antigypsyism

ROMEA to Czech President: Romani life in communist Czechoslovakia included forced assimilation, forced sterilization of women, segregated education

10.10.2018 15:40 Speaking on Friday after casting his ballot for an interview with Richard Samko, a Czech Television reporter who is a Romani community member, Czech President Miloš Zeman reiterated that Romani people - unlike other citizens - did not suffer so much during the communist era. "What kind of nationality can this be if the nation cannot even manage to espouse its own nationality and instead of that lists themselves [during the census] as Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, I don't know what all," Zeman also said during the interview.  full story

Czech sociologist refutes President's allegations about Romani unemployment, agrees with ROMEA

8.10.2018 19:12 Czech President Miloš Zeman has doubled down on his insinuations about Romani people not working when responding to the hundreds of photographs posted to Facebook by Romani people showing themselves on the job. Speaking on Friday, he called the photos an initiative by just "one-tenth" of the country's Romani population.  full story

videoCzech President insults Romani people yet again after casting his ballot

7.10.2018 14:43 Speaking on Friday afternoon after casting his ballot, Czech President Miloš Zeman made remarks that insulted Romani people in the Czech Republic yet again, his second such remark that day and the third in 10 days. Remarking that "Nazism was a long time ago", he dismissed the 20th-century suffering of Romani people - which is the reason many Romani people today do not self-identify themselves as Romani to Czech state authorities during the census.  full story

videoMEP Soraya Post supports Romani photo campaign responding to Czech President's antigypsyist remarks

5.10.2018 10:52 Czech President Zeman's antigypsyist remarks from last week continue to resonate at all levels of political life. MEP Soraya Post of Sweden has tweeted her support of the photo campaign initiated by Romani community member Štefan Pongo and the ROMEA organization in response to Zeman's remarks.  full story

Disagree with the Czech President's antigypsyism? ERRC makes it easy to email him

2.10.2018 15:48 The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has sent an open letter to the President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, condemning his most recent hate speech about his fellow citizens who are Romani. News server Romea.cz is publishing the entire letter in Czech translation along with the ERRC's call for people to add their own voices and send the President an e-mail.  full story

European Roma Rights Centre: Czech President's remarks were antigypsyist hate speech

2.10.2018 8:31 Yesterday the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) sent an open letter addressed to Czech President Zeman and objecting to recent comments he made about Romani people when he was speaking last week in the Olomouc Region - Zeman alleged that exactly the Romani residents of the particular community he was visiting constitute their population of unemployed people, which the ERRC believes was a racist characterization. Zeman went on to allege that during the communist regime, Romani people "had to work" and were imprisoned if they refused to do so.  full story

Czech President alleges Romani people "don't want to work" and that "slapping them" is the best way to deal with them

26.9.2018 12:21 Czech President Miloš Zeman recently visited the Olomouc Region and spoke at a public meeting in Kojetín during which he insulted Romani people, saying in the context of unemployment that it was absolutely clear "who" the 5 % of people without work in Kojetín are. He then went on to praise the example of the pre-1989 totalitarian era, when Romani people "had to work" and would be imprisoned if they did not.  full story

Romania: 900 protest recent violence against Roma in Italy and Ukraine, more demonstrations in other European countries to follow

29.7.2018 13:34 As many as 900 people assembled on Saturday, 28 July 2018 in Bucharest, Romani in front of the Italian and Ukrainian embassies to express their disagreement with many violent anti-Romani crimes and to protest antigypsyism in Europe. The assemblies were the first in a series of protests that are being realized in nine European countries.  full story

Romani NGOs around Europe ask why the OSCE is researching alleged radicalization of their communities in Serbia

18.7.2018 15:16 Representatives of Romani organizations from around Europe have contacted the head of the OSCE's mission to Serbia to express their alarm over the 10 July 2018 announcement of a search for a “Researcher on Radicalization among the Roma Community in Serbia”. The Romani representatives say they are deeply concerned about the growing insecurity of Roma in Europe as a result of extremist antigypsyism in a number of OSCE participating States.


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Belgium: Roma Travellers evicted from caravan site in Anderlecht neighborhood of Brussels

5.7.2018 15:38 The Brussels Times reported on 29 June that Romani families, including families with minor children, were eventually forced by Anderlecht municipality to move away from a privately-owned caravan site. News server Romea.cz reported on the impending eviction on 26 June.
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Belgium: Roma Travellers to be evicted in EU capital, fire reported at their halting site

26.6.2018 13:47 The European Roma Grassroots Organizations network reports that Roma Travellers living in the Anderlecht neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium are scheduled to be evicted on 28 June and that part of their camp has been set on fire. All are reportedly Belgian Roma whose ancestors have lived in the country for centuries.  full story

Albania: Romani people left without citizenship anywhere

20.6.2018 8:18 A new report by the European Network on Statelessness (ENS), the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), and the Tirana Legal Aid Society (TLAS) finds that discrimination is subjecting Romani people to the danger of statelessness in Albania. The report was launched on 8 June in the Albanian capital at an event attended by Government ministers, Romani people who are stateless, and UN officials.  full story

Jonathan Lee: Antigypsyism is a cancer at the heart of Europe

15.6.2018 14:57 Jonathan Lee, who is of Traveller origin, works for the European Roma Rights Centre as their Communications Coordinator. In this interview, Nigel Smith interviews him for the "Deep Dive" program on YouTube's network67society channel.
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Nationalists desecrate Czech memorial to genocide of the Roma

8.6.2018 8:26 The memorial to the genocide of the Roma at Lety u Písku has been desecrated with insulting anti-Roma messages on several signs posted there by the nationalist group "Us Against All" (My proti všem). According to the police who have begun to investigate the incident it could be one of felony disorderly conduct.  full story

RESPEKT: Czech EdMin considering amendments that could undo inclusive education

1.6.2018 8:52 Václav Krása, a former MP who has long been the chair of the Czech National Disability Council, recently called for an immediate meeting with acting Czech Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO). Krása has gotten wind of the proposed amendments to a ministerial decree about educating children with special educational needs (better known as the "inclusion decree").  full story

Czech Civic Democrats may exclude member who called Meghan Markle a "gypsy"

22.5.2018 7:12 News server Aktuálně.cz reports that the chair of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, has called on René Franěk, a member of the party council for the Nymburk area who is also director of the zoo in the Central Bohemian town of Chleby, to apologize for a recent post he made on social networks about Saturday's Royal Wedding of Britain's Prince Harry to the American actress Meghan Markle. Franěk posted that "the heir to the throne is marrying a gypsy woman", a remark that Fiala says he considers distasteful, insulting and racist.  full story

videoMEP Soraya Post for ROMEA TV: Antigypsyism exists everywhere in Europe

29.4.2018 8:51 According to Romani MEP Soraya Post, antigypsyism and discrimination against Romani people are a problem in every European country. In Sweden, where she comes from, the general living conditions for Romani people are, in her opinion, much better than in Bulgaria, Hungary or Romania.

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videoRoma Week at the European Parliament: 40 young Roma discuss antigypsyism with MEPs

27.4.2018 8:07 Activists, experts, organizations working to combat persistent hatred of Romani people in Europe, and politicians have finished the third annual Roma Week at the European Parliament and other EU institutions, which began on 8 April 2018, International Romani Day. According to the organizers, the aim of Roma Week is to bring together Romani activists, experts and youth from the European states in order to contribute to developing a European strategy against antigypsyism and to discussing options for addressing the situation of Romani people throughout Europe.  full story

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

Italian police forcibly evict yet another Roma camp

31.3.2018 13:40

According to Italian news site La Stampa, Italian police in Beinasco demolished a Roma camp on 7 March, forcing five families to leave their homes. Almost all the camp’s inhabitants had already left the location in recent days, complying with an ordinance issued on 20 December 2017 by the municipality. One elderly woman remained in her home, only to be driven out by bulldozers.

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