Monitoring

UN budget cuts endanger human rights monitoring - deadline to join NGO letter is TOMORROW 26 MAY

25.5.2019 9:23  full story

Czech EdMin closing one funding avenue for teaching assistants for socially disadvantaged pupils

22.7.2017 14:29 According to recent reports, the Czech Ministry for Education, Youth and Sport has decided that as of September 2017 it will no longer continue its development program that finances assistants for teachers working with socially disadvantaged pupils. According to the website asistentpedagoga.cz, which serves teaching assistants, in practice this will mean an end to the vast majoirty of teaching assistants now working in the schools.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani family of quintuplets ineligible for state benefits after private fundraising fiasco

11.5.2017 6:57 The family with quintuplets in the Czech Republic whose fates news server Romea.cz has long been reporting on is now no longer eligible for the state's housing supplement or living allowance. In March of this year, the family of Alexandra Kiňova received over CZK  600 000 [EUR 23 000] from a collection established by the Prague City Hall, thereby forfeiting their legal entitlement to social benefits.  full story

Slovak Romani people travelling to visit relatives not allowed on planes in Warsaw, some have lost their life savings

30.3.2017 6:43

Several Romani women from the town of Levoča, Slovakia, who were attempting to visit relatives in Toronto, Canada were not allowed to board the planes for which they were ticketed at the airport in Warsaw for reasons that have yet to be ascertained and missed their flight. Canada had allegedly confirmed their eligbility to visit and given them all of the necessary documents for entry.

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Czech Republic: Romani social workers share their experiences ahead of Rapid Re-Housing project in Brno

24.2.2017 12:43 The City of Brno will be renting apartments to 50 families now living in residential hotels and shelters in the city as part of its Rapid Re-Housing project. The amount of the rent charged will depend on the amount of housing benefit the tenants receive.  full story

Czech court reviews alleged racial discrimination during first-grade enrollments

23.1.2017 19:26 On Friday the Ostrava edition of Czech Television's "News in the Regions" program focused on a case of alleged racial discrimination against Romani pupils at Pěší Primary School in Ostrava-Muglinov which is now being reviewed by the courts. Two incoming Romani first-graders were allegedly rejected by the school because the management allegedly intended to reduce the number of Romani children in the incoming first-grade cohort.  full story

Czech Republic: Many Romani families being evicted by year-end

19.12.2016 0:05 Czech Radio and news server iDNES.cz report that in the Czech town of Broumov in the Náchod area roughly 20 socially vulnerable families are set to lose their housing. Their leases are expiring before year-end and the landlords will not extend them.  full story

ERRC Seeks Human Rights Monitors

16.12.2016 12:51 The European Roma Rights Centre invites applications from individuals for Human Rights Monitor positions in the following countries: Czech Republic, Serbia, and Slovakia.  full story

Commentary: The local dispute over "counting Roma"

11.11.2016 8:03 A very typical dispute about the "counting of Romani children" has exploded in the Czech towns of Krásná Lípa and Rumburk. Local media distortions are a part of it.  full story

Czech Republic: ROMEA journalist interviewed by Radio Wave about death of young Romani man

27.10.2016 9:15 The death of a young man last week was the culmination of a conflict between customers at a pizzeria in the Czech town of Žatec which local police officers intervened in. Romea.cz reporter Jitka Votavová has recapitulated what is known about the case in an interview for Radio Wave.  full story

Amnesty International: How are the Czech schools educating Romani children?

3.9.2016 8:20 Amnesty International Czech Republic issued the following press release on 1 September to mark the start of the new school year:  full story

Czech Culture Minister: Govt, stockholders of pig farm negotiating to remove it from Romani Holocaust site

23.5.2016 17:06 The Czech weekly RESPEKT has published an interview by Kateřina Šafaříková with Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman today. The former Catholic priest, MP for the Christian Democrats and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes discusses the topic of the pig farm on the site of the WWII-era camp for Romani prisoners at Lety by Písek, the issue of refugees, and his long personal friendships with military official Jiří Komorous and musician Daniel Landa.  full story

Czech daily: Police investigations of hate attacks are remarkably ineffective

30.4.2016 13:34 The online news server Lidovky.cz has published a summary of recent hate attacks in the Czech Republic and the developments to date in their investigations. The article describes the circumstances of five cases, each of which has received particular media attention.  full story

Ethnic, religious, sexual minorities now suffering more discrimination in occupied Crimea and Donbas

23.8.2015 20:55 The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency reports that human rights activists have issued a report entitled "In the Crosscurrents: Addressing Discrimination and Inequality in Ukraine" that finds discrimination has significantly increased against minorities in occupied Crimea and Donbas. Dimitrina Petrova, Executive Director of the Equal Rights Trust, presented the report at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.  full story

Hungary urges EU members to present Roma plans

Budapest, 2.2.2012 18:44, (CBS News) A Hungarian official who oversees programs to aid the country's Roma population is urging other European nations to fulfill earlier pledges to present strategies for integrating the minority group.  full story

Jewish, Roma youth meet in Hungary

Budapest, 2.8.2011 13:00, (ROMEA) Representatives of Jewish and Roma, or Gypsy, youth groups from eight countries are meeting in Hungary. The week long encounter, called "Volunticipate," begins Monday.  full story

Turkey develops strategy to fight Roma unemployment

Istanbul, 21.7.2011 22:52, (TODAY'S ZAMAN) Turkish Employment Organization General Manager Mustafa Kemal Biçerli has said IŞKUR has started implementing a program geared toward boosting employment for the country's disadvantaged people, including Roma.  full story

Fewer than 5.0 pct of Bulgarians declare themselves Roma

Sofia, 21.7.2011 22:43, (Canada.com) Fewer than five per cent of Bulgaria's 7.36 million inhabitants declared themselves as Roma, final census data showed Thursday, while experts estimate the proportion is actually twice as high.  full story

Romanian Gypsies seek dictionary definition change

Bucharest, 20.7.2011 19:53, (AP) What's in a name? An insult, according to Romania's Gypsies who are pushing for the nation's leading dictionary to add "pejorative" to its definition of the word "Gypsy" as "people with bad habits."  full story

Berlin's Sinti and Roma Memorial Delayed by Fresh Dispute

Berlin, 20.7.2011 19:43, (Spiegel online) The construction of a memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered in the Holocaust has long been plagued by disputes between the artist, Israeli Dani Karavan, and the city of Berlin. He has now refused to continue working with local officials -- but a federal government takeover will mean further delays.  full story