Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs has new civil society members: Renata Adamová, Martin Kanaloš and Nikola Taragoš
The Government of the Czech Republic appointed six civil society members to the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs during its cabinet session on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 at the recommendation of Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Lucie Fuková. Three are new members: Renata Adamová, Martin Kanaloš and Nikola Taragoš.
The other three, Gwendolyn Albert, Alena Drbohlavová Gronzíková and Martin Kaleja, have been reappointed to the Council. The advisory body now has 36 members, 18 of whom are civil society members, 17 of whom are Romani.
The Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs is an advisory body to the Government focusing on support for the integration of the Romani minority and on the preparation of standpoints for the Government’s decisions on issues affecting Romani people. The Office of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs (RVZRM) announced a call to submit applications and nominations for new candidates for members in this important advisory body to the Government in August 2024.
According to Fuková, a total of 11 applications and nominations were submitted. Of those, she recommended six members to the Government.
Commissioner Fuková said the new composition of the Council will introduce greater diversity and expert focus on crucial subjects such as community work and education. “I congratulate all new members of the Council who will bring new energy and a new perspective. I am glad that during the last year, the work of the Council managed to become more efficient and that we organized a record number of sessions,” she told news server Romea.cz.
“I recommended the new members for their expertise so that various subjects will be represented, for instance, expertise in the field of education or community work. It was also important that there be both men and women on the Council, representatives of various regions and different generations,” she said.
The newly-appointed Council members work in different fields, from education and social work to advocacy and the nonprofit sector. For instance, Renata Adamová focuses on the issue of affordable housing and social services, while Martin Kanaloš, nominated by the informal Association of Romani Youth (Sdružení mladých Romů), focuses on the education of Romani pupils.
Nikola Taragoš directs the Romodrom organization, which provides educational and social services to Romani people. The reappointed members are Gwendolyn Albert, a long-term activist in the field of human rights, Alena Drbohlavová Gronzíková, an expert on community work, and Martin Kaleja, a university educator specializing in inclusive education.
New members of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs
Bc. Renata Adamová
Ms. Adamová graduated in Social Pedagogy from J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. She works as a local assembly member and as chair of the Social Commission and Committee on National Minorities of the City of Chomutov (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO). She is also the chair of the Nadační fond Klíč k domovu [Endowment Fund “Key to Home”], which focuses on the issue of affordable housing and support to persons in difficult life situations. Until 2024 she worked as manager of the Světlo Kadaň [Light of Kadaň] organization providing social services. She is a member of the Working Group on Romani Women’s Issues at the Czech Government Council for Gender Equality.
Bc. Martin Kanaloš
Mr. Kanaloš graduated in Art History at Charles University. He works as a coordinator of programming for disadvantaged Romani pupils at the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic and collaborates with the Albatros Foundation and with the ROMEA organization. He hopes to motivate Romani pupils to study through his work. His candidacy is supported by the Association of Romani Youth (Sdružení mladých Romů), an informal group of Romani youth.
Nikola Taragoš, MBA
Mr. Taragoš is the Executive Director of Romodrom, o.p.s., the biggest Romani-run nonprofit in the Czech Republic providing education programs, housing programs, and social services. He has experience with implementing policies to better Romani people’s situations, such as the “Brexit project”, realized with the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry to aid Romani people returning from the United Kingdom after it left the European Union, or providing assistance to Romani Ukrainians seeking temporary protection in the Czech Republic. In addition to his professional work, he is an active volunteer organizing recreational activities for children. He is interested in innovation in the area of social housing and manages many projects of that kind (e.g., Housing First). He is a graduate of the Prague College of Psychosocial Studies and earned an MBA in Management and Leadership Companies.
Reappointed members
Gwendolyn Albert
Ms. Albert is currently a member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs. She is intensively involved in the subject of compensation for those who have been forcibly sterilized in the former Czechoslovakia and present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia. She is also focused on the Holocaust of the Roma and its remembrance and on Roma access to education. She works as a coordinator and translator for the ROMEA organization and collaborates with the Museum of Romani Culture. She also consults on Romani-related matters to international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE-ODIHR, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations.
Alena Drbohlavová Gronzíková
Ms. Gronzíková is currently a member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and chair of its Committee for Employment, Health and Social Issues. She has long worked for the IQ Roma servis, z. s. organization, where she is a community worker. She also focuses on the methodological aspects of community work and aided with the introduction of community work in Břeclav and in Mikulov, for instance. She has experience from politics (she was active in the Roma Civic Initiative) as well as from periodicals published in the Romani language (the journal Amaro lav; the weekly Romano kurko). She actively dedicates herself to the subjects of antigypsyism, community work and illegal sterilizations.
doc. PhDr. et PhDr. Kaleja Martin, Ph.D., MBA
Dr. Kaleja is currently a member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and chair of its Committee for the Education of Roma. He has taught at the Ostrava University and Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic; at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia; and at Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, Poland. He is involved in inclusion and integration policy. He is intensively dedicating himself to including the culture and history of Romani people in the revisions of the national Framework Education Programs and collaborates with the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic, and the Czech School Inspectorate.
Other civil society members of the RVZRM
- Bc. Růžena Mužíková
- Rudolf Murka
- Bc. David Tišer
- Enrico Lakatoš
- Bc. Tomáš Ščuka
- Bc. Jiří Daniel
- Ivan Kandráč
- Michal Miko
- PhDr. Mgr. Marian Dancso, MBA
- Petr Ščuka
- Bc. Milan Adam
- Karel Karika
Representatives of the state administration on the RVZRM
- Petr Fiala
- Mgr. Lucie Fuková
- Mgr. Veronika Stromšíková
- Mgr. Jiří Valenta
- Mgr. Martin Baxa
- PhDr. Jana Horváthová
- Mgr. Michal Franěk
- Doc. PhDr. Mikuláš Bek, Ph.D.
- Mgr. Bc. Vít Rakušan
- JUDr. Stanislav Křeček
- Ing. Marián Jurečka
- Mgr. Jana Kotalíková
- Ing. Mgr. Venuše Škampová
- Václav Strouhal, DiS.
- Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (Svaz měst a obcí) – member unappointed
- Jiří Navrátil, MBA
- Ing. Petr Kulhánek
- Mgr. Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková
