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Current AffairsCzechs demonstrate in support of Cuban political prisoners
Almost a year ago seventy-five Cuban journalists and human rights activists
were imprisoned by the Castro regime. As an act of solidarity, the Czech
People in Need Foundation launched a campaign on Monday in which a
symbolic cell was built on Prague's Wencelslas Square - the site of many
important events in Czech history, such as the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Under the Stop Repression in Cuba campaign, a volunteer represents each of
the 75 imprisoned. An array of dynamic personalities from politicians to
artists, some former prisoners under the communist regime in
Czechoslovakia will one after the other spend an hour in the cell.
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Current AffairsHuman rights commissioner criticises ERRC over report
The Budapest-based human rights watchdog, the European Romany Rights Centre
or ERRC, released a critical report on Monday, saying the Czech Republic
had done little to combat discrimination against the country's Roma
minority. Quoting the findings of a UN committee on eliminating
discrimination, the ERRC claimed that widespread discrimination remained a
problem in this country, particularly in the state administration. But the
ERRC's report has been sharply criticised by the Czech government's
Commissioner for Human Rights, Jan Jarab. He says it's simply a rehash of
previous documents, containing claims that the Czech government has never
tried to deny.
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Press ReviewPress Review
One subject may not be making front page headlines, but is perhaps the
dominant issue in Wednesday's dailies. That's the tropical heat the Czech
Republic is currently enjoying, or should that be suffering? While Czech
trains are going slower due to warping tracks, PRAVO reports that
temperatures on trams in the capital city Prague are approaching 60
degrees Celsius.
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Current AffairsPeople in Need Foundation runs humanitarian aid programmes in Afghanistan
The recent shooting incident at the Czech military field hospital in Basra,
Iraq, attracted media attention again to the Czech humanitarian mission in
that particular country. But Czech humanitarian workers are also helping to
restore civilian infrastructure in other areas of conflict around the
world - places which over the past months have been somewhat overshadowed
by the events in Iraq. Since November 2001, the People in Need Foundation
(Clovek v tisni) has been running a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan.
Pavla Horakova contacted the People in Need's office in the Afghan city of
Mazar-e Sharif over satellite phone and spoke to humanitarian worker
Pavel Vesely about the current activities of the Czech mission.
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Talking PointCzech humanitarian aid to Iraq
As the war in Iraq continues, there are growing concerns over the
humanitarian consequences. Public opinion about the war remains deeply
divided here in the Czech Republic, but there is consensus over the need
to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people once the conflict
ends. In a more or less symbolic gesture, the government has offered
humanitarian assistance in the form of tents and blankets to Turkey in the
event of a refugee crisis. The Czech Republic is not part of the US-led
coalition that is invading Iraq and the government has stressed that the
presence of Czech anti-chemical-weapon troops in Kuwait is itself part of
the humanitarian rather than the military operation - dealing with the
consequences of a possible chemical or biological weapons attack.
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Current Affairs"Bridge for Human Rights" launches petition to change law on foreigners
At the beginning of the year, the civic organisation Bridge for Human
Rights held a general meeting to discuss the situation of foreigners
living in the Czech Republic. It soon came to the conclusion that many
foreigners, especially from countries to the east of the Czech Republic,
often find themselves in a paradoxical situation as they are forced to
work illegally in order to meet the requirements to obtain long-term
residence permits. Dita Asiedu reports:
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Current AffairsHealth Ministry criticized for planning controversial database
For years now many Czech doctors have been collecting sensitive information
about their patients. They say that detailed questionnaires on ethnicity,
sexual orientation and lifestyle help them provide better care. Now the
Health Ministry wants to take this practice further by setting up a
central register of patients which would include such sensitive
information in conjunction with an identification number, with the help of
which any person can easily be traced.
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Current AffairsPeople in Need divides 100 million among flood victims
The People in Need Foundation, a prominent and highly experienced humanitarian aid organization, which has long provided aid to the needy in countries such as Chechnya and Afghanistan, now has its hands full helping hundreds of thousands of flood victims in the Czech Republic. In the wake of the floods its coordinators visited close to a hundred afflicted villages, organized close to 900 volunteers and dispatched tons of humanitarian aid to different parts of the Czech Republic. People in Need has now collected over 130 million crowns in public donations - and according to Simon Panek a decision has already been made on how the bulk of the money will be used.
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Current Affairs People in Need diverts aid to Afghan earthquake zone
Monday's earthquake in the Baghlan region of Northern Afghanistan devastated mountain villages in a region already hard-hit by hunger, drought and war. Humanitarian aid organisations working in Afghanistan immediately began diverting resources to helping the earthquake victims, and among those organisations was Czech Television's People in Need foundation, which has been working in the country since October. Earlier my colleague Rob Cameron spoke to the director of People in Need, Tomas Pojar.
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One on OneIgor Blazevic - human rights campaigner
This week, Rob Cameron speaks to Igor Blazevic, a Bosnian human rights campaigner who works for the People in Need foundation. The foundation operates extensively throughout the world's trouble spots and disaster zones, attempting to bring relief to the victims and raise awareness of their plight back home. As well as his humanitarian work with People in Need, Igor is also the founder and co-ordinator of the foundation's One World film festival - a festival devoted to documenting human rights abuses wherever they happen, from Afghanistan to Columbia. Join Rob in conversation with Igor Blazevic for this week's One on One.
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