Press Releases

Alliance against Antigypsyism: EU Roma Week is an opportunity to focus on tackling antigypsyism in Europe

21.4.2018 7:24 The third annual EU Roma Week at the European Parliament was launched on International Roma Day (8 April) this year. The annual advocacy event is an important opportunity to put the fight against antigypsyism – the specific form of racism faced by Roma, Sinti and Travellers – at the forefront of the European Union agenda, and to highlight the need to uphold the fundamental rights of Roma in Europe.  full story

European Roma and Travellers Forum: Roma Rights at a Crossroads

8.4.2018 14:49 Roma Day is the occasion for all Roma from all over the world to remember the troubled history of our people. It is also the opportunity to reflect on what needs to be done to preserve our identity, our culture and, most of all, our language.  full story

Czech Justice Minister visits Moravian-Silesian Region's excluded localities, housing is the most essential issue

2.4.2018 8:12 Life in excluded localities, trafficking in "social housing", unemployment, indebtedness, educational problems, and crime. All of these subjects were encountered by Justice and Human Rights Minister Robert Pelikán and Deputy Justice and Human Rights Minister Martina Štěpánková, who runs the Human Rights Section, during their third trip together with the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion.  full story

Slovak appeals court confirms that town discriminated against Romani woman and must compensate her

31.3.2018 14:04 The Slovak town of Spišská Nová Ves discriminated against a Romani woman during a selection procedure for a job as a field social worker and must now compensate her. The Regional Court in Košice fully identified with and upheld the first-instance judgment of the District Court in Spišská Nová Ves, which ruled to that effect in March 2017.  full story

Czech capital to see European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture presentation on support for Romani culture

9.2.2018 11:07 On Tuesday, 13 February a presentation will be made by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), "SAR DIČOHA ROMAŇI KULTURA DUREDER? – BUDOUCNOST
ROMSKÉ KULTURY" (THE FUTURE OF ROMANI CULTURE) as part of an international conference to be followed by a cultural program that evening. The conference, entitled "Support for the Development of Roma Culture: Contemporary Challenges and Future Opportunities", will begin at 10 AM in the Gallery of the Czech Centres on Rytířská Street in Prague.  full story

Illegally sterilized Romani women from Slovakia and the Czech Republic launch online petition as part of their fight for justice

24.1.2018 18:49 The Center for Civil and Human Rights, an NGO in Slovakia, has published a press release announcing an online petition that has been launched by illegally sterilized Romani women from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The initiative is attempting to achieve justice from the government institutions in both countries that are responsible for delivering redress.  full story

European Grassroots Antiracist Movement calls for creation of a European Foundation for the Memory of the Roma Holocaust

25.1.2018 8:35 The European Grassroots Antiracist Movement has published a call for the creation of a European Foundation for the Memory of the Roma Holocaust. Currently the idea is supported by both non-Roma and Romani figures as well as by 249 MPs from 28 countries.  full story

Czech Greens call on Prague Vice-Mayor to stop sharing racist video

24.11.2017 12:33 Green Party members from the Žižkov neighborhood of Prague have published an open letter to Vice-Mayor Alexander Bellu (Civic Democratic Party - ODS) asking that he stop sharing a racist video on his Facebook page promoting his project for parking sensors for the Prague 3 Municipal Department. In the stylized video, a comedian tells a joke about "millions" of Romani people waiting near parking spaces for the opportunity to steal a car.  full story

Epidemic of hepatitis in Czech town: Local Romani organization offers aid

24.11.2017 8:08 The Czech town of Ústí nad Labem is undergoing an epidemic of hepatitis A, with almost 300 people ill and the disease spreading to other towns in the region. The first outbreak of the epidemic was recorded in the Mojžíř socially excluded locality and other cases have been recorded in Předlice, with the disease later spreading to the "non-Romani" part of town.  full story

Czech Republic must change its approach to homelessness, international experts advise

22.11.2017 17:12 On 20 November, international experts on how to address homelessness and housing shortages from Finland, France and the United States of America visited Prague to recommend the Czech Republic transform the way it addresses these issues. According to the experts, the only actually functional solution in the world, including for the Czech Republic, is to systematically house homeless persons with support and to prevent their being made homeless in time - this is the only way to reduce their numbers and saves the state the most financially as well.  full story

Czech Republic: Museum of Romani Culture says contract to buy pig farm on genocide site will be signed after elections

18.10.2017 14:00 The Museum of Romani Culture in Brno, Czech Republic, has issued a press release today about the deadline for signing the contract to buy the pig farm in Lety u Písku that currently occupies the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people. News server Romea.cz is publishing the press release in full translation here.
 full story

ROMACT press release: Roma partnership is crucial to successful inclusion

29.9.2017 7:45 The ROMACT program in the Czech Republic has issued the following press release:  full story

Open Society Foundations funding Czech branch of European network focused on Romani preschoolers, deadline in mid-August

29.7.2017 9:31 A call has been newly announced in the Czech Republic and is being repeated in Romania for nonprofit organizations to join the Romani Early Years Network (REYN) 2017. This is a preschool education initiative that aims to develop the professional knowledge of Romani staffers and others working with Romani communities across Europe in the area of preschool education.  full story

Czech Government "takes note" of Agency for Social Inclusion report on 2016

28.7.2017 18:30 On 26 July the Czech Government "took note" of a report from its Agency for Social Inclusion about that department's work during 2016. The expansion of the Agency for Social Inclusion to include three regional branches, the launch of a system of support for school establishers in the area of inclusive education, and a proposal to address trafficking in poverty through a Government material on housing in socially excluded localities were crucial moments in 2016.  full story

Slovakia: Nominations begin for Roma Spirit 2017 under auspices of President Kiska

28.7.2017 17:23 Nominations have begun for the prestigious ninth annual Roma Spirit awards in Slovakia, which highlight extraordinary deeds and efforts by specific individuals and organizations to improve the life and position of Romani people there. The award is administered by the Association for Culture, Education and Communications (ACEC), Slovak Radio and Television, and the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Roma Community.  full story

Scholarship for female Romani students at Czech pedagogical secondary schools open until 31 August

22.7.2017 13:08 The Roma Education Fund is still accepting applications for the scholarship program designed for female students accepted to Czech pedagogical secondary schools for the
2017/2018 school year. The program activities are focused on supporting female Romani students at pedagocial secondary schools studying in the field of "Preschool and
extracurricular pedagogy" or the "Pedagogical Lyceum".  full story

Ninety years ago the Czechoslovak authorities issued law on "wandering gypsies", took fingerprints for "gypsy identification cards"

15.7.2017 14:13 Ninety years ago, the Chamber of Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Czechoslovakia approved a law "on wandering gypsies" on 14 July 1927 that took effect as Act 117/1927 Coll. and remained on the books until the year 1950. According to its first paragraph, the law was meant to apply to "wandering gypsies", defined as "gypsies wandering from place to place and other vagabonds avoiding work who live the gypsy way of life."  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion says "training" apartments and jobs will help second-largest city

29.6.2017 10:57 The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion is reporting that an estimated 2 000 households in Brno, Czech Republic are living on the edge of social distress. Almost 11 % of the population is being subjected to collections proceedings, with the average debtor involved in seven proceedings and a total debt burden of CZK 980 000 [EUR 37 000].  full story

Czech Republic's 2017 Ghettofest to feature Amaro Records music stage, an Anne Frank corner, and readings in a former prison

8.6.2017 9:46 The multi-genre street fair known as the Ghettofest annually opens up the locality around Brno's Bratislavská and Cejl streets - this year it is changing its usual backdrop, thanks to the closure of Francouzská Street, and is offering its program at the Hvězdička Park, in the spaces of a former prison, and at the Museum of Romani Culture. The sixth annual Ghettofest will take place in those locations on Saturday, 10 June.  full story

Czech initiative says those in need of housing will not receive it unless law requires it

17.1.2017 8:59 The "Have a Home" (Mít svůj domov) initiative, which brings together more than 90 organizations working in the social sphere, resolutely rejects the Czech Government's proposal not to legally require municipalities to provide social housing in the Law on Social Housing now being drafted. The initiative says that if the law does not require municipalities to provide social housing for needy groups or create some other guarantee that aid will be provided by the state to those in need of housing, most of the 200 000 people now in need of housing will not be housed.  full story