Category Archives: Czech Republic

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Teachers and Diversity

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At the end of a five day visit to the Czech Republic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic did not mince her words and stated that the country needed to do more to stop discrimination against Roma. She also added that schooling is all too often still segregated and that the prejudices of the teachers and staff against Roma need to be addressed.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic: Visit

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The President elect of the Czech Republic visited a Roma housing estate and stated that social exclusion needs to be addressed.

This is new in the Czech Republic and a breath of fresh air.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic and Roma Refugees

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The umbrella organization RomanoNet protested against the statement of the government commissioner for human rights, Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková, who stated that the Czech Republic managed the influx of refugees from Ukraine last year. According to 15 Roma and pro-Roma organizations that RomanoNet brings together, the Czech Republic has failed to help Roma refugees from Ukraine.

“From the point of view of Roma civil society, the state as a whole has failed in providing assistance to people with a different skin colour. Many of them have been forced to return to a country where the war conflict is still ongoing, or to go to the West, where the colour of the skin is not a decisive factor in the provision of aid. In view of the above, it cannot be claimed that the situation has been managed or solved,” says the statement of the RomanoNet organization, which was provided to the news server Romea.cz by its director Michal Miko.

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A Portrait

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A portrait of Alžbeta Ferencová, a Slovak Romni whose great grandmother was Elena Lacková, the first author in Romanes in Slovakia. Alžbeta is a model, actress and singer, but moved from Slovakia to the Czech Republic, as she found that with her dark looks, she couldn’t get jobs in Slovakia. She says Prague is more tolerant.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic and Forced Sterilisations

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The Czech Prime Minister has condemned the current process of compensation of the victims of forced sterilisations. Several of them were turned down, even though the official reason for the sterilisation was that they were Roma.

Good – but it took time …

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Roma in the Czech Republic

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An article about Roma in the Czech Republic. It states that the most numerous Roma in the Czech Republic are Slovak Roma, who make up about 75 to 80% of the total number of Roma in the country. In addition, the original Czech Roma live in the Czech Republic, as well as German Sinti and Olaš Roma. All this according to Markéta Hajská from the Department of Central European Studies.

Well, less than 60 families of Czech Roma survived the war. This is the reason why after World War Two, the Communist regime resettled Roma to the Czech part of the country. The Olaš – these are Vlach Roma, have been there since the beginning oof the 20th century. Should be enough to make then Czech.

In brief, the usual for that country. Unfortunately.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

ERRC Reports

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Two reports by the European Roma Right Centre highlight the discrimination of Roma in the justice systems of both the Czech and Slovak Republics.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic: Beating

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A video of a young girls severely beating another one in total indifference of most other people around has gone viral in the Czech Republic. The Romano Journalist Patrick Banga reacts.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Roma in the Czech Republic

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A discussion with the Romano journalist Patrick Banga about Roma in the Czech Republic. Officially, according the Census, there are only 20’000 Roma even though the government acknowledges that there are at least 250’000.

The article makes a few incorrect statements: Roma appeared in the Czech lands, in Bohemia and Moravia as early as the 13th century. They are thus there since 800 years. Unfortunately, during World War Two, most of the Czech Roma were deported and only a handful survived the Holocaust. Roma from Slovakia were resettled in what is now the Czech Republic by the communist regime after the war, which created a problem when Czechoslovakia split, as the Czech did not want to grant citizenship to those Roma.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Lety Memorial

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More on the upcoming memorial on the site of the former concentration camp for Roma in Lety, in the Czech Republic.

In just one year, the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia should stand in Lety u Písek. The company Protom, which won the tender, undertook to complete the monument in 345 days.

Minister of Culture for the ODS Martin Baxastated:

“It was an event that was forgotten for decades, now the construction of the memorial here in Lety has been inaugurated. It will create a place that will be a permanent reminder of what happens when we slacken in our efforts to defend the values of freedom and democracy.”

The construction of the monument will cost less than one hundred million crowns. The winner of the indoor and outdoor exhibition competition should be announced this month. The Museum of Roma Culture would like to open the monument in 2024. The German government has also promised the museum funding for the outdoor exhibition. Norwegian funds will also contribute 26.5 million crowns to the memorial.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic: Demonstration

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In the Stodolní Street in the center of Ostrava in the eastern part of the country, about a hundred Roma demonstrated in the early evening on Wednesday. They protested against the fact that security guards of some bars in this area allegedly physically attack Roma visitors for no reason, and the police allegedly do nothing about this violence. The crowd reached the nearby police station.

The event was called by Roma activist David Mezei. “There were two such cases in January alone, when the security guard beat up a young visitor for no reason just because he is Rom. It doesn’t work like that anymore. The police only save money, but they never investigate anything,” Mezei was angry, with other participants of the demonstration shouting in agreement.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Lety Memorial

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The memorial to the Roma Holocaust on the grounds of the former pig farm in Lety will be completed within a year and will cost 199 million CZK (4.2 million EUR). In February, the winner of the competition for the indoor and outdoor exhibition of the monument will be announced.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic: Roma Integration

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Last week, the Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs, Lucie Fuková, met with the Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and the Minister for Regional Development, Ivan Bartoš. They discussed the functioning of the Agency for Social Inclusion and the solution to the social exclusion of Roma not only in economically disadvantaged regions.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Schools and Roma

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Material from a secondary school in the Czech Republic labels Roma a “natural biological risk”.

This qualification would be more fitting to the person(s) who devised this material…

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Social Work

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An interview with Iveta Millerová, born in a Roma settlement, who went on to pass her high school diploma at age 36 and then studied pedagogy at the University of Ušti nad Labem and now works as a direct care educator at the Children’s Home with a school in Dobřichovice and is also studying for a postgraduate degree.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Zdeněk Godla

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An article about the Czech Roma actor Zdeněk Godla, currently the best know Roma actor in the Czech Republic. He was lucky, as he started his life on the street at the age of 13, got in jail, and he got into acting by accident when he was doing community service in Chomutov and was chosen by the director Petr Václav for the film. Until the last moment, he agonized over whether it was some kind of fraud. He was at the bottom, without money, and acting helped him a lot.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Elections

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79% of the Roma in a small closed village voted for Babiš in the first round of the presidential elections in the Czech Republic. Marco Cavali from Prague, the chairman of the Roma Luma (Roma World) party, which he founded in 2021, called on the Roma to vote for Andrej Babiš. “And the Roma also voted for Babiš in the first round. Only this candidate is a sure guarantee of a safe life in the Czech Republic for the Roma,” Cavali tells CNN Prima NEWS.

This is bad. Babiš is a populist, supported by the far-right Okamura’s party. This will not turn out good for the Roma.

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