Category Archives: Slovenia

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and a Missionary

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An interview with Matic Vidic who is employed by the Slovenian Army where he takes care of spiritual care in the Novo mesto and Cerklje ob Krka barracks. He is a permanent deacon in the diocese of Novo mesto, and he teaches religious education to children. He also does pastoral work with Roma and wants to help Roma to improve their lives and to improve the bad relations between the local population and Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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The Slovene Ombudsman Peter Svetina visited the municipalities of Škocjan, Sevnica and Radeče, where he met with mayors. In Škocjan, he was informed about the problems they have with individual Roma. At the same time, Svetina emphasized that positive discrimination against the Roma minority cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population. After the meeting he clarified the statemen, saying Roma population have legislation which protects them, “but positive discrimination cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population”, but the right balance must be found. “Also, protective legislation does not give the Roma population a free hand for criminal acts”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and the Mayor’s Initiative

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The initiative and law proposal presented by Slovenian Mayors aimed solely at Roma has been defeated in the Slovenian parliament.
The Labour Committee of the National Assembly rejected most of the mayor’s for regulating the situation of children from difficult social environments, with which the mayors of 11 Slovenian municipalities, among other things, wanted to start “solving” the “Roma problem”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Positive Discrimination?

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A statement by the Ombudsman Peter Svetina can raise a few eyebrows.  He visited the municipalities of Škocjan, Sevnica and Radeče, where he met with the mayors and opened the Ombudsman’s Corner. In Škocjan, he was informed about the problems they have with individual Roma. He Svetina emphasized that positive discrimination against the Roma minority cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma ‘Criminality’

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Another article about the attack of two brothers by Roma in Slovenia. The two Lopatec brothers in Dobrava near Škocjan were cleaning the a ditch with an excavator and a tractor when they were attacked by Roma. They threatened them with weapons, and then attacked the two policemen who intervened in the intervention, in the end three were slightly injured.

What the background is, is totally unclear, but the numbers of articles focusing on Roma “crime” is scary.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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An interview with a catholic deacon on the “Roma Problem” in Slovenia. The deacon is not that clear cut on the roots of the problem and far less on potential solutions. Well, he at least helps some Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Roma Criminality

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Following the attack of two brothers by Roma in Škocja, Slovenia, protests against Roma criminality are increasing. The victims were invited were invited to an extraordinary meeting in Škocjan. They described what happened that day.

Bad for all.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and News

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Some of the Slovenian press headlines: The Lopatec brothers from Dobrava near Škocjan were cleaning the Radulje ditch when a group of Roma from Dobruja attacked them and threatened them with weapons. When they later called the police, they attacked them too, the two brothers came to their aid, and one of them got hit in the head with a wheel.

No comments.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Activists, and Stereotypes

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Bogdan Miklič, a journalist and Romano activist who has been fighting against stereotypes and prejudice against Roma is being accused of having built a house on municipal land. The tone of the article is very much “see I told you …”.

Bad for all.

Europe News Eastern Europe Slovenia

International Roma Conference

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On Thursday, September 21, an international Roma conference was held in Radenci, Slovenia. Representatives of the Roma community from 15 countries discussed several topics important to Roma with representatives of national and European institutions. In the foreground were the implementation of the European Commission’s ten-year plan for supporting Roma in the EU and the presentation of good practices for solving the problems of the Roma community.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Burning waste not in the open is prohibited by law, but it is also harmful to health, warns the National Institute of Public Health. Residents of Sončni dvori in Grosuplje  are  particularly disturbed by the burning of waste in the nearby Roma settlement of Smrekec. Because of it, residents are forced to inhale smoke and lock themselves in their apartments.

This has usually two causes: Heating with whatever is found that burns, or scraping plastic out of old wires. It is a result of poverty.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Evictions in Slovakia

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The Regional Court in Košice ruled in favour of nine Roma plaintiffs who were forcibly evicted from their homes in Nižné Kapustníky in Košice eleven years ago.

This was reported on Wednesday by Jonathan Lee from the European Center for Roma Rights, according to which the city of Košice evicted the entire local Roma community under the pretext of garbage removal.

According to him, the residents were not offered any alternative accommodation after their homes were demolished, as a result of which they became homeless.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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The police do not officially keep statistics on crime committed by Roma, but the police can say that in municipalities with a large number of Roma, they cause up to 90 percent of all crime.

In Ivančna Gorica, the situation is so serious that the locals decided to organize the so-called village guards.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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The Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs, Public Administration and Local Self-Government discussed the situation of the Roma community for several hours today. In 30 years, the situation has not improved, but worsened, it was heard several times today. They allocate 15 mio euros per year to this problem.

But they also highlighted some examples of good practices, such as afternoon activities for children in Roma communities.

No comments …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Another article on the mayor’s initiative for changing the laws on social benefits clearly directed against the Roma minority without mentioning them.

There must be better solutions.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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After a months-long campaign, 11 mayors and mayors of Dolenj, Belokrajna and Posavina municipalities in Slovenia submitted proposals for changes to social legislation to the National Assembly. Throughout the collection of signatures, the mayors announced that the purpose of the changes was to protect the benefits of children from socially difficult backgrounds and to encourage interest in the integration of the unemployed into the labour market.

They of course kept silent the fact that the proposals target Roma, because otherwise the proposals would be rejected as unconstitutional, because they are discriminatory. But it is obvious that problems such as children’s non-enrolment in school are primarily associated with the Roma. The mayor of Novo Mesto, Gregor Macedoni, who is at the head of the initiative, told STA that their initiative deals in a general way with the problem of children who, being born in a “certain social environment”, are marked by the fact that they have no future, and there is a high probability that, that they will not finish primary school. According to his estimate, there are 1.5 percent of such children in Slovenia.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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After several months of campaigning, 11 mayors and mayors of the municipalities of Dolenje, Belokraj and Posavina have finally submitted proposals for changes to social legislation to the National Assembly.  Under the slogan “For children from difficult social backgrounds”, voters’ signatures were collected in municipalities for amendments to four laws, the content of which is particularly discriminatory against Roma, even though Roma are never mentioned in the proposed legislation.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and the Roma “Problem”

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An article about the Roma “problem” in Slovenia. Alone the title says it all: “Burning Roma issue – Will Ljubljana ever understand what it’s like to be bullied by a rabid horde?” In Brief, residents complain about more and more thefts, mischief, violations of public order and crime, and citizens no longer feel safe and slowly have enough of everything. They just want to work and live in peace, they demand security.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, youth, and work

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On the occasion of International Youth Day, which was declared by the United Nations on August 12 in 1999, Združenje Epeka, a social enterprise from Maribor, on the island of Maribor prepared, as they called it, an event entitled Green knowledge for young people: on the way to sustainable world.

The event was attended by around thirty people, including Roma and refugee teenagers from Syria.

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