ČTK

Czech Republic: Poll shows only 4 % of citizens have good relations with Roma

Prague, 30.4.2013 19:57, (ROMEA) According to a survey conducted by the STEM agency, the results of which were made available to the Czech Press Agency, 69 % of the citizens in the Czech Republic have a negative relationship with Romani people and only 4 % have a “good” or “very good” relationship with them. Compared to last April, the number of people with negative views has slightly declined.  full story

Slovak apartheid ends at one school

Prague, 29.4.2013 20:27, (ROMEA) The Slovak daily Sme reports that until recently, a school in the town of Šarišské Michaľany was educating dark-skinned children on its first floor and white-skinned children on the ground floor. The playground was divided into separate sections as well, while the cafeteria offered cooked food for the whites and “dry food” for the others.  full story

Czech municipality continues to push impoverished residents out

Ostrava/Prague, 28.4.2013 0:36, (ROMEA) The centrally located municipal department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz in the town of Ostrava is facing even more criticism for its approach toward its socially vulnerable residents. During a recent inspection, the Building Works Authority there has discovered that buildings being used as residential hotels were never permitted for that kind of use. The structures concerned are meant to be used as apartment buildings (where whole apartments, not individual rooms, are meant to be leased) or as office buildings.  full story

Czech court to screen CCTV footage in trial of “machete attack”

Liberec, 27.4.2013 2:44, (ROMEA) CCTV footage was scheduled to be screened today at the Regional Court in Liberec, where the closed trial of a group of five men charged with committing the so-called “machete attack” is taking place. The 2011 attack in the town of Nový Bor injured three people. If convicted of attempted murder, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison or extraordinary sentencing.  full story

Poll finds Czechs like Romani people least, Slovaks most

Prague, 19.4.2013 6:14, (ROMEA) A survey conducted in March by the Center for Public Opinion Research (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění - CVVM) has found that of the national groups living in the Czech Republic, Czech people like Romani people the least and Slovaks the most. More than four-fifths of Czechs surveyed consider Slovaks to be congenial.  full story

UK: Fishery owner bans Eastern Europeans from accessing lake

Great Britain, 12.4.2013 22:53, (ROMEA) BBC online reports that the owner of a fishing lake in Great Britain has decided to prohibit people from Eastern European countries from accessing it because they allegedly have been stealing fish instead of releasing them once caught. Four months ago he posted a sign at the lake to that effect which has become the subject of a local police investigation.  full story

Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion and ROMEA offer to work with media for more objective reporting about Romani people

Prague, 11.4.2013 17:22, (ROMEA) On the occasion of International Romani Day this Monday 8 April, the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion and the ROMEA civic association held a round table on the topic of Portraying Romani People in the Media at the Journalists’ Syndicate under the auspices of Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková. The Agency presented the results of its extensive analysis of the Czech media there.  full story

Slovakia: Romani man from Czech Republic and others beaten by 20 skinheads

Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia, 11.4.2013 16:18, (ROMEA) The Slovak media are reporting that allegedly as many as 20 skinhead attackers brutally beat up a Romani man from the Czech Republic at a party in the Central Slovakian town of Banská Štiavnica. The man lost consciousness as a result of the brawl. Two Georgians and the man’s girlfriend, who is a local resident, were also targeted for attack. It is not yet clear whether the conflict was racially motivated.  full story

British concerns over influx of Bulgarians and Romanians said to be exaggerated

Brussels, Belgium, 10.4.2013 23:23, (ROMEA) The British Government has commissioned an independent study of immigration to Great Britain from Bulgaria and Romania and published the results on 5 April. The number of immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania should not significantly grow until the start of next year, when the last legal barriers to freedom of movement for those citizens are set to expire.  full story

Czech Republic: Worst building at Chanov housing estate to be demolished

Most, 9.4.2013 22:59, (ROMEA) A building at the Chanov housing estate in the Czech town of Most known as Block 12 is scheduled for demolition. The town first considered leaving the ground floor of the building intact and reconstructing it so social services could be headquartered there, but has since abandoned that plan.  full story

Brussels: AI stages eviction of Romani settlement on International Romani Day

Brussels, Belgium, 9.4.2013 16:55, (ROMEA) A “happening” portraying the forced eviction of a Romani settlement was staged yesterday in Brussels by the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) in order to draw attention to the situation of Romani people in Europe. Yesterday the European Commission also emphasized that improving the situation of Romani people is one of the greatest challenges Europe faces.  full story

Czech Republic: 15 women charged with promoting neo-Nazism

Děčín, 7.4.2013 2:27, (ROMEA) On Thursday, 4 April, the state prosecutor in the Czech town of Děčín filed charges against 15 women for allegedly perpetrating the crime of promoting and supporting the neo-Nazi movement Resistance Women Unity (RWU). Děčín State Prosecutor Petr Minich announced that if convicted of the charges, the women face up to eight years in prison.  full story

Amnesty International calls for an end to discrimination against Romani people in Europe

London/Prague, 6.4.2013 21:14, (ROMEA) On the occasion of International Romani Day on 8 April, Amnesty International (AI) is warning the European Union that it is not doing enough to end discrimination against Romani people in the Member States. The world’s largest human rights organization has launched a Europe-wide campaign called “Human Rights Here, Roma Rights Now”.  full story

Czech Republic: Romani community lights candles to honor their Holocaust victims

Prague, 6.4.2013 19:29, (ROMEA) A total of 30 Romani individuals and representatives of Romani organizations met yesterday in the courtyard of Prague’s Lichtenstein Palace to light candles in memory of their Holocaust victims. The commemoration was attended by the Czech Foreign Minister and the Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner on the occasion of International Romani Day, which falls on 8 April.  full story

Czech experts disagree with residential hotels as social housing

Prague, 3.4.2013 17:00, (ROMEA) A group of academics and representatives of organizations serving the needy disagrees with including residential hotels as a component of social housing and are criticizing a recent analysis recommending such an approach. The group is also asking for a law to be adopted to ensure "affordable, non-segregated, quality housing" for the poor, according to the initiative's coordinator, Štěpán Ripka, who spoke at a press conference today.  full story

Czech Republic: Ostrava ghetto residents want out, but not to residential hotels

Ostrava, 2.4.2013 17:28, (ROMEA) They have to heat with wood, they have no electricity, and they continue to draw their potable water from a single shared faucet. This is how the last residents remaining in building number 8 on the ghetto of Přednádraží street in Ostrava live now. Even though the residents have begun slowly repairing the building with the aid of money from various donors, most of those who spoke to the Czech Press Agency claim they would like to move out of the locality.  full story

Czech permanent settlement law expired 15 years ago

Prague, 30.3.2013 19:27, (ROMEA) Deeply engrained stereotypes about Romani people, formed in Europe over the course of six centuries, persist today even though various regimes have made efforts to more or less eliminate the stereotypes in various ways. One of those efforts was the forced assimilation of Romani people that began in the fall of 1958 in the former Czechoslovakia with a law on the permanent settlement of vagrant persons.  full story

Slovakia: Former municipal cop gets nine years for murdering three Romani people

Bratislava, Slovakia, 28.3.2013 1:22, (ROMEA) A court in Slovakia today sentenced former municipal police officer Milan Juhász to nine years in prison for shooting to death three people and injuring two others last year in the southern town of Hurbanovo. The court also ordered him to undergo psychiatric treatment.  full story

German court convicts kidnappers of infant from Czech Republic

Koblenz, Germany, 25.3.2013 16:53, (ROMEA) The state court in the German town of Koblenz has sentenced the two kidnappers of a newborn girl from the town of Trmice in the Ústí Region of the Czech Republic to four and a half years in prison. The verdict has yet to take effect.  full story

Czech Helsinki Committee publishes shadow report on discrimination and racism

Prague, 23.3.2013 19:44, (ROMEA) On the occasion of the International Day against Racism, the Czech Helsinki Committee (Český helsinský výbor - ČHV) has published a shadow report on racism in the Czech Republic and in Europe. The report is issued annually by the European Network against Racism (ENAR), an umbrella organization of hundreds of human rights groups from 26 countries.This most recent report maps the situation during 2011 and part of 2012. The English-language summary report, "Racism in Europe", is available here: http://www.romea.cz/dokumenty/SR_EU-2012.pdf  full story