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In this chapter, Markéta Levínská, Dana Bittnerová and David Doubek show the situation of the Roma Minority in the Czech Republic. According to qualified estimates by regional coordinators for Roma minority affairs, a total of 245,800 Roma lived in Czechia in 2016, which represents 2.3% of the overall population in the Czech Republic. The Roma in the Czech Republic cannot be considered a homogeneous group, neither economically, nor regarding their social status. The authors describe the legal, social and cultural status of the Roma minority then analyse their attainment on different levels of the education system. After listing the most important policies and support programmes in the area of Roma education, they show current research results relating to the state of Roma education.

This introduction from Katalin R. Forray and Andrea Óhidy provides a brief overview of the social and education situation of European Roma and also about the structure of this book.

Roma are here described as a ‘hidden minority’ (see the country study about Italy from Valeria Cavioni in the book Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in Western and Southern Europe (2019)), because – although they are the largest minority group living in Europe for more than a hundred years – we still know very little about them. Although most of the Roma people have been living for centuries in European countries, their situation is still different from the non-Roma population; they often suffered from poverty and exclusion. There is a host of Roma, especially in Southern and in Eastern Europe, who is considered to be the most disadvantaged group in European societies; that is, regarding their (1) health situation, (2) on the labour, (3) on the housing market and (4) also in education. Questions of education are the central elements of politics making the situation of Roma better. To fulfil these requirements, some European countries have taken determined steps. As Natascha Hofmann in the country study about Germany wrote in the book Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in Western and Southern Europe (2019), we are in the phase of the ‘dawn of learning’ because there are more and more policies and programmes to develop attainment and success of Roma in European education and lifelong learning. This book wants to change this and gives an overview about retrospective and prospective tendencies in the situation of European Roma in education and lifelong learning.

In this chapter, Andrea Óhidy provides an overview of some central issues of the book. First, she shows the similarities in the challenges to increase the participation and success of Roma people in education and lifelong learning in the selected European countries; then, she discusses their policies and support programmes, which, on the one hand, try to improve the social situation of the Roma while promoting minority language and culture, on the other hand. She finds the reason for their similarities regarding the wording, defining and communicating and also concerning the main ideas and concrete projects for possible solutions, in the Roma inclusion policy of the European Union in the frame of the Open Method of Coordination, which has been introduced within the Lisbon Strategy, linked to the idea of lifelong learning. She considers the realisation of these policy measures at national, regional and local levels to have shown only unsatisfactory results until now.

The Czech Republic suffers many of the problems reported in other Central European and Eastern European countries with respect to the care, treatment and prevention of mental ill health. Most psychiatric care is provided in long‐stay hospitals and the transition to a community‐based service has yet to be made. Mental health services suffer from chronic under‐investment and there is a lack of mental health legislation protecting patients' rights and autonomy. The pressures of transition to a capitalist economy have brought their own problems, in the form of increased rates of addicitions, suicide, and other mental health problems related to social, policitical and economic instability, and there is a pressing need to address the position of mental health within public health services.

In a democratic system such as the United States, freedom of expression and free speech are core values in the Constitution and fiercely protected by civil liberties organizations and advocates. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld the right to protest and to express what may be considered unpopular or dissenting opinions. However, the right does not extend to incitement of violence and the state is authorized to protect the safety of citizens. One of the most recent movements challenging the country’s recognition of freedom of expression has been the alt-right/white nationalist movement, particularly Richard Spencer who is a vocal white supremacist and president of the National Policy Institute. A number of universities such as Auburn University, Texas A&M, the University of Florida, and Michigan State University recently found themselves in the middle of a free speech and expression event versus the potential for political violence situation because of the rhetoric of Spencer’s White Lives Matter campus tour and possibility of protests or counter-protests following his speeches. This invites the question of to what extent a university can ban controversial speakers out of concern for violence and when must they allow controversial speech? The chapter will start by looking at state control of political protests and speech in the United States and then how similar dissent is addressed in other countries.

Internationally, dissent is often handled differently with much less tolerance and often a more confrontational response by the state. For example, following the Arab Spring and passage of restrictive laws to prohibit influencing public opinion, Saudi Arabia has seen a rise in political arrests as the state uses its authority to suppress political competitors and consolidate power. The State Security Agency, overseen by the king, claimed in September 2017 that a group of academics, scholars, writers, and leading Islamist figures were inciting violence and called for their arrest. This wave of arrests along with several prior ones and state exercise of media control, exemplifies Saudi Arabia’s desire to suppress dissent by exercising state control. In Venezuela, a law prohibiting messages of hate from being transmitted via broadcast and social media was passed, carrying a possible sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted. The Assembly claimed the law was intended to promote “peace, tolerance, equality, and respect,” but it has been criticized for suppressing extremist sectors of right-wing political groups in the country. Additional case studies of Uganda’s use of military forces to control public outcry over corruption and deteriorating public services will also be evaluated.