Racism

Russia: The World Cup begins with concerns about homophobia, racism, and violence

16.6.2018 17:13 The World Cup could mean many bans and restrictions for Russian people themselves which the authorities hope will increase security for the more than one million football fans from all over the world coming to Moscow. Some media outlets and foreign authorities are warning visitors against possible World Cup pitfalls.  full story

Czech Interior Ministry: SPD movement has assumed the agenda of the extreme right

16.6.2018 10:31 In the Czech Republic, extremist groups on the right as traditionally organized have stopped being relevant politically. The "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) movement has worked with their agenda most effectively, but that group is categorized by the Czech Interior Ministry as not extremist, but as a movement that
engages in xenophobic speech.  full story

Ukraine: Paramilitaries broadcast live pogrom against Roma on Facebook, the fourth in the last six weeks

9.6.2018 9:13 Radio Free Europe reports that axes and hammers were used on 7 June by neo-Nazis from the Azov National Militia to perpetrate yet another assault on Romani people in Ukraine. Their entire 7 June pogrom in Holosivskiy Park in Kiev was broadcast live by them on Facebook without police intervention at all.  full story

Slovakia: Filipino attempts to prevent harassment of women, harasser kicks him to death

3.6.2018 19:42 A wave of outrage has been sparked in Slovakia by the case of 28-year-old Juraj H. from Dunajská Streda, who kicked a Filipino man to death in the center of Bratislava. The 36-year-old immigrant was attempting to protect female coworkers of his from being harassed by the assailant.  full story

Renata Berkyová: How a Czech gadjo from Reflex magazine couldn't help showing his racism

30.5.2018 12:40 The discussion of what words we are supposed to use to refer to people who are not Romani has apparently been underway since the term "Rom" became domesticated as part of Czech journalistic discourse. The Editor-in-Chief of Reflex magazine, Marek Stoniš, published a commentary on 24 May in which he objects to the term "non-Rom", specifically, the term "non-Romani children".  full story

Ukraine: Third arson attack against Roma in a month, firearms also used against 7 adults, 30+ children

24.5.2018 17:01 According to the Ukrainian ombudsman, on 22 May approximately 12 assailants set a Romani camp on fire in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine. At the moment of the attack there were seven adults and more than 30 young Romani children at the camp.  full story

Czech trial of shooting at Romani music camp hears testimony about shooter's verbal abuse as well

23.5.2018 16:37 Court testimony by another eyewitness to the 2016 shooting incident at a summer camp continued yesterday at the District Court in Děčín. Martin Kout is accused of having fired a gun and racially abused those attending a children's camp in 2016.
 full story

Czech prosecutors announce first indictment in case of online hate speech against first-graders

30.4.2018 7:17 Police in Frýdek-Místek, Czech Republic have indicted the first suspect in the case of the hateful commentaries posted to online social networks last year beneath the photographs of first-graders at a primary school in Teplice. If convicted the man could be sent to prison for as long as three years.  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.

 full story

videoUkraine: Video of pogrom against Roma shows neo-Nazis chasing children, throwing rocks at them and using tear gas

26.4.2018 10:07 Members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization C14 set fire to a camp not far from the center of Kiev on Saturday, 21 April that had been built by Romani people, most of whom are originally from the Carpathian Region. Video footage of the pogrom has been published to the Internet.  full story

Germany: 750 neo-Nazis celebrate Hitler's birthday, police confiscate their materials

22.4.2018 6:59 Yesterday German Police confiscated banners, posters, and t-shirts with banned messages at an extensive festival held by neo-Nazis in the eastern community of Ostritz. Law enforcement also regularly checked whether the approximately 750 people in attendance were following a court-ordered ban on alcohol consumption during the event  full story

VIDEO: First-instance verdict in the Chomutov shooting case - 12.5 years

19.4.2018 9:02 The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem has sentenced 37-year-old Petr Benda to 12.5 years in prison for shooting dead a Romani man behind the wheel of a van last spring at a housing estate in Chomutov. Benda faced as many as 20 years in prison for firing 13 bullets at the van driven by Radek Š.  full story

BREAKING NEWS: Czech shooter of Romani man gets 12.5 years in prison

17.4.2018 10:20 The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem has sentenced 37-year-old Petr Benda to 12.5 years in prison for shooting a Romani man dead behind the wheel of a van in Chomutov last spring. The court ruled that the van posed no danger to anybody at the time of the shooting.  full story

videoRomani rappers P. A. T. and Rytmus in new video: Czechs and Slovaks are "drunk on hatred"

5.4.2018 7:47 P.A.T. and Rytmus have released a new video for their song "Neprispôsobiví" ("Inadaptables"). The harsh lyrics are about racism against Romani people.  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

Vojtěch Pačan: The gadje turned out in person for the Prague demonstration, but Romani people only express their criticism on Facebook

22.3.2018 13:39 I regret that many Romani people on Facebook are criticizing the demonstration against racism that took place last weekend in Prague. That demonstration was about you, about us Roma.  full story

TODAY!!! Romani people to demonstrate against racism on 17 March in Prague's Klárov Park

10.3.2018 8:08 Romani people and others opposed to the dissemination of hatred in the Czech Republic will be protesting racism, violence, and the doubting of the Holocaust and its Romani victims on Saturday, 17 March 2018 in Prague at Klárov Park, the grassy area across from the Malostranská metro station. In addition to speeches, the names of the victims of racist violence in the Czech Republic will be read aloud, the international Romani anthem will be sung, and the Romani band Bengas will perform.  full story

Slovak ultra-right MP tried for extremism after making xenophobic remarks about Roma

6.3.2018 7:19 The trial began on Monday, 26 February of Slovak MP Milan Mazurek from the ultra-right "Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia" (LSNS) for his xenophobic remarks about Romani people, among other matters. Although the MP faces possible prison time and the loss of his seat in the legislature, he refused to testify in court.  full story

Czech memorial to Romani genocide desecrated with pig's head

2.3.2018 8:00 Last weekend somebody put a pig's head at the memorial to the Holocaust victims of Romani origin at the former concentration camp in Lety u Písku. News server Aktuálně.cz reported the news yesterday.  full story

Margareta Matache and Cornel West on the common struggle of African Americans and Roma against white normativity

26.2.2018 7:57 Margareta Matache, a Roma rights activist and scholar who directs the Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and Cornel West, an American author and civil rights activist who is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard, have co-authored an analysis for The Guardian newspaper in the UK on the commonalities between the struggles of African Americans and Romani people for equality. The piece notes that the history of African Americans and Romani people bear similarities with respect to the way "white policymakers" have employed similar tactics against members of both groups in order to maintain "white normativity, social power, and privilege".  full story