves bankruptcy amendment bill adjusting conditions for debt relief

21.1.2018 9:05 On 18 January it was reported by news server justice.cz that the Czech Government has approved a so-called debt relief amendment to bankruptcy legislation that will significantly change the conditions for debt relief. The amendment will make the process of declaring bankruptcy accessible to a broader circle of debtors who are making a good-faith effort to pay off their obligations and will aid people in the so-called debt trap.  full story