The office of the governmental Council for Romany Community Affairs has organized a meeting of the regional coordinators, Roma consultants, the Council members, the representatives of state administration and non-governmental organizations from October 15 to October 17. The meeting took place in the Tatra Hotel in Velké Karlovice, with the main objective to facilitate a conference of people who can meet in such a composition only very rarely.

In this sense, this event was undoubtedly very significant and beneficial for its participants. One of the most important items of the programme was the discussion of the cooperation possibilities of the Council members and the regional coordinators. At present, this topic is one of the most important particularly with view on how the situation of the Romany communities is developing under the conditions of the local administration and its activity in implementing the concept of integrating Romany communities into the society. The situation in some municipalities, towns, and cities is more than serious. For example the action of the Municipal Council in Slaný against the tenants of the municipal lodging house in Ouvalova Street, then the situation in Kladno, Libčice nad Vltavou and many more.
The common denominator of the problems in these towns is the policy of the local administration in terms of the Romany communities. The area of housing is literally becoming a matter of existence for the Romany and their ability to defend themselves against the premeditated approach of the local representatives is zero to none. Without the help of Romany activists, the members of the Council, consultants, and coordinators the Roma families are at the mercy of councillors and local boards. The example from Slaný is extraordinary in the sense that premeditated and targeted actions are taken against the Romany.
The zero tolerance programme is a peer to what once the Act on Czech Citizenship used to represent. Although the Act itself stated nothing explicitly aimed against the Romany, it was tailor-made to the Roma people so well that they did not have a chance to fight against its consequences. Only the growing pressure from abroad urged the Czech Government to modify the law on citizenship and to delete those parts strongly discriminating the Romany human and civil rights.
Currently, the human and civil rights of the Romany are encroached similarly by towns and cities, which as the owners and lessors change the conditions of the lease of the municipal flats and the Roma families end up on the street or their concentration in delimited enclaves is planned. In the following phase of its actions taken against dodgers (understand Romany), the Town of Slaný plans to implement a project of an N-centre that should be built in the nearby municipality of Řisuty. These are moments when the Council members and the regional coordinators must enter into the events and exercise all their capacity and possibilities to stick up for the threatened and defend the Roma families in distress.
The meeting in Velké Karlovice presented an opportunity to discuss dangerous situations on the local level, yet a single gathering is not sufficient to take up the many essential and complex issues that need to be solved. In addition, the programme of the meeting was so comprehensive and comprised so many topics that it was very difficult to maintain one's concentration and the ability to follow the content of all discussed topics. Apart from information on the activity of the Council, invited guests presented their accounts on topics concerning the law on the rights of nation minorities, on the possibility of accepting Romany among the Police, on the issue of certificates to persons hiding from the consequences of the Roma Holocaust, on subsidies for the construction of social dwellings, on the issue of usury in the Romany communities and also on the issue of asylum seekers in the CR. The heterogeneity of the individual topics affected the options of their discussion. Discussions could not develop to the desired range in order to conceive the necessary conclusion.
The fact that almost 80 people from various parts of the country and spheres of work could meet was quite beneficial, however as to the content of the discussion programme, a clear topical focus should be considered in the future, dedicated to an up-to-date topic. It is a pity that not even so present-day a topic as the escalating social exclusion demonstrating itself markedly in such examples as in Slaný, Kladno, etc., actually did not come on the agenda in Velké Karlovice at all. This topic also did not appear in the presentations of the workers of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights, speaking too broadly and generally on the possibility of cooperation.