integration

Finland: Owners of first Romani café say they want it to bridge cultures

15.7.2018 10:23 News server Yle reports that in mid-June the National Romani Forum in Finland announced that a business called Café Rom in the town of Kotka had become the first restaurant in the country to be owned and managed by local Romani people. Café Rom is located in an old portside cafeteria in Hovinsaari district.  full story

Czech city with homeless evictees refused Govt Agency for Social Inclusion help, some local Roma petitioned against it

9.7.2018 18:35 The local assembly in the Czech city of Ústí nad Labem refused to collaborate with the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion at a meeting last month. Those in favor of the collaboration were just two assembly members from the movement "Pro! Ústí" ("For! Ústí").  full story

Czech Television: Successful Romani families aid the community

15.6.2017 11:47 A Czech Government report on the state of the Romani minority last year has found that half of the Romani people in the Czech Republic are educated, fully integrated into society, and middle class. Now public broadcaster Czech Television has visited two such families living in the Ústecký Region.  full story

Hungary: Protests criticize Government, including over Roma integration

26.5.2017 7:52 Thousands of people have once again turned out on the streets of Budapest and other towns throughout Hungary to protest the Government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his FIDESZ party. The demonstrations on Sunday, 21 May were organized by the civic initiative "Nem maradunk csendben!" (We Will Not Be Silent!).  full story

Alexander Olah: Twenty years of poor Roma being integrated by Romani elites in the Czech Republic

11.4.2017 8:16 The law on national minorities in the Czech Republic - and basically the entire concept of minority protections - is desperately far from the actual needs of impoverished Romani people in socially excluded localities. The same applies (apart from the existence of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights) to the absolutely miserable provisions for the protection of these people from institutional discrimination.  full story

Commentary: Paradoxes in the war on political correctness

31.3.2017 21:01 The war against political correctness is a long-term process that was begun in the Czech Republic by ultra-right extremists during the 1990s. Their motive was apparent: They wanted to legitimize racism and xenophobia so their own "politics" would be acceptable to the broadest possible circle of voters.  full story

Civil society members of Czech Gov't Council on Roma Affairs visit Brno to discuss policy with Romani community

29.1.2017 8:36 Members of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and government staffers visited nonprofit organizations in Brno working with Romani people last Tuesday and so-called socially excluded localities on Brněnská, Cejl and Francouzská Streets. The visit was one of the first that the members and staffers of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic will be gradually undertaking during 2017.  full story

Michal Mižigár: Inclusion is an opportunity for a better life

2.12.2016 20:38 Last month we marked the ninth anniversary of the victorious "D.H." judgment at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in which 18 Romani people from Ostrava who had been unjustifiably reassigned to what were then called "special schools" saw justice done and defended their right to a quality education. I would like to share a story with you about why it is important for all children to have equal access to education.  full story

Tabloid interview with son of former Czech President about inclusive education features untruths

26.11.2016 10:10 The Czech tabloid Blesk has published an interview with Václav Klaus, Jr., the son of the former Czech President who was once the principal of a private high school in Prague, featuring the headline "Inclusion is a crime against disabled children". Tomáš Hečko, who is the parent of a child with Down Sydrome and a media professional, has reviewed the piece.  full story

Czech Education Ministry tracking Romani and socially disadvantaged pupils to prevent segregation

25.10.2016 13:58 As of November, the Czech Education Ministry will be researching how many Romani and socially disadvantaged children are studying in what kind of programs in both the mainstream primary and practical primary schools. The decision is in response to a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights in 2007 which found that the Czech Republic had discriminated against Romani children in education.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani scholarship recipients study economics, history, IT, languages and medicine

11.10.2016 14:29 Hundreds of young Romani people are studying at college throughout the Czech Republic. Frequently they are the first people in their families ever to do so.
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Slovakia: Czech Human Rights Minister speaks at EU conference on Romani youth

11.10.2016 11:13 On 10 October the Czech Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation attended the High Level Event on Roma Youth Empowerment in his role as chair of the Czech Government Council on Romani Minority Affairs. The topic of the conference was "Promoting the key role of Roma youth as a driving force in the process of Roma integration" and it was held in Bratislava from 9-11 October as part of the Slovak Presidency of the European Union.  full story

Eva Danišová: Czech society has already crossed the line between intolerance and racism

21.9.2016 18:48 On 16 September 2016, the Office of the Czech Government Council for Romani Minority Affairs and the Secretariat of the Czech Government Council on National Minorities held a training on the principles of community work and development of the skills necessary for negotiating with local governments. The training was attended by Romani representatives who negotiate with the local authorities in the places where they work and also in the socially excluded localities in which they move.  full story

Czech Education Ministry: Just 205 pupils transferring from "practical" to mainstream schools this fall

5.8.2016 19:40 The Czech Education Ministry announced today that, according to estimates provided by the Regional Authorities of the Czech Republic and based on an investigation performed in various schools, roughly 205 pupils are planning to stop attending "practical" primary schools and to start attending mainstream primary schools as a result of inclusion measures that take effect next month. The overall number of children enrolled in the "practical" schools, which are intended for children with "mild mental disability", is around 18 000 for the country as a whole.  full story

Commentary: Integration of impoverished Roma must begin immediately in the Czech Republic

18.7.2016 8:17 Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman has said good-faith, intensive negotiations are underway with stockholders to remove the pig farm from the site of the former concentration camp at Lety where Romani people died. Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier has said he believes a law on social housing can still be approved before the next elections.  full story

British educator, ashamed of his country's vote on remaining in EU, calls for referendum on exit terms

26.6.2016 10:13 Mark Penfold, an educator and founding member of the Roma Education Support Trust, has written the following letter in response to the results of the referendum on Brexit. News server Romea.cz republishes it here in full.  full story

Czech experts say teachers do not believe state will support inclusion

28.2.2016 22:19 Speaking at a press conference, Jana Straková of the Institute for Research and Development in Education at Charles University's Faculty of Pedagogy said that Czech teachers' concerns about inclusion flow from insufficient explanations as to what precisely will happen this fall and what kind of aid they will receive. Straková said she believes educators do not trust that the state will provide them with support when they request it.  full story

Karel Holomek: Our children, Czech and Romani, need to go to school together now more than ever

9.2.2016 21:02 Here in the Czech Republic we have all been talking about the terminology being used to describe the education of children in the primary schools. Of course, it is the impact of these education programs that has such a basic, determining influence on all of society once the children educated in these programs grow up.  full story

Czech sociologists: Economic crisis contributed to rising exclusion, but society is mainly to blame

8.11.2015 0:26 Why has there been growth recently in the number of excluded localities and the number of people living in them? Czech MP Ivan Gabal, who is also a sociologist, and his colleague from the GAC company, Karel Čada, have contributed their analysis of the issue to the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny.  full story

Czech study shows most non-Romani parents seek schools with few or no Romani pupils

7.11.2015 21:55 Children from socially excluded areas who do not receive adequate support during preschool age are more at risk of school failure than their non-excluded peers. That is the finding of a study focused on the inclusion of preschool-aged Romani children presented on 5 November by the Open Society Fund Prague.  full story