Tag Archives: Racism

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany: Condemned

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The district court of Neumünster sentenced the operator of a fitness studio to a one thousand Euros fine and thus agreed with Kelly Laubinger, a Sintica from Neumünster. She had suspected that she was denied membership of the fitness studio because of her last name – Laubinger which is a name that many Sinti bear. She hopes that her recent court victory will encourage others to take action against inequality.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic and Forced Sterilisations

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The scandalous reluctance of the Ministry of Health to compensate victims of forced sterilizations is reflected in the still deeply rooted racism in Czech society.

The Association of Women Victims of Illegal Sterilization has been fighting for compensation for affected women for several decades. Romnja were sterilized because they are Romani. Compensation for this is hampered by some officials for the same reason.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic: Discrimination in Education

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Marek Tatar (28), a Czech Rom, is currently studying transcultural communication in his third year at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové and works as a programmer in IT. Hi path to higher education was not smooth. He faced bullying in elementary school, overheard a conversation between two of his teachers in the school corridor about the fact that they didn’t want a gypsy at school, which prompted him to stop his studies. Fortunately, he was convinced by his family to do at least the minimum, which allowed him later to start studies.

It shows how discrimination and racism early on can disadvantage children from minorities for their entire lives. Fortunately, there are also example like him.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Ljubljana’s Mayor and Racism

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Zoran Janković, the current mayor of Ljubljana, Slovenia, is trying to be re-elected for the fifth time in a row and also to get a majority in the city council to govern. He is however involved in a controversy about the burial of Roma from Ižan, victims of the Nazis and of the Partisans in Ljubljana’s cemetery. He is opposing the burial and has now been officially accused of racism by the Assembly for the Republic who published a harsh statement: By not burying the Roma from Ižan, he showed a level of racism hitherto unknown in Ljubljana, that he despises the sanctity of life by abusing cemeteries, that he incited intolerance and hatred with his political appearances.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia and Discrimination

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Discrimination of the Roma community is still present in Slovenia according to  Jerica Lorenci, the researcher of the Epeka association who presented the report of the project Promoting Roma Equality in Slovenia and Slovakia. She also drew attention to the lack of statistical data related to the Roma community.

Since there are no reports of discrimination, their level is higher than that perceived by the Defender of the Principle of Equality, she stated. Every one of the 50 people who were interviewed as part of the research had experienced discrimination, Lorencijeva told STA on the side-lines of the presentation, which took place in the premises of the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Discrimination

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A week ago, the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma communities published the results of the most comprehensive research on the life of Roma in recent years.

According to the study, the direct experience of Roma with discrimination is decreasing. Twenty-one percent of Roma said they had experienced some form of discrimination because of their skin colour or ethnicity in the past year. In a similar survey from 2016, it was 30 percent of Roma.

Reality is somewhat different:

As a Roma, social worker Tomáš Ščuka encountered discrimination all his life, most often in restaurants and bars, but also at the doctor’s office or in offices. “Now that I’m older, it’s less, but you can still see the signs. For example, in a restaurant they make me wait longer, or they serve me later than the person who came after me. That is such latent discrimination,” he says.

Discrimination against Roma is apparently gradually changing its form and becoming more hidden somewhere, but it still hasn’t disappeared. Ščuka compares it to the Kotlebo people in the parliament, who gave up open racism years ago, but still send racist signals to their voters when they talk, for example, about maladaptive fellow citizens.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Extremism

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A new study in Germany, the Leipziger Sudie zürich Extremismus shows improvement since the last one tow years ago. However, racism isn’t sill a problem, against Jews, Moslems, and of course Roma. In Eastern Germany, more than 50% of respondent would have a problem if Roma would move into their neighbourhood, while in the Western part of the country, it is still around 30%.

Bad.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Extremism

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The most frequent victims of extremist attacks in the physical world in the period of 2020 and 2021 were Roma, while the most frequent targets of extremist attacks in the virtual space were Jews.

This is stated in the Monitoring Report on the State of Extremism in the Slovak Republic for the period of 2020 and 2021 and the update of the tasks of the Concept of Combating Radicalisation and Extremism until 2024, which was approved by the government today.

News Westeuropa Spanien

Spain: Discrimination Report

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Spain: Discrimination Report

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) presented its 18th Annual Report “Discrimination and the Roma Community” today in Seville. The focus of the report is the Discriminatory bias in the use of artificial intelligence and its impact on the Roma community.

The report presents 554 cases of discrimination and antigypsyism reported and assisted by the FSG in 2021, in its capacity as coordinator of the Service of Assistance and Guidance to Victims of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination and the Calí programme for the Equality of Roma Women. In addition, the report includes the most recent advances, good practices, jurisprudence and strategic litigation in the field of discrimination led by the FSG.

Tschechische Republik Europe News Osteuropa

Gabriela Hrabaňová: Interview

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An interview of Gabriela Hrabaňová, head of the European network of Roma organizations known by the acronym Ergo Network, which promotes issues related to the social inclusion of Roma, poverty reduction and the fight against antigypsyism in European institutions. The organization works closely not only with the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the World Bank and the UN, but also with members of the European Parliament. For a long time, he has been trying to help the Roma not only in the European Union, but also in Ukraine.

She says that “Anti-Gypsyism is not a problem of the Roma, but of the majority society,” and she is right.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Racism in Germany?

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In early summer 2021, Kelly Laubinger wanted to join a gym in her hometown of Neumünster, but she didn’t get a place. Because she is Sintica, she believes – and is now suing the studio for violating the Equal Treatment Act. It was only because of Corona, claims the operator of the fitness studio. But in court he got caught up in contradictions. Case is still open.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Racism

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Slovakia and Racism

The director of the Slovak National Theatre (SND), Matej Drlička had to resign following sarcastic remarks he made about “national artists” who worked in the past or still work in SND ensembles, “that I guess they are the most important people in Slovakia”. He also added comments addressed to politicians who are he said, are fulfilling their constitutional duties, noting “that unfortunately they are still breathing”.

He was referring to Roma.

The Minister of Culture Natália Milanová accepted his resignation and stated that the remarks were beyond the bounds of decent behaviour. The former Culture Minister, Marek Maďarič, on the other hand stated that “Matej Drlička is such a high-quality manager that I would fight for him even against the will of the committee if I were the minister, even more so because he apologized promptly and, in my opinion, sufficiently for his statement.”

No comments.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma

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The Slovak summary of the EU studies on Roma. The Slovak Paper also gives a better understanding of how the survey was done.

The report “Roma in 10 European countries”, which also deals with the situation of Roma in Slovakia, points to little progress since the last survey in 2016. Although there has been some improvement, the general finding is that Roma families still live in shocking conditions and their prospects for education and employment are poor. Data for Slovakia showed that 14 percent of Roma experienced harassment motivated by hatred on ethnic grounds, which is a significant – 23 percent decrease – compared to 2016.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 8,500 Roma respondents with information on more than 20,000 household members in the Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Spain and Italy, while FRA also supported the collection of national data on Roma in Bulgaria and Slovakia.

Europe

Europe and Roma

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In recent years, the EU has repeatedly measured the situation of Roma in the member states, for example in 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2019. With results that are always similar or the same, which the current report confirms: The living conditions of Europe’s largest – and most discriminated – minority improved in very small steps and sometimes not at all.

In its most recent report, published on Tuesday, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) found that 80 percent of members of the minority in Europe still live in poverty – by no means only in the Balkan countries, where they make up almost a tenth of the population place.

As usual how to measure the 80% remains shrouded in mystery, as the overall number of Roma is not accurately known.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Racism against Roma

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Ten years ago, the memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism was inaugurated in Berlin, but little is known about this Nazi genocide. Young descendants of the victims want to change that.

It’s a cool autumn morning. It rained during the night. Stefan Pavlovic and his colleague David Nikolic are part of the “Me Sem Me” project, which was launched by the “Rroma Information Centre” in Berlin. In the project, young descendants whose families were affected by Nazi persecution report on the genocide of the Roma and Sinti. David says he feels a kind of obligation to his ancestors to bring the story closer to others. “Me Sem Me” is Romani and translated into German means: “I am I”. The association wants to make it clear that they want to be accepted as Roma.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Racism

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The Federal Government’s Antiziganism Commissioner has denounced far-reaching discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Germany. “We have a racist profiling in the areas of police and justice, education, the housing market and social administration,” said Commissioner Mehmet Daimaguler of the German Press Agency. The genocide of the National Socialists against the Sinti and Roma has not been dealt with either. That is why he is planning a truth and reconciliation commission for the coming year.

Albanien Europe News Osteuropa

Roma Tales and Legends

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Combating anti-Gypsyism and discrimination in its various forms and supporting access to quality inclusive education are two of the priority areas of the Council of Europe’s Strategic Action Plan for Roma and Traveller Inclusion (2020-2025).

Knowledge of the history and culture of the Roma and Travelers is still marginal or even non-existent among the general public and this misreading strongly contributes to the discrimination to which these populations are confronted.

There is an urgent need to highlight the contribution of Roma and Travelers to European societies through culture, arts and history. Educational policies on minorities are urgent.

Sead Kazanxhiu’s illustrated book, Roma Tales and Legends (published in trilingual: Albanian, English, Romani and separately in French) is an important contribution to the recognition and understanding of Roma culture, for Roma and non-Roma children and for the general population.

News Osteuropa Rumänien

Romania and Racism

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The movie “N.M.R. » : welcome to Transylvania from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu stages a village in the depths of Romania to evoke community tensions and racism. A Romanian returns to his village in Transylvania, with Romanians, Hungarians, and Roma. Hungarians and Romanians are united to to chase Roma from the village. And almost all are determined do the same to three Sri Lankan workers, “low cost” employees who have just been hired in the factory.

To be seen!

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany and Racism

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According to Romani Rose, the head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the corona pandemic have led to more antigypsyism. In the economic and energy crisis, the old tradition of “excluding scapegoats from society is being strengthened,” Rose told the Evangelical Press Service (epd). In this way, right-wing extremists offer society a culprit. Growing antigypsyism and antisemitism had reached a threatening level.

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