Daily Archives: avril 8, 2025

Czechia: Education, Art, and Roma

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Czechia: Education, Art, and Roma

What is the power of words, culture and art in creating a feeling that one belongs somewhere and can be proud of oneself? This is a question that concerns not only minorities in Czech schools. The way to do this can be social support from the environment and art. For Roma students, it is offered, for example, by the Ara Art organization, which is dedicated to activist culture, or the Kher publishing house, which publishes children’s books on Roma themes. How to ensure that children’s talent and potential do not go to waste?

Roma children make up roughly three percent of all students in Czech schools. However, they are not enrolled evenly. According to PAQ Research data, in 2023 there were approximately 130 segregated schools where Roma made up at least a third of the students.

Czechia and the International Roma Day

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Czechia and the International Roma Day

An article about April 8th, stressing its origins to the historic congress in Orpington, near London, UK, which took place from April 7 to 12, 1971, laying the foundations for international Roma cooperation and bringing symbols of Roma identity.

Slovakia: Illegal Buildings

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Slovakia: Illegal Buildings

The mayor of the village of Torysa near Sabinove has ordered the residents of the Roma settlement to remove illegal buildings. They are using the land on which their homes stand without any legal title.

According to the mayor of the village, Jozef Stedina, the residents of the settlement have not yet responded to repeated calls to legalize their homes and have not even paid a fine. For this reason, he sent them calls to definitively remove the illegal buildings within nine months.

This is a usual trend to remove settlements. The issue is that at the fall of communism, Roma were not given the land on which they lived. Thus, all buildings are illegal. The same argument was done in Bulgaria to remove Roma.

International Roma Day

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International Roma Day

Several articles in the Slovak press about the International Roma Day on April 8th. They stress that 35 years have passed since the decision was made that April 8 would be International Roma Day. Ite was adopted in 1990 by delegates near Warsaw at the fourth World Roma Congress (Romano kongreso lumiakro), organized by the International Romani Union (IRU). The choice of the date of April 8 is connected with the commemoration of the first global meeting of the Roma, which took place from April 8 to 12, 1971 in Orpington near London.

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