Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

April 8th in Prague

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April 8th in Prague

President Petr Pavel and Eva Pavlová will receive Roma community leaders at Prague Castle on the occasion of International Roma Day. According to information from the Romea.cz server, a total of 20 Roma men and women are expected to attend. Almost half of them are graduates of the educational program Supporting the Social Inclusion of Roma through Community Development and Entrepreneurship, which was implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The three-year program involved 80 participants from 11 regions of the Czech Republic. The names of the specific participants have not yet been published.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Condemnation

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Condemnation

The Regional Court in Ostrava has sentenced a group of three men and one woman, who according to the indictment were led by 23-year-old Enrico Pešta, known as the Roma rapper Hard Rico. He was sentenced to four years in prison for robbery and extortion and must pay two million crowns. Two other defendants were sentenced to five years in prison, and Hard Rico’s former girlfriend was sentenced to three years in prison.

Europe News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Foundation for Europe

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Roma Foundation for Europe

The Roma Foundation for Europe, headquartered in Brussels, is part of the Soros Foundations for an Open Society and implements various programs across Europe in support of the Roma community – it supports children and young people in education and extracurricular activities, young families in self-employment and job creation, protects Roma communities from abuse for political purposes and encourages political activation, and also invests in the preservation and development of Roma culture and language. It has not been present in Slovenia so far because it seemed that there was no need for it – because Slovenia is a sufficiently developed country with a small enough Roma population to be able to solve the problems on its own. Jovanović says today that this opinion was clearly erroneous.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

April 8th

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April 8th

Students from the Veliko Tarnovo region will celebrate International Roma Day – April 8. The event in the old capital will be held on April 3 /Friday/ at 2:00 p.m. at the Petko R. Slaveykov Regional Library. The main highlight of the program is the presentation of the book “The House of the White Swan” by the Roma writer, teacher and educational mediator Atanas Atanasov – Vakavliyata. Guests will have the opportunity to meet the author and get acquainted with his work, dedicated to the life, identity and values ​​of the Roma community.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Integration

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Integration

The Dobrich Municipality (Bulgaria) reported on progress in the integration of Roma communities. During the meeting, the results achieved from the implementation of the ROMACT approach were presented, as well as the main challenges faced by the municipality in the integration process.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria and Crypto

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Bulgaria and Crypto

$5,000 was the initial minimum contribution for the victims to join the powerful fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that was broken up by the “Economic Police”. The scheme targeted minorities and was run by a 48-years old Rom from Plovdiv.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Elections, and Roma

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Bulgaria, Elections, and Roma

Police raided a financial house (sic.) in the Roma neighbourhood of Fakulteta in Sofia, where a list of names and amounts was found besides six thousand Euros in cash. The police is suspecting election bribery and arrested several persons among which Kiril Kirilov, a know murky figure often called the Japanese.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Vera Bila

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Vera Bila

Věra Bílá, who was born on May 22, 1954 in Rokycany as one of Karol Gini’s six children, was a phenomenon of Romani music at the turn of the millennium. She sang for Bill Clinton at the White House, filled the Paris Olympia and was on her way to becoming the most famous Czech singer in the world. However, her career was later affected by the deaths of her husband, son and gambling. In March, we commemorate the seven-year anniversary of her death.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Jakub Jarý

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Jakub Jarý

Jakub Jarý’s life journey proves that if a person really wants to, he can overcome obstacles that may seem insurmountable to others. He is now a medical doctor in Czechia.

Even though he comes from an excluded locality and grew up in a working-class family, he was set up from the beginning to want to fight for a better life. As he himself says: “No shortcuts will help and in the long run they will not bring anything good, I am convinced of that. If young people want to live in better conditions than the ones they grew up in, they can only achieve this through diligence and work.”

News Eastern Europe Poland

Romani Pupils

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Romani Pupils

An article about Romani pupils in Polish schools. It says that for a Roma child, the threshold of school is often a threshold to a completely different linguistic world. In homes, especially in groups like Polska Roma, which cultivate a stronger tradition, the first language is Romani. It is an intimate, homely language, acting as a guardian of identity. At school, students must rapidly adapt to Polish grammatical structures to master reading and writing, which represents a tremendous cognitive effort.

Well most of them are bilingual… So not sure about that statement.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Competition

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Competition

The Slovenian Office for Nationalities has announced a prize competition for diploma, master’s and doctoral theses on Roma topics. The purpose of the competition is to encourage research activities of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the field of Roma topics and to raise awareness of the need to effectively address the challenges of social exclusion and poverty of members of the Roma community, prevent antigypsyism and discrimination against Roma, promote the inclusion of members of the Roma community and their participation in the design and implementation of solutions with the aim of building trust and preserving Roma culture and identity.

Latvia News Eastern Europe

Lithuania and Roma

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Lithuania and Roma

The Department of National Minorities under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania has appealed to the State Language Inspectorate, the Chancellery of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of Culture, and the Main Commission on Official Ethics to evaluate the public statements made by the head of the State Language Inspectorate regarding the use of the words “Negro” and “Gypsy.”

Well, it’s about time …

Moldova News Eastern Europe

Education and Roma

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Education and Roma

On Thursday, March 25, over 30 young Roma from across Moldova, members of the Young Roma Network of the Republic of Moldova, presented the “Young Roma Manifesto”—a document outlining clear educational priorities. These include ensuring equal access to quality education, supporting students from vulnerable backgrounds, and continuously developing educational policies tailored to the needs of Roma communities. Thousands of teachers participated in public discussions on the concept of school subjects. During the event, held at the Ministry of Education and Research, young people highlighted the positive impact of specialized educational programs, especially scholarships for academic achievement, intended for Roma students in lyceums, vocational schools, and universities.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia and Child Marriage

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Serbia and Child Marriage

A round table presented the results of the analysis of the project “Roma Women’s Activism in the Protection of Roma Girls from Violence Caused by Child Marriages”, which aims to reduce the rate of child marriages among the Roma population, and the 10 cities covered by the project, including Vranje, which has the highest rate of child marriages.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Strasbourg

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Slovakia and Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Slovak women Katarína Kuruová and Helena Horváthová against the Slovak Republic ordered the Slovak Republic to pay a total of 28,560 euros. The reason is the violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the prohibition of torture and Article 14 on the prohibition of discrimination.

This case concerns an incident between the two applicants – two Romnja sisters – and the police, which took place on 23 July 2019. On that day, the police detained the women in the village of Milhosť in eastern Slovakia and took them to the police station in the village of Čaňa, where they remained until the early hours of the following morning. They were not questioned during their detention and, according to the ECHR judgment, were described in the detention records as a “gang of local Romani women”.

In their application, the applicants allege violence by the police, which they described as “unjustified, disproportionate and based on bias against them”. They say the investigation into the use of such force was not thorough and independent.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe News Switzerland

Switzerland and Bulgaria

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Switzerland and Bulgaria

The Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation H.E. Pierre Hagmann visited the office of the Amalipe Center and two of the institutions with which the Center works in close partnership – Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski” – the village of Kamen and the Municipality of Strazhitsa, to get acquainted with the organization’s activities. The conversations were about the Roma community and the challenges facing it, education, the contribution of the Swiss-Bulgarian Development Program, the role of NGOs and the support of the Swiss Embassy and the Ambassadorial Group on Roma Issues. The subsequent visit to the village of Kamen and the town of Strazhitsa continued and detailed these conversations.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian Project

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Bulgarian Project

In the period 2023 – 2025, the Municipality of Lukovit implemented the project “Future for Children in the Municipality of Lukovit”, funded by the Human Resources Development Program 2021 -2027. As a result of the implementation of the projects, conclusions are drawn about the growing marginalization of certain places and neighbourhoods and the deepening challenges in terms of poverty and inequalities, including the lack of access to health, social, communal and other services for Roma groups. In the villages of Belentsi and Petrevene – a large percentage of Roma families with children, at risk of poverty, not speaking Bulgarian and for this reason – difficulties in the social and educational integration of children in kindergarten and school. In the village of Bezhanovo – a large number of families with eight to 10 children, in extreme poverty and at risk of marginalization. In the town of Lukovit – a compact Roma population in the “Iztok” district – according to expert observations, over five thousand people”, the report says.

  • Общинските съветници в Луковит одобриха всички предложения от дневния ред. In: Utro Ruse. 26.03.2026. https://utroruse.com/amp/?id=1226934
News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Condemned

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Slovakia Condemned

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the beating of two Romani sisters by Slovak police, their detention in a toilet and cleaning cupboard, and a deeply flawed investigation violated both the prohibition on inhuman treatment (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14 of the Convention).

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Zagreb and Kris

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Zagreb and Kris

The 2nd International Conference on “Roma Customary Law” opened today at the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, an event that could permanently change the status of Roma tradition on a global scale. The main news of the conference is the launch of an initiative to include Roma customary law, known as Romanipen or the Kriss system, on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia: Racism or Not?

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Croatia: Racism or Not?

In Premantura, an iftar evening organized by the Croatian Roma Association Kali Sara, led by Suzana Krčmar, to celebrate Ramadan, turned into a dispute between the organizers and the restaurant owner. According to the restaurant, many more guests came, and a 1’800 euro bill was left open.

Croatian MP Veljko Kajtazi also attended the event, who also gave a statement to local media about the incident.

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