UN human rights commissioner criticizes Czech Republic for discrimination of Romanies

The UN commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, on Thursday criticized the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy for doing little to prevent continuing discrimination of their Romany minorities. Ms. Pillay said that while other European governments had taken action to improve the life of their Roma minorities, their living conditions in the three mentioned states actually appeared to have deteriorated. She said Romanies were exposed to open racism and negative stereotyping in all areas of life. The human rights commissioner said she wanted to talk to government officials about taking effective measures to combat the problem, starting in Italy next week.