identita

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

UK: Residents in Dorset Band Together to Celebrate Romani Heritage

16.6.2017 12:15 This past Saturday 10 June, the South West Dorset Multicultural Network and Kushti Bok hosted a celebration of Romani people and Travellers in the UK. The event was created in honor of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month and took place in Dorchester’s Borough Gardens.  full story

videoIndonesia: Hijab-Wearing Female Metal Group Defies Stereotypes

15.6.2017 17:25 Voice of Baceprot, (VoB) is a female Indonesian metal group consisting of three young women who choose to wear hijabs, a type of Islamic headscarf. The band formed in 2014 in West Java, “and use their music to combat the stereotype of Muslim women as submissive or voiceless” according to reuters.com.  full story

George Soros Explains How Negative Stereotypes Against the Roma Affect Us All

12.6.2017 17:30 Speaking in Berlin on 8 June 2017, George Soros had several remarks for the opening of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC). The institute strives to help enable the Roma to become the primary advocates of their own futures.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister on International Romani Day: Quality education, more awareness of Romani culture, history, language all important

8.4.2016 11:56 According to Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation Jiří Dienstbier, a quality education is an essential prerequisite for improving the position of Romani people in society. It is also important to increase awareness of Romani culture, history and language.  full story

European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture: Building the Future by Honoring the Past

8.4.2016 9:43 The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) is a joint initiative of the Alliance for the European Roma Institute*, the Council of Europe and the Open Society Foundations. Following the approval of the establishment of ERIAC by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in September 2015, preparations are in progress for the creation of the Institute. Based on the proposal of the Alliance for the European Roma Institute, the German Government endorsed the idea of inviting the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture to set up in Berlin.
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European Roma Institute proponents respond to analysis by the European Roma and Travellers Forum

12.6.2015 0:30 On 21 May, in advance of a Council of Europe meeting to discuss the possible founding of a European Roma Institute, the European Roma and Travellers Forum published its analysis of the “revised concept paper on the creation of a European Roma Institute”. The full document of the ERTF assessment can be found here.  full story

Interview with Zeljko Jovanovic, Director of the Roma Initiatives Office at the Open Society Foundations

18.5.2015 13:53 Zeljko Jovanovic is director of the Roma Initiatives Office (RIO), which aims to strengthen the voices and leadership of Roma with respect to improving public policies and services in Europe. Since the fall of the socialist regimes in Europe, Zeljko says he has witnessed "new claims for justice" being made in the context of those emerging democracies. He has published several articles in a variety of media such as The Guardian, La Repubblica, Foreign Policy Blogs, Romea.cz and on the RIO blog and is the co-author of the book From Victimhood to Citizenship: The path of Roma integration (2013, CEU Press).  full story

Karel Holomek: We cannot reconcile ourselves to segregation

23.3.2015 19:32, (ROMEA) The term "inclusive education" (inkluzívní vzdělávání) is turning up at a high frequency now and as a matter of course in all circles in the Czech Republic, both among experts and among lay people. We have all accepted it, whether we feel negatively or positively about it, without realizing that we have much more apposite, precise words already in Czech for what we might mean when we use this phrase.  full story

Commentary: Active, emancipated Roma by 2020 is goal of Czech strategy

Prague, 20.6.2014 17:12, (ROMEA) Government strategies are not usually the most attractive or readable of texts. As far as the position of Romani people is concerned, readers can find many government documents have been produced already, including the Strategy for the Fight against Social Exclusion or the Strategy for Social Inclusion.  full story

videoFamous Romani players in world football

Prague, 27.5.2013 22:32, (ROMEA/HATTRICK) Just a few notes by way of introduction: The first famous Romani man or Gypsy to join his country's football team was Rab Howell of England. The small center-half for Sheffield United (height 165 cm, weight 57 kg) first wore the famous uniform with the three lions on 9 March 1895 in a match between England and Scotland that was played at Derby. It was a victorious debut. The English won 9:0 and Howell scored a goal. He was always proud of his Romani heritage. By the way, the first Black player did not join the English national team until 83 years later (Viv Anderson in 1978).  full story

Slovakia: Regional elections a fiasco for Romani parties

Bratislava, Slovakia, 12.11.2013 0:49, (ROMEA) Not one candidate from a Romani political party was seated in any of Slovakia's regional councils after the first round of voting Saturday. Three Romani parties fielded 32 candidates in the race.  full story

Czech director defends his depiction of Romani people in tv serial

Prague, 6.11.2013 0:17, (ROMEA) Lukáš Senft, a documentary filmmaker and student at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague has written an open letter to the creators of the television serial "Sanitka 2", screenwriter Ivan Hubač and director Filip Renč. In his letter, which was also published by news server Romea.cz, Senft takes the serial's creators to task for lying about Romani people and depicting them as a bloodthirsty, dangerous, foreign and incomprehensible minority.  full story

The Romanes language celebrates its international day today

Prague, 5.11.2013 22:53, (ROMEA) Aspirated sounds and an eighth additional case - those are just some of the differences between the Czech and Romanes languages. As part of the International Day of the Romani Language, we reflect on these differences today.  full story

Bulgaria insisting Romani girl be returned from Greece

Sofia, Bulgaria, 29.10.2013 16:28, (ROMEA) The Bulgarian authorities are insisting on the return of the little blonde Romani girl named Maria whose parents left her in Greece with a different Romani family as an infant. Agence France-Presse reported the statement by the Bulgarian Government Agency for Child Protection today.  full story

Roma Pride 2013 marches through Prague this Sunday

Prague, 2.10.2013 17:17, (ROMEA) Roma Pride 2013 will take place this Sunday, 6 October 2013 in Prague and 13 other European cities. Romani people and their friends will march through the historic center of Prague from the Old Town Square to Prague Castle.  full story

Commentary: Why does the phrase "white aggressor" bother readers?

Prague, 2.7.2013 15:58, (ROMEA) Recently, in many articles published by Czech media outlets across the spectrum, we see the following expressions being used more and more often: "Romani aggressor" or the plural "Romani aggressors", "Romani racist aggressors", "brutal Romani gang", "violent Romani man", "a group of aggressors (Romani, of course)", "six aggressors (Romani)". The neo-Nazis Dufek and Svoboda, who organized demonstrations not long ago in Duchcov against Romani people (all of them), used the slogan: "Against the Romani aggressors".  full story

Czech permanent settlement law expired 15 years ago

Prague, 30.3.2013 19:27, (ROMEA) Deeply engrained stereotypes about Romani people, formed in Europe over the course of six centuries, persist today even though various regimes have made efforts to more or less eliminate the stereotypes in various ways. One of those efforts was the forced assimilation of Romani people that began in the fall of 1958 in the former Czechoslovakia with a law on the permanent settlement of vagrant persons.  full story

"I don't want my children to feel like foreigners in their own country"

Czech Republic, 16.3.2013 0:07, (ROMEA) Not quite one year ago, the monthly Romano Voďi devoted an entire issue to the theme of identities in which ethnologist and social anthropologist Zdeněk Uherek reviewed the issue of the plurality of identities in his column "Beneath the Surface" ("Pod povrchem"). The first issue of Romano Voďi this year has returned to the topic of identity construction and the mechanisms through which identity is realized, this time through the lens of the recent Czech presidential election and its reception among members of the Romani minority.  full story