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Current AffairsPolice intervene in attack of far-right extremists and locals against Romany housing unit in Varnsdorf
An anti-Romany march organized by a far-right party escalated when radicals
were joined by locals in an attempted attack on a Romany housing unit in a
small town in North Bohemia on Saturday. The event was only the latest in a
series of racially-motivated incidents that have occurred in the region in
recent weeks, where racial tensions between the Czech and Romany
communities have been acerbated by high unemployment and a rise in crime. More
Current AffairsPoverty, insecurity and discrimination hindering Roma school kids in the education process
A sociological study, released by Gabal Analysis and Consulting, shows that
a staggering 40 percent of Romany children drop out of elementary school
and never go back, a figure that is eight times higher than the national
average. The study, based on data collected from 14 elementary schools over
the past five years, highlights one of the basic problems underlying an
endless vicious circle of discrimination of the country’s Romany
minority. Kumar Vishwanatan, a community worker who works with the Roma in
one of the country’s poorest districts, says there are many factors
contributing to this trend. More
Current AffairsPolice investigate latest attack against Romanies
At the weekend, two Molotov cocktails (containing a liquid that is yet to
be identified by the police) were thrown into the doorway of a block of
flats inhabited by Romany families in the north Moravian town of Opava. The
incident, which is being investigated as a threat to public safety, comes
just a few weeks after a similar attack on a Romany family in Ostrava.
Sarah Borufka reports.
More
Current AffairsCourt confirms – and increases - historic first compensation for sterilization victims
On Thursday, the High Court in Prague awarded compensation to two women,
one of them a Romany sterilized without her knowledge in 2003, the other a
non-Romany whose fallopian tubes were removed without her consent in 2006.
The ruling confirmed a previous verdict – the first of its kind – and
raised the amount originally awarded. Gwendolyn Albert, a human rights
activist and expert on the issue, discusses the verdict.
More
Current AffairsPM expresses regret over Roma sterilization but activists say practice continues
Human rights campaigners won an important moral victory on Monday when the
government of Jan Fischer expressed regret over the forced sterilization of
women, almost all of them members of the country’s Roma minority. No
reliable figures exist for the numbers of women sterilized, but what’s
alarming is that according to human rights groups, the practice continues
in isolated cases to this day.
More
Current AffairsCzech-Romany relations hit low point, says government report
A week after Ottawa brought back visas for Czech citizens over the large
numbers of Czech Romanies seeking asylum in Canada, the Czech government
put out a report on the state of Romany communities in the Czech Republic
for 2008. The report is bleak: Czech-Romany relations are bad, it says,
and
will be difficult to fix. More
PanoramaArt show draws attention to high percentage of Czech children placed in institutional care
In the Czech Republic an incredibly high number of children – over 20,000
– are living in institutional care. Very often they are from poor
families, with an extremely high percentage coming from the country’s
Roma minority. This serious and disturbing social issue is the focus of a
new art exhibition in Prague. More
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