Jana Baudyšová

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.

 full story

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

Human rights agenda, including Agency for Social Inclusion and Hate Free Culture, now under Czech Justice Minister

26.12.2017 10:07 The Human Rights Section, which during the previous administration was part of the agenda of the Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation, is now being administered by the Justice Ministry in the Czech Republic, and Justice Minister Robert Pelikán has become the chair of the Council for Romani Minority Affairs. Pelikán's spokesperson told news server Romea.cz that the minister is not planning any personnel changes currently, that he appreciates the Hate Free Culture project as a successful one, and that once January comes he is planning to visit excluded localities together with the Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

Denmark: Immigrant and ex-MP visits those who post hateful commentaries and threats online

23.12.2017 18:46 Özlem Cekic, a former MP in Denmark, has decided to undertake a genuinely unique approach to combating racism and xenophobia. As an immigrant, a Muslim, and a woman she has been targeted with many hateful commentaries, harassment and threats online.  full story

Czech Republic: Professor Ctibor Nečas, a pioneer in researching the history of the Roma, has passed away

22.12.2017 17:18 Professor PhDr. Ctibor Nečas, DrSc., an emeritus professor at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic who was a pioneer of research into the history of ethnic Romani people and the Holocaust, passed away on Tuesday, 19 December. Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Romani Culture, informed news server Romea.cz of the news on 21 December.  full story

videoČeněk Růžička receives human rights prize from the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic for his contribution to Romani Holocaust recognition

8.12.2017 5:56 On the occasion of International Human Rights Day (10 December), US Ambassador Stephen King gave the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Award to the chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Romani Holocaust (VPORH), Čeněk Růžička, as his first official act. Mr Růžička has finally achieved, after more than 20 years, the Czech Government's investment into the closure and removal of a pig farm occupying the site of the WWII-era concentration camp at Lety in South Bohemia.  full story

Special issue of Romano voďi magazine on Romani Holocaust and Czech state buyout of pig farm on genocide site

30.11.2017 8:17 The Czech and Romanes language magazine Romano voďi has dedicated most of its November issue to the subject of the Romani Holocaust. As the year comes to an end, the editors believe it is important to recall the dates and contexts that preceded the historically significant, groundbreaking decision by the Czech Government in August to buy out the pig farm on the site of the former camp at Lety.  full story

Provocateur calls sale of former Roma genocide site to the Czech state a form of "antisemitism", Jewish community disagrees

28.11.2017 19:30 Jaroslav Novák is a founder of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party, a close collaborator with its chair, Tomio Okamura, and is himself the chair of the Memorial to the Shoah and Oskar Schindler Foundation, and he is alleging that by buying the pig farm on the Roma genocide site at Lety u Písku the Czech state has harmed itself. Shortly after the purchase agreement was signed he filed a criminal report with the Supreme State Prosecutor in the matter.  full story

Czech cardinal congratulates hate-mongering party on their electoral results

24.11.2017 11:04 The head of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, Cardinal Dominik Duka, has congratulated the chair of the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement (SPD), Tomio Okamura, on his party's electoral results. "Permit me to congratulate you on the outcome of the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic," Duka has written in a letter.  full story