Stanislav Tomáš and the plight of European Roma – Gwendolyn Albert

In June 2021, Stanislav Tomáš, a Romani man in Teplice, Czech Republic, died after several police officers pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck for several minutes.

The death was filmed and the video went viral, leading to comparisons with the murder of George Floyd in the United States and led to protests against antigypsyism.

Gwendolyn Albert is a human rights activist and ally of the Romani minority who has been involved in advocacy for decades. Since September 2020, she has been a civil society member of the Czech Government Council for Romani Minority Affairs. She translates the news daily into English for the Romea.cz news server in Prague (since 2010) and was a contributor to an extensive report by the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, Human Rights of Roma and Travellers in Europe (2012).