Interviews

Edita Stejskalová: OSCE should send observer missions to Ukraine regarding pogroms against Roma and monitor the police investigation

11.7.2018 9:28 Speaking on Slovak Radio's "Romani Word" (Rómské slovo) program, political scientist Edita Stejskalová said she believes the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should take action regarding the recent fatal attacks against Romani people in Ukraine by creating an observer mission to monitor the investigation of the recent pogroms against Roma there. Stejskalová reminded listeners that from 2008-2009 such attacks against Roma were perpetrated in Hungary, that police in Slovakia have attacked Romani settlements in similar ways, and that a similar neo-Nazi arson attack in the Czech Republic led to the severe burning of a Romani child, Natálka.  full story

Jan Cibrik explains his collaboration with Czech city officials who are so harsh about impoverished Roma

9.7.2018 20:36 The crisis in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem that broke out in connection with the closing of two residential hotels seems to have been smoothed over for now. Thanks to enormous efforts primarily by the Deputy Mayor of one of the centrally-located municipal departments, Karel Karika, most of the people living in the closing facility in that municipality managed to find new housing, while about 25 people from the other facility have been provided temporary shelter by the city in the gym of a school in the excluded Předlice neighborhood.  full story

Czech Government revives position of Human Rights Commissioner

8.7.2018 9:04 Speaking in an interview for Czech Television on 28 June, Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Krčál said the Government had approved Martina Štěpánková for the reinstated position of Human Rights Commissioner. Prior to the abolition of the post of Human Rights Minister and the allocation of the human rights agenda to the Justice Ministry at the end of 2017, she had been the Deputy Human Rights Minister.  full story

Ukraine: Recent pogroms against Roma costing lives around the country

6.7.2018 7:07 Michael Beníšek, a university instructor and Romani Studies scholar who lectures at Charles University in Prague reports from the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod that "Nationalism is generally growing in Ukraine. This is partially connected with the war in eastern Ukraine, which has brought about an increase of nationalist passions. Everywhere in the streets here, for example, you can see signs reading 'Glory to the nation!' on the streets, on lampposts - I don't recall seeing that kind of thing in Transcarpathia before."  full story

Austria: Romani Artists Telling Stories of Resistance, Not Victimhood

2.6.2018 19:44 I first heard about Mindj Panther, two Roma sisters and actresses who act, rap, and make political art interventions, in 2014, during a trip to Vienna where I was performing. I was about to create my Roma feminist theatre company Giuvlipen in Bucharest, Romania and I was amazed to discover that something similar already existed in Austria.  full story

Czech-Romani actor Jan Cina: People should be judged by how they do what they do, not by labels

2.6.2018 17:53 Jan Cina is an actor, moderator and singer from a Czech-Romani family. News server Romea.cz is interviewing him as part of its series on Romani identity, during which the concepts of "Romipen" and "Czechipen" - Czech identity - have been developed.  full story

Vanesa Horváthová: I hope there will be more Romani doctors, journalists, lawyers and police officers

30.5.2018 17:19 They are young, they are studying, and they have dreams. Romani students have joined the campaign in the Czech Republic called MÁM SEN! I HAVE A DREAM!, a matching grant challenge by the US-based Bader Philanthropies and the ROMEA organization, and have decided to tell their stories in order to support other Romani youth continuing their educations.  full story

Jana Hejkrlíková, Romani doctoral candidate: We must see each other as fellow human beings

7.5.2018 11:31 Jana Hejkrlíková is studying in the Modern History Department at the Faculty of Arts at West Bohemian University, where she leads a Scouting division in her free time. While she may not appear to be a Romani woman, she was bullied in primary school because the children there knew her mother, who does appear Romani.  full story

Michal Mižigár: So Romani history will not be lost

20.4.2018 17:03 His friends know him by his nickname, "Mižu". MICHAL MIŽIGÁR originally wanted to become a cook, but his life has turned out differently: the 27-year-old graduate of Charles University in Prague today speaks several foreign languages and is studying history in Budapest.  full story

Professor Iulius Rostas about school segregation: "Bad not only for Roma children, but for the whole society"

9.4.2018 11:43 Professor Iulius Rostas participated in a panel called the "Rights of the Roma Child: The Struggle to Combat School Segregation in the EU" during the European Conference hosted by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Sloan School of Management at MIT. There was discussion about the costs of Roma school segregation, the current EU and national policies towards the topic, and the role of national and local governments.  full story

Tomáš Bystrý: The Czech national anthem gives me chills

21.3.2018 9:11 The ARA ART organization is organizing celebrations of this year's International Romani Day in the Czech Republic and has chosen to focus on the theme of romipen (the Romani world view). Because identity is something that we are all engaged with, this year we will be interviewing people to ask how they perceive their own identity.  full story

Czech Justice Minister: State has no solution for social exclusion, Romani children not on an equal footing with others

13.3.2018 6:18 Speaking in an interview for ROMEA TV, Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán (ANO) said the state has not yet managed to introduce even a hint of a solution for addressing the problems that arise in socially excluded localities. "This is a big problem for the people living in such localities, but it is also a problem for those living nearby," he said.  full story

Czech presidential candidate welcomes buyout of farm on site of former concentration camp for Roma

10.1.2018 17:39 Friday will be the first day of voting in the Czech Republic's presidential elections. The first round of voting will run from 12-13 January, with voters choosing from a slate of nine candidates, and an eventual second round will take place on 26-27 January.  full story

More Romani figures announce their presidential favorites - still definitely not Zeman

9.1.2018 15:57 The first round of elections of the President of the Czech Republic will happen this Friday and Saturday. News server Romea.cz has conducted an extensive survey asking Romani people who they will vote for.  full story

Czech presidential candidate Hynek says inclusion in the schools must be "cancelled"

9.1.2018 13:18 At the end of this week, voters in the Czech Republic will be casting their ballots for President. The first round of voting will take place on 12-13 January.  full story

Yvetta Blanarovičová: Talent alone is not enough

30.12.2017 11:25 "Very often children join this project who have chaos inside them, they don't know how to learn, they have no aims - they just have talent. Then it's up to us to give them direction and raise up what is unique in them," says Yvetta Blanarovičová about her aid to gifted children whose families are unable to support them.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani businesspeople raise funds to support visually impaired children

27.12.2017 6:40 Robert Tonelli has repeated last year's initiative and organized a Christmas charity event sponsored by several Romani entrepreneurs and tradespeople. This year's proceeds were donated to children at the Visual Impairment Clinic in Dvůr Králové nad Labem.  full story

Jana Horváthová: Today Czech society perceives removing the pig farm from the Roma genocide site as necessary

19.12.2017 6:01 On Thursday, 23 November a breakthrough moment happened with the signing of the contract to buy out the pig farm in Lety u Písku. The farm has been standing since the 1970s on the place where, during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a so-called "Gypsy camp" used to be, a place where Czech Roma and Sinti were forcibly interned in order to then be transported to Auschwitz.  full story

Magdaléna Karvayová: We need to build up leaders from the Romani communities so their voices can be heard

6.12.2017 7:00 Magdaléna Karvayová is a graduate of several prestigious schools who has worked for the Open Society Fund Prague and has long been involved in the situation of Romani parents in Ostrava. She has a great deal of energy and mainly a vision as to what it would be good to change in the Czech Republic.  full story

Czech film director supports fundraising drive "THEY WANT TO GAS THEM, WE WANT TO SEND THEM TO SCHOOL!"

1.12.2017 8:31 The ROMEA organization and others, as well as many public figures, have decided to respond to the current wave of hate and racism that is spreading through the Czech Republic. Together they are joining the fundraising drive for the Roma Scholarship Program, which is supporting 86 students from all over the Czech Republic during this school year.  full story