Category Archives: Czech Republic

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

On a Segregated School

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The local school in Předlice in Ústí has been purely Romani for two decades. What is scary is what the headmaster says. He says the greatest achievement are when one on the school pupils graduate from high school. He adds this year there is one, next year there will be another one.

Is that an achievement or the sign of an under-performing school?

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

International Roma Day

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This year, the Ara Art association is organizing the tenth jubilee celebration of the International Roma Day in Prague, which has grown from a one-day evening at the Meet Factory into a week-long festival full of music, art and discussions about the future of Roma culture.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Brno: Suspended Sentences

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The two companions of the 23-year-old Rom who died last June after a fight with a 38-year-old Ukrainian near the Brno Dam were given suspended sentences for “disorderly conduct”. The court described the Ukrainian’s actions as necessary self-defence and acquitted him.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czechia: Competition

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The Romano suno / Roma Dream competition, which has been organized by the Nová škola organization since 1996, makes it possible to compete in the knowledge of Romanes in written and spoken speech. For this year, the judges have chosen topics to think about – they are interested, for example, in what children and adults think about what happens after death or about the cohabitation of same-sex couples. The topics were announced on February 1, and contestants can send their works to the New School until the end of June.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Brno Protests

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On the one hand, indignation over Friday’s verdict of the Brno Regional Court, which acquitted Ukrainians in the case of the death of a young Roma at the Brno Reservoir, on the other hand, disappointment over the low turnout. This is what the demonstration looked like, where about five dozen Roma gathered in front of the Brno courthouse on Sunday afternoon.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Segregation

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The segregation of Roma children in the Czech education continues. It is hard to imagine another area that would be so neglected and so long-term overlooked in Czech politics as this one.

Already in 2007, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Czech Republic due to unequal access to the education of Romani men and women. But not much has changed over the next fifteen years. Segregated education continues to be a harsh reality for children from the Roma minority.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

A Czech View on Slovakia’s Elections

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Spiš, a once rich German region between Poprad and Prešov, is increasingly the fiefdom of the Roma. They push the Slovaks out of the town halls and rule themselves here. Former prime minister Igor Matovič’s Slovakia party has the most Roma MPs in the parliament. Roma want to continue this trend in the presidential elections.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Liberec Memorial

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Another article about the newly erected monument for the Roma victims of the Genocide in Liberec, Czechia. The monument especially commemorates the children who were killed during the war.

The entire Roma population of the region was wiped out during the war.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Brno: Protests

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Several dozen Roma gathered in front of the Brno Regional Court to protest against Friday’s acquittal verdict in the case of the death of a young Roma near the Brno Dam. Protesters do not agree with the court’s statement that the Ukrainian stabbed and killed the young man in self-defence. If it were the other way around, no one would recognize it as a necessary defence, said one of the speakers from the Roma community.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czechia: Concerts

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Singer and choirmaster Ida Kelarová, in cooperation with the Czech Philharmonic, will organize two extraordinary concerts for International Roma Day, this time under the name “Paĺikerav”, which means thank you in Romanes. Together with Ida Kelarová, the children’s choir Čhavorenge, Desiderius Dužda, the Jazz Trio, the Chamber Orchestra of the Czech and Czech Student Philharmonic Orchestra, the cymbalom band Pekovci and other guests will perform.

The first concert takes place in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum on Saturday, April 6 from 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live by Czech Radio on the Vltava station, and the second concert at the same time on Sunday, April 7. The recording on International Roma Day will be broadcast by Czech Television on the CT art program.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Brno: The Aftermath

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A crisis meeting of the Roma Council of the City of Brno took place in Brno. It was a response to the acquittal verdict of the Regional Court in the case of the death of a young Rom. The verdict caused a wave of disappointment among the members of the council and confirmed, according to them, the concerns of the Roma community about distrust in the justice system, especially when the victims are Roma. Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková and Deputy Mayor Robert Kerndl also took part in the meeting.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Brno: Verdict

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The court pardoned a Ukrainian who was originally charged with the murder of a young Rom in Brno last summer. According to the final verdict, it was a necessary self-defence. The verdict caused was met with disbelief and sadness by  the Roma minority.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Jan Bendig

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Jan Honza Bendig, currently without a doubt the most successful Roma singer in the Czech Republic, was attacked a while ago while attending a gala event. It later turned out that he himself had staged the attack. He now still insists on his position – that he did not arrange it and was a victim, despite the overwhelming evidence gathered by the Czech Police.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Liberec – Czechia

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A new monument in Liberec, Czech Republic, remembers the victims of the genocide. The names of 11 murdered children are written on the monument.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Lety and Denial

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The author of a Facebook post criticizes that the state bought and demolished a pig farm in Lety, where a Roma concentration camp stood during the Second World War. The author considers this a waste of money and as evidence he attaches a photo of a newspaper article from 2018 with the headline “Archaeologists did not find Roma graves”.

Archaeologists actually found the graves of Roma in Lety, in 2019.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Roma Vakeren

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Roma program about the forgotten story of Antonia Single, an extraordinary Roma flamenco dancer,

Photographer Antoine Le Roux on nomads and on the RomanoNet organization has been coordinating the cooperation of non-profit organizations engaged in work with the Roma minority.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czechia and School Segregation

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Two articles dwelling on what happened in the 16 years since the Czech Republic was condemned for school segregation and discrimination against Roma. There are still segregated school, and according to the Deputy Minister of Education Jiří Nantl (ODS), Czech society is thereby producing clients of the welfare state.

These schools should be closed, and desegregations should be enforced.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Ukraine

Uzhhorod Roma School

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The Czechoslovak president Masaryk contributed to the establishment of a should for Roma in what is now Transcarpathian Ukraine and before was the Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia. The school was opened as an experiment to try to integrate Roma in the regular school system and Roma contributed to its creation. It was also a de-facto segregated school…

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic and Roma Education

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In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights, in a ground-breaking decision, condemned the Czech Republic for discriminating against Roma pupils in their access to education.

However, the Czech Republic continues to discriminate against Roma children in education in spite of this condemnation. Recent statistics show that 15% of Roma children are educated outside of the regular school system (i.e. special schools) whereas for the majority population, this is the case only for 3% of the children.

So there are still special schools in addition to at least 130 segregated ones.

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