Roma

Prague Forum for Romani Histories launches Czech website, panel on Holocaust research MONDAY

19.5.2018 8:45 Romani communities live around the world and historians worldwide take an interest in them, but their research efforts frequently remain isolated from each other. Connecting historical research to Romani communities is the ambition of the Prague Forum for Romani Histories, which was created in September 2016 in Prague during the first session of its governing committee.  full story

Czech commemoration of Holocaust at Terezín Memorial will again not feature the Romani flag

18.5.2018 17:58 The traditional commemorative ceremony held by the Terezín Memorial will be held on Sunday at the National Cemetery in front of the Small Fortress, and several Romani activists will again have a bitter taste in their mouths about it. On the basis of an initiative by the Konexe association two years ago, 14 pro-Roma and Roma nonprofit organizations including ARA ART, ROMEA and Slovo 21 pointed out that the Romani flag is not flown at the memorial during the annual commemoration ceremony alongside the flags of the other nations whose members fell victim to Nazi persecution.  full story

Hungary: Open Society Foundation closing in Budapest due to Government persecution

15.5.2018 13:34 The Open Society Foundation, established by the American financier of Hungarian origin George Soros, will be relocating to Berlin from Budapest due to the repressive pressure of the Government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. OSF announced the move on its website and assured the public that it will continue to support civic groups in Hungary working in the areas of culture, education, freedom of the press, health care and transparency.  full story

Emiliya Dancheva: Can we trust the European Parliament if its members are deaf and blind to anti-Gypsyism in Bulgaria?

9.5.2018 6:55 One year ago, the leader of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, Mr Boyko Borissov, became Prime Minister of Bulgaria for the third time since 2009, forming an unprecedented ruling coalition with nationalistic and xenophobic parties (VMRO, ATAKA and NFSB).  full story

U.S. diplomats discuss situation of Romani people in Europe during Czech visit

8.5.2018 9:19 Representatives of nine U.S. embassies from the Central and East European region, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Helsinki Commission met in Prague and Brno in April to discuss the current situation of Roma in the region. The representatives shared best practices, policies and projects that help to successfully integrate Roma people into majority societies and to empower them.  full story

OPEN CALL for 5th CoE Dialogue with Roma and Traveller Civil Society next month - DEADLINE 27 MAY to apply

6.5.2018 9:30 The Roma and Travellers Team at the Council of Europe (CoE)has announced there is an open call for participation in the Council of Europe's 5th Dialogue with civil society from Roma and Traveller communities around Europe, which will be held this year from 20-21 June in Strasbourg, France. This meeting will focus on the issue of political participation by Roma and Travellers.   full story

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights finds Czech Republic the place that rejects Romani people the most

30.4.2018 15:29 The lives of many Romani people in Europe are similar to the lives of people living in the poorer countries of the world, according to a report released earlier this month by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) entitled "A persisting concern: anti-Gypsyism as a barrier to Roma inclusion". The main problems Romani people face daily in the EU include hunger, poor hygienic conditions, and youth unemployment, according to the report.  full story

Jana Balážová: Not acceptable for teachers to see Romani children as a burden

28.4.2018 7:58 Members of the human rights community shined a spotlight on the situations faced by Romani children and their parents in Central Europe at a screening of the documentary “Europe: Which Children Matter?” The film was shown at Cinema Galeries in Brussels to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.  full story

Czech educators told Romani child she was "slow" - in the UK she's on her second college degree and working as a dental nurse

26.4.2018 14:14 Adriana Rácová comes from a Romani family in Ostrava, Czech Republic, one of five children who spent her childhood on a farm in a rural environment. Just like her siblings, she attended primary school in Ostrava where, according to her, her class teacher did her best to convince Adriana's parents to reassign her to a "special school" because it would be "better" for her.

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BBC Three Documentary Exposes Human Rights Abuses In Hungary’s State-Care Homes

21.4.2018 10:40 In a new special on BBC Three, Stacey Dooley investigates the Roma situation in Hungary, exposing the abuse committed by state-run care homes into which Romani children are being placed. The state repeatedly removes Romani children from their homes because their families are too poor to care for them.

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Traffickers in poverty in the Czech Republic have a new trick for not losing their profitable business model

14.4.2018 20:34 Real estate speculators in the Czech Republic who charge high rents for dilapidated apartment units in socially excluded localities do not intend to lose their profitable "enterprises". They are selling apartment units in places where local councils have decided not to disburse housing benefits to their impoverished tenants and are buying other units in localities where the state housing benefit is not limited.  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

Analysis: Czech housing benefits keep people's heads above water

3.4.2018 7:56 On 19 March the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) published a report about its audit of the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, the General Directorate of the Labor Office and the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. The audit assessed the impacts of state policies against social exclusion.  full story

Controversial Czech housing estate in the hands of foreign nationals: Russians big fans of trafficking in poverty there

30.3.2018 12:45 Buying cheap arpartment units at the Janov housing estate has become a lucrative new enterprise for many foreign nationals. Israelis, Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, according to news server Seznam.cz, own more than one-third of the units in some apartment buildings there.  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

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

Slovakia: Romani family rejected by neighbors before they even move in

22.2.2018 7:40 News server noviny.sk reports that the Štrkáč family recently bought a new home in the village of Oščadnici near Žilina, but their future neighbors disagree with their moving in, allegedly because they are Romani. Everything began on the day after the family bought the house and began reconstructing it.  full story

Czech Justice Minister threatens to resign if SPD party joins the Government, calls it fascist, they plan to sue

21.2.2018 20:49 Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikán (ANO) absolutely disagrees with the program of the SPD movement and considers the party, chaired by Czech MP Tomio Okamura, to be fascist. He said he is prepared to resign if SPD joins the Government.  full story

New Zealand grants asylum to family from Czech Republic with non-Romani and Romani members because of neo-Nazi death threats

29.1.2018 18:24 Radio New Zealand reported today that a woman and her three sons have been awarded political asylum in New Zealand because they faced death threats from neo-Nazis in their home country of the Czech Republic. The father of two of the boys is Romani, their adopted brother is also Romani, and according to their mother, who is not Romani, her children have faced, among other things, discrimination in education because of their ethnicity.  full story

videoCzech Association of Roma Entrepreneurs and Associations endorses Drahoš, calls on Roma to turn out

26.1.2018 6:51 The President of the Association of Roma Entrepreneurs and Associations of the Czech Republic, Vladimír Leško, has published a video on YouTube aimed at Romani people asking them to take an active part in the election of the President of the Czech Republic in the second round of voting, which begins today and continues tomorrow until 2 pm. Leško, together with other members of the association, clearly declares on YouTube that he will vote for Jiří Drahoš.  full story