Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czechia and Anti-Roma Racism

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Czechia and Anti-Roma Racism

The Czech parliament adopted the IHRA non-binding definition of antigyspyism. Now, a charter against Antigypsyism is being created in the Czech Republic. Those who can sign up include firms, local governments, nonprofit organizations, public authorities and schools. This proposal is pushed by the Czech Govt Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Fuková, but the Czech official Ombudsman Stanislav Křeček, not all negative behaviour toward Roman can be considered antigypsyism. As an example, he mentioned the case of the doctor in Aš who refused to register Romani patients. Well that one was definitely racist …

News Osteuropa Polen

Poland: Commemoration

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Poland: Commemoration

A commemoration for Roma murdered by the German gendarmerie in November 1942 in the town of Nur. The unveiled memorial brings back the memory of about fifty Roma – men, women and children, from the camp that was then in the forest near Kunin.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Real Estate, and Roma

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Slovakia, Real Estate, and Roma

The case of a town who ceded some land on the promise that some social housing would be built for Roma from the town. Well, the developer got the land, but social housing is nowhere to be seen. Sad.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia: Municipal Funding

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Slovenia: Municipal Funding

Currently, funds for the integration of Roma are allocated according to the size of the municipality, not aligned to the number of Roma who live there. This may be changing, if the current discussions come to an agreement.

News Osteuropa Polen

Concert in Poland

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Concert in Poland

The musical performance “Sing to me, because I want” directed by Weronika Kowalska and under the artistic supervision of director Małgorzata Bogajewska will present Roma songs in original arrangements. – The co-creator of the performance is Teresa Mirga, a fantastic Roma singer. Before we started preparing for the concert, we went to visit Teresa and asked if it was appropriate for non-Roma to sing Roma songs, and in new arrangements. “A song is for sharing. We create a community, let’s draw from it each other” – said Teresa, and we created the motto of the concert from her words – says Małgorzata Bogajewska.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Integration

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Slovakia and Integration

A few new articles about the 200 mio Euroos that Slovakia di spend in 2024 on Roma integration …

Not all positive.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Stereotypes

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Slovakia: Stereotypes

A re-edition of an article of a while back of a Vlach Romni from Slovakia who is teaching in a school. Unfortunately, all stereotypes are present: arranged early marriages, patriarchal society, etc…

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma Projects

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Slovakia and Roma Projects

The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities (ÚSVRK) has contracted approximately 480 projects worth almost 200 million euros over the past year, within which it provided over 95 million euros for the support of Roma and the development of infrastructure. This was stated by the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma Communities Alexander Daško at a press conference in Šumiac, Horehronie, on Thursday as part of the annual activity report of the office.

Frankly, the results are not yet visible…

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

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Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

The co-founder of the Roma Civic Association Lovári, Jaroslav Bihary (60) from Nitra, told us more about how these holidays take place in Roma families.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Beautification?

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Beautification?

From November 25 to December 3, 2024, a large-scale artistic visual work was realized in Humenné, Slovakia, on one of the apartment buildings in the Podskalka area.

“The mural is the result of more than six months of the Muse, Walls, Murals project and the authors of the design are renowned artists Viktor Feher and Samuel Velebný. The goal was to search for the history, roots, traditions and stories of the settlement through community-educational meetings with children from the Podskalka locality. This is how the idea for creating a mural that describes Podskalka arose,” explained the project representatives.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

On Slovak Racism and the EU

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On Slovak Racism and the EU

Traditional Slovak racism thinks that Roma are mostly backward, uneducated, refuse to adapt to our culture, at best they just rub their hands together, take what they can from the system but give nothing back, at worst they cheat and steal – like Slovaks in the European Union.

There are, of course, certain differences here. For centuries, we have purposefully pushed Roma to the margins of society, we have not allowed them to settle, own real estate, or perform most professions.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

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Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

The Slovene government is working on a package of measures that address key areas such as access to education, housing conditions and security. Among the proposals is the mandatory inclusion of Roma children in kindergarten a year before primary school and the abolition of the higher child allowance for children who are not included in preschool education.

In plain text: if children do not go to Kindergarten, there’s no more money.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Discrimination

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Slovakia: Discrimination

The Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNHRC) warns of discrimination against Roma in restaurant. It revealed this based on monitoring in ten cities in eastern Slovakia. In as many as six of them, discrimination was detected. A Roma couple tested the restaurants, and, if the result was discriminatory, another couple came to verify. The centre thus teste the services in 137 restaurants in total.

Montenegro News Osteuropa

Montenegro and Roma

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Montenegro and Roma

The representative of the Roma Council, Šejla Pepić, spoke at the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms about the current position of the Roma community in Montenegro. According to the Roma Council, there has been “no talk about Roma and their recognition as a national minority and later changes to the law concerning political participation.”

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

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Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

From 10 to 13 December 2024, the Roma and Travellers Division of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Agent of the Hungarian Government before the ECHR and the Hungarian police authorities, organised a training of trainers based on the toolkit for police officers, focusing on the Council of Europe standards on racially motivated crimes and non-discrimination.

Well… Discrimination in Hungary is rampant. And the government has done nothing in the last 20 years against it…

News Osteuropa North Macedonia

North Macedonia: Unequal Opportunities

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North Macedonia: Unequal Opportunities

“The poorest areas (ghettos) or suburban areas are poorly developed neighbourhoods with poorly built houses, without access to water, sewage, paved roads, electricity and other basic public services available in the modern world. All this contributes to creating an unequal starting point and life opportunities compared to other citizens living in a developed neighbourhood, settlement, district or city. “Due to poor housing conditions, a series of other social problems arise, such as social exclusion, insufficient inclusion of children in education, difficulties in accessing work, health, social rights and other public services,” says the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Roma Minority in Slovakia

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Roma Minority in Slovakia

Roma have been in Slovakia since the 14th century. The first written document about the Roma population in Slovakia is a document from 1322, in which the presence of Roma in Spiš is mentioned by the Spišské novoveske mayor Ján Kunch. Later, larger groups of Roma arrived in Slovakia. In 1423, Sigismund of Luxembourg issued a document at Spiš Castle that guaranteed the Roma certain guarantees of protection and self-governing judicial powers.

The difference in number of Roma in the 2021 census and the number of Roma residents in the latest Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019 is almost threefold. While the 2019 atlas indicates that at least 417,535 Roma people live in Slovakia, in the 2021 census, only 156,164 Roma people declared themselves Roma.

Lettland News Osteuropa

Latvia Roma Platform

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Latvia Roma Platform

Thanks to European funding, the Ministry of Culture will be able to continue implementing the project “Latvian Roma Platform VIII”. The Cabinet of Ministers approved the report on the project’s progress and the allocation of the necessary funds the day before, the ministry reported in a press release.

The funds are to be spent between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2027. The funds were allocated from the pan-European program “Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values” following a competition for projects designed to promote equality, inclusiveness and participation of the Roma minority in society. The total funding for the project is 221,657 euros, of which 199,491 euros (90%) are funds provided by the European Commission.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria, School, and Roma

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Bulgaria, School, and Roma

An outraged teacher sent an anonymous letter to Nova TV complaining that students are doing belly dances in the assembly hall of the “Vasil Levski” vocational high school in Ihtiman. The young people are drinking beer and dancing instead of being in class and studying. The teacher says he was shocked.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The final conference of the international ACE project, led by the Roma Association of Slovenia took place in Murska Sobota. The project, done in cooperation with partners from Italy and Spain, lasted two years and had a clear goal: to empower young and older Roma and political stakeholders for better cooperation and inclusion. According to the project team, the project has positioned Slovenia as an example of good practice, as it is the only one of the participating countries with an adopted law on Roma and a national program for Roma. “Slovenia is a bright spot of the project, because with legislation and experience we can contribute a lot to other countries,” emphasized Škerlak.

Well, judging by the Slovene press, this seems highly doubtful…

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