News

British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie received the Václav Havel Library Foundation's first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award in New York on Tuesday evening, writes The Associated Press agency. The writer's prize and presence at the ceremony were kept secret until only a few minutes before he accepted the award due to security concerns.

Rushdie has faced more than three decades of death threats and assassination attempts following a 1989 fatwa calling for his death issued by the former supreme leader of Iran, Rouhollah Khomeini, over his book The Satanic Verses, and was the victim of a knife attack by 24-year-old Hadi Matar at a literary festival in New York last August because of his perceived insults to Islam. He spent six weeks in hospital after the attack, having suffered stab wounds to his neck and torso, and is now blind in his right eye. Since then he has been keeping a low profile.

The Václav Havel Library Foundation was founded in 2012 with the mission to advance the legacy of Havel, Czech playwright, dissident and first president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, who had died a year earlier and was known for championing human rights and freedom of expression. The foundation annually awards the prize to a writer who has "faced unjust persecution for their beliefs" and shares Havel's determination to stand up for human rights.

The Ministry of Health has so far received more than 1,500 compensation claims from women, mostly from the Roma community, who underwent forced sterilisation between 1966 and 2012, the Czech News Agency reports. Just over half of the claims have been processed, with over 500 having been approved.

Victims have been able to apply for compensation in the amount of CZK 300,000 from the state under the law since last year. Compensation claims have to be made before the end of next year.

The new memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in the Czech Lands, which is on the site of a former concentration camp for Roma during the Second World War in Lety, South Bohemia, will open on February 3, 2024, the Czech News Agency reports. Trees were planted on the site on Monday, with the newly planted forest, which will contain almost 14,000 trees, intended to symbolise the lost Roma communities.

The majority of the seedlings for the forest were donated by the Orlík Castle estate of the recently deceased Karel Schwarzenberg, who supported the construction of the memorial, and his son Jan. The crowd held a minute's silence for Schwarzenberg.

The site where hundreds of Czech Roma perished during World War II became the centre of international controversy over the past decades due to the pig farm that was built on the site after the war. The farm was eventually demolished last year.

Czech social services have a shortage of almost 3,000 workers, three times more than in 2020, the Czech News Agency reported on Tuesday. The biggest shortage is found among direct caregivers, followed by health and social workers, technical and administrative staff, and educators. The Czech Association of Social Service Providers published these figures in a press release after conducting a survey of social service facilities in Czechia.