The Education Ministry has proposed introducing lessons in Romani language and culture in schools, to encourage Roma pupils and foster greater integration in society. The plan, reported this week by the newspaper Lidové noviny, is still in the early stages – the ministry is about to launch a pilot project in a number of schools.
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The European Parliament held a meeting yesterday in honour of the International Women's Day, dedicating the event to the fight against the violence against women. In the session organized by the Committee on Gender Equality, MEP Lívia Járóka (European People's Party / Fidesz) spoke against the coercive sterilization of Roma women.
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The conditions in which the Czech Republic’s Roma minority lives have not improved in the last decade, in fact many of the groups working with Roma issues say their situation in Czech society, and relationship with Czechs, is in a gradual downward spiral. Unemployment among the Roma is said to be at more than 80%, high debt is rampant, and this has fostered social exclusion and breeding grounds for crime and drug use.
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News of another arson attack on a Roma family has sent a shiver down the spines of most Czechs. It recalled the shocking attack almost a year ago which almost killed a two-year-old girl and left her marked for life.
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On Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court in Brno delivered the first-ever verdict outlawing a political party in the Czech Republic. It ruled in favour of the government’s proposal to ban the far-right Workers Party on the grounds that it spreads xenophobia and racial hatred.
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The Czech police plan to establish new riot units in two of the country’s regional centres, Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava. They should help combat the growing threat of extremism which has seen a sharp rise over the last two years. At the same time, police units across the country face serious understaffing due to budget cuts.
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