News

videoEP Vice President Lívia Járóka for ROMEA TV: There are more Romani MEPs than people realize

28.4.2018 11:02 "Our biggest challenge is to keep our children in the best education," said Lívia Járóka, first-ever Roma Vice President of the European Parliament (EP), in an interview for the Roma internet television station ROMEA TV. Speaking in Brussels during EU Roma Week, the EP Vice President said that her biggest success to date has been the adoption of the European Union's Roma Strategy.

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Demolition of pig farm on Romani genocide site in Czech Republic could provide jobs for long-term unemployed

28.4.2018 9:31 On Wednesday, 25 April yet another in the series of discussions on the future of the former camp at Lety u Písku that has been organized by the Museum of Romani Culture and the ROMEA organization was held. This time the discussion happened directly in the community of Lety u Písku in the local authority's auditorium and, as moderator Alica Sigmund Heráková said, it came "not just to the place about which there is discussion, but also to the local reality, the local residents, and the region where the changes related to building the memorial will have the most impact."  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 Police indict bodybuilder who praised shooting of Romani man and made his own death threats

27.4.2018 12:26 News server Lidovky.cz reported on 24 April that police in Chomutov, Czech Republic have proposed indicting bodybuilder Filip Grznár for felony approval of crime and violence committed against a group or its individual members. Last June the bodybuilder disseminated a video online in which he threatened local Roma in Chomutov with murder, expressed aggressive, vulgar opinions about the shooting death of a Romani man there, and expressed his backing for the man who murdered him.  full story

videoRoma Week at the European Parliament: 40 young Roma discuss antigypsyism with MEPs

27.4.2018 8:07 Activists, experts, organizations working to combat persistent hatred of Romani people in Europe, and politicians have finished the third annual Roma Week at the European Parliament and other EU institutions, which began on 8 April 2018, International Romani Day. According to the organizers, the aim of Roma Week is to bring together Romani activists, experts and youth from the European states in order to contribute to developing a European strategy against antigypsyism and to discussing options for addressing the situation of Romani people throughout Europe.  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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Czech Republic will not finance new memorial at Romani genocide site, funds will come from Norway

26.4.2018 11:58 The new memorial to the Holocaust and its Romani victims at the site of the former concentration camp for Romani people in Lety u Písku will not be paid for by the Czech state. At a public meeting in Lety yesterday held by the Museum of Romani Culture and the ROMEA organization, Czech Deputy Culture Minister René Schreier delivered that message.  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

Czech singer gets married on Hitler's birthday at a chateau where the SS were headquartered

25.4.2018 11:06 News server Expres.cz. reports that Tomáš Ortel (born Tomáš Hnídek), the singer for the hate-mongering band Ortel, got "secretly" married on Friday, 20 April 2018 at the Zbiroh Chateau. He said "I do" to his longtime girlfriend on Adolf Hitler's birthday in a location where German SS units headquartered their high command during WWII.
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Czech city ignores Constitutional Court and refuses to abolish ordinance banning sitting outdoors

24.4.2018 15:52 The Mostecký deník daily reports that the City of Most is rejecting a call from the Czech Interior Ministry to abolish the unlawful part of a local ordinance banning sitting outdoors other than in locations intended for that purpose. "This is an effective tool for the local police and we do not just want to give it up," said Mayor Jan Paparega  full story

Czech NGO ROMEA launches I HAVE A DREAM! campaign to support Romani students

24.4.2018 14:23 The ROMEA organization, in collaboration with Bader Philanthropies, has launched another campaign to support students as part of their Scholarship Program for Romani students of colleges, high schools and technical schools. The campaign is entitled I HAVE DREAM! and clearly references the strong message of human rights fighter Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a central representatives of the movement for the equality of African-Americans in the USA.  full story

ERIAC hosts International Cultural Outreach Program in 7 cities to showcase their activities

23.4.2018 13:16 ERIAC’s main international activity is its International Cultural Outreach Program, financed by the Federal Foreign Office of the German Government.  full story

ROMACT: EU initiative to help Roma with support from local authorities

23.4.2018 12:53 The ROMACT Programme aims to assist municipalities and municipal authorities to work with local Roma communities to develop inclusive policies and public services.  full story

videoGermany: Three assailants attack two youths wearing yarmulkes in the capital

22.4.2018 14:35 Deutsche-Presse Agentur (DPA) reported on 18 April that three unidentified assailants attacked two youths wearing yarmulkes, the traditional Jewish head covering for men, in Berlin. One of those assaulted was an Israeli citizen who filmed the incident.  full story

Czech MP Karel Schwarzenberg will attend public discussion of the future memorial at Romani genocide site in Lety

22.4.2018 10:31 On Wednesday, 25 April 2018 at 17:00 yet another discussion will take place in the series being organized by the Museum of Romani Culture together with the ROMEA public benefit corporation on the future possible form of the memorial to the Holocaust and its Romani victims at Lety u Písku. The discussion will take place in the cultural hall of the Lety u Písku Municipal Authority.  full story

Czech Public Defender of Rights says police failed in their response to shooting at children's camp

22.4.2018 8:55 The Czech Police, according to the Public Defender of Rights, committed an error in the case of shooting incidents at a summer camp in the town of Jiřetín pod Jedlovou (Děčín district) attended by Romani children from Ida Kelarová's choral ensemble. The police did not visit the camp after the shootings were reported and made light of the situation.  full story

Czech Republic: Stricter conditions for non-bank lenders are clearing the market of fraud

22.4.2018 8:02 The Most regional edition of Deník.cz reports that a stricter law on consumer lending intended to combat illegal loans and usury has been in effect in the Czech Republic for a year and a half now. According to a survey by the Czech Banking Association (ČBA) in February, more than half of people seeking credit turn to companies that are not banks for loans, most frequently borrowing to purchase electronic equipment and other general household appliances.

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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

videoMichal Miko to the Czech Regional Development Minister: Live in a container yourself and then we'll see what you think of it

21.4.2018 11:51 The proposal of the Czech Regional Development Minister to build 55 000 "container" units of housing has outraged various civic activists. Michal Miko, project coordinator for the Slovo 21, z.s. NGO, has taken an unequivocally negative stance on the issue: "The fact that the Government wants to adopt a law making it possible to build 'container' apartment units is unacceptable to me as a civic activist."  full story

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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