Category Archives: Czech Republic

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Forced Sterilisations

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The Czech Prime Minister has condemned the current process of compensation of the victims of forced sterilisations. Several of them were turned down, even though the official reason for the sterilisation was that they were Roma.

Good – but it took time …

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma in the Czech Republic

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An article about Roma in the Czech Republic. It states that the most numerous Roma in the Czech Republic are Slovak Roma, who make up about 75 to 80% of the total number of Roma in the country. In addition, the original Czech Roma live in the Czech Republic, as well as German Sinti and Olaš Roma. All this according to Markéta Hajská from the Department of Central European Studies.

Well, less than 60 families of Czech Roma survived the war. This is the reason why after World War Two, the Communist regime resettled Roma to the Czech part of the country. The Olaš – these are Vlach Roma, have been there since the beginning oof the 20th century. Should be enough to make then Czech.

In brief, the usual for that country. Unfortunately.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

ERRC Reports

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Two reports by the European Roma Right Centre highlight the discrimination of Roma in the justice systems of both the Czech and Slovak Republics.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Beating

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A video of a young girls severely beating another one in total indifference of most other people around has gone viral in the Czech Republic. The Romano Journalist Patrick Banga reacts.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma in the Czech Republic

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A discussion with the Romano journalist Patrick Banga about Roma in the Czech Republic. Officially, according the Census, there are only 20’000 Roma even though the government acknowledges that there are at least 250’000.

The article makes a few incorrect statements: Roma appeared in the Czech lands, in Bohemia and Moravia as early as the 13th century. They are thus there since 800 years. Unfortunately, during World War Two, most of the Czech Roma were deported and only a handful survived the Holocaust. Roma from Slovakia were resettled in what is now the Czech Republic by the communist regime after the war, which created a problem when Czechoslovakia split, as the Czech did not want to grant citizenship to those Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Lety Memorial

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More on the upcoming memorial on the site of the former concentration camp for Roma in Lety, in the Czech Republic.

In just one year, the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia should stand in Lety u Písek. The company Protom, which won the tender, undertook to complete the monument in 345 days.

Minister of Culture for the ODS Martin Baxastated:

“It was an event that was forgotten for decades, now the construction of the memorial here in Lety has been inaugurated. It will create a place that will be a permanent reminder of what happens when we slacken in our efforts to defend the values of freedom and democracy.”

The construction of the monument will cost less than one hundred million crowns. The winner of the indoor and outdoor exhibition competition should be announced this month. The Museum of Roma Culture would like to open the monument in 2024. The German government has also promised the museum funding for the outdoor exhibition. Norwegian funds will also contribute 26.5 million crowns to the memorial.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Demonstration

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In the Stodolní Street in the center of Ostrava in the eastern part of the country, about a hundred Roma demonstrated in the early evening on Wednesday. They protested against the fact that security guards of some bars in this area allegedly physically attack Roma visitors for no reason, and the police allegedly do nothing about this violence. The crowd reached the nearby police station.

The event was called by Roma activist David Mezei. “There were two such cases in January alone, when the security guard beat up a young visitor for no reason just because he is Rom. It doesn’t work like that anymore. The police only save money, but they never investigate anything,” Mezei was angry, with other participants of the demonstration shouting in agreement.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Lety Memorial

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The memorial to the Roma Holocaust on the grounds of the former pig farm in Lety will be completed within a year and will cost 199 million CZK (4.2 million EUR). In February, the winner of the competition for the indoor and outdoor exhibition of the monument will be announced.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Roma Integration

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Last week, the Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs, Lucie Fuková, met with the Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and the Minister for Regional Development, Ivan Bartoš. They discussed the functioning of the Agency for Social Inclusion and the solution to the social exclusion of Roma not only in economically disadvantaged regions.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Social Work

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An interview with Iveta Millerová, born in a Roma settlement, who went on to pass her high school diploma at age 36 and then studied pedagogy at the University of Ušti nad Labem and now works as a direct care educator at the Children’s Home with a school in Dobřichovice and is also studying for a postgraduate degree.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Zdeněk Godla

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An article about the Czech Roma actor Zdeněk Godla, currently the best know Roma actor in the Czech Republic. He was lucky, as he started his life on the street at the age of 13, got in jail, and he got into acting by accident when he was doing community service in Chomutov and was chosen by the director Petr Václav for the film. Until the last moment, he agonized over whether it was some kind of fraud. He was at the bottom, without money, and acting helped him a lot.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Elections

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79% of the Roma in a small closed village voted for Babiš in the first round of the presidential elections in the Czech Republic. Marco Cavali from Prague, the chairman of the Roma Luma (Roma World) party, which he founded in 2021, called on the Roma to vote for Andrej Babiš. “And the Roma also voted for Babiš in the first round. Only this candidate is a sure guarantee of a safe life in the Czech Republic for the Roma,” Cavali tells CNN Prima NEWS.

This is bad. Babiš is a populist, supported by the far-right Okamura’s party. This will not turn out good for the Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Disgusting

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The Czech comedian Štěpán Kozub, in his performance at the O2 arena on 29/12/2022 made a really bad joke disparaging Roma and Jews as well as the memory of the Holocaust. Roma and Jewish organisations are protesting.

Kozub told that sometime after the Second World War, a bus full of Roma people went to see the ghetto so that it would never happen again. The guide goes to announce that “a bus full of gypsies” has arrived, and the porter replies: “But we don’t do that here anymore”.

Bad, especially since everybody in the sold out arena laughed.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic’s first Roma Commissioner

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The Czech Republic has taken an important step in addressing the complex situation of Czech Roma. As recently as December 2022, the government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala created the post of government commissioner for Roma community affairs at its last meeting of the year and appointed 41-year-old Romni Lucie Fukova as the first Roma commissioner.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Pavel Berky

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Pavel Berky, born in 1986, is a graduate of the UMPRUM fashion design studio in Prague. He was successful in the Top Style Designer competitions during the Prague Fashion Week, and was at the Exalt Fashion Show and others, world shows in New York, London, Paris or Milan. He placed third in the MasterChef Czechia 2020 competition, appeared in his own TV shows. His cookbook was awarded as the Most Beautiful Book of the Year.

He speaks about his traditions of Christmas dinner.

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