Czechia
Gwendolyn Hubka Albert is an independent human rights activist and ally of the Romani minority involved in the issues of dignified remembrance of Romani Holocaust sites, guaranteed access to standard primary school for Romani children in Europe, and redress for women who have been forcibly sterilized. In August 2020 she was given the Award for Humanity by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic in recognition of her work on the issue of redress for those who have been forcibly sterilized in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic. She received the Alice G. Masaryk Human Rights Award from the Embassy of the United States of America to the Czech Republic in 2021, together with Elena Gorolová and Monika Šimůnková, for her work on that same issue.
She translates and edits the news daily into English for news server Romea.cz. She co-authored the publication "Human Rights of Roma and Travellers" (Council of Europe: 2012) and contributed the paper “Anti-Gypsyism and the Extreme Right in the Czech Republic 2008-2011” to "The Gypsy ‘Menace’: Populism and the New Anti-Gypsy Politics," edited by Michael Stewart, (C. Hurst & Co., London: 2012). She has published peer-reviewed articles in Czech translation for the journals Romano džaniben and Pameť a dějiny dedicated to the issue of forced sterilization, and has produced research on antigypsyism in the Czech Republic for the JEKHIPE project.
In literary endeavors, she translated the novel Baradla Cave by Eva Švankmajerová into English (Twisted Spoon Press: 2000), edited the zine "JEJUNE: america eats its young", and authored two chapbooks of poetry (green, green and dogs, published by Norton Coker Press, San Francisco). Her poetry has also been anthologized ("Short Fuse", "The Return of Kral Majales").
Her current activism includes sitting on the boards of the organizations Burma Center Prague and ROMEA, o.p.s. in the Czech Republic; she is a past board member of several other human rights-related organizations as well. From September 2020 to January 2026 she was a volunteer civil society member of the Czech Government Council on Romani Minority Affairs. Since 2026 she is a volunteer civil member of the Working Group on Holocaust Remembrance Sites of the Guarantors' Council for the Museum of Romani Culture in the Czech Republic.
After earning a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics, she was a Fulbright grant recipient at Charles University in Prague for the 1989-1990 academic year. She participated in the Velvet Revolution as a translator for Civic Forum.
Transitional justice or truth and reconciliation processes regarding human rights abuses motivated by antigypsyism do not exactly exist yet in the Czech Republic.
Video of a presentation updating this research during Roma Week 2026 in Brussels, starting at 50:00.
A study exploring how Romani arts and culture in the Czech lands resist assimilation and discrimination.
The research brief 'Antigypsyism in the Czech Republic: From Recognition to Transitional Justice ?', authored by Gwendolyn Albert, analyses antigypsyism in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic, tracing its roots from the 19th century to the present day.
The Czech state is failing to provide dignified, fair compensation to those who have been sterilized without their informed consent. In this latest episode of SODAcast, Gwendolyn Albert, who has been advocating for redress for these abuses for over 20 years, speaks out.
Nejnovější číslo historické revue Paměť a dějiny je opět z velké části monotematické. Třetí letošní vydání (3/2025) je zasvěceno ženám, přičemž jeho podtitul zní Ženy ve stínu dějin. Gwendolyn Albert v něm píše o nucených sterilizacích romských žen.
paper on Romani women activists in Europe
This paper focuses on the phenomenon of forced sterilisation of Indigenous and racialised Peoples.
We are coming to the end of the second year of the implementation of the law to compensate all those who have been forcibly and therefore unlawfully sterilized in the Czech Republic.
Peer-reviewed article in Czech translation in the Romani Studies journal Romano džaniben.
Abstract: This paper reviews domestic and international activism seeking justice for Romani and other women harmed by coercive, forced, and involuntary sterilization in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic. Framed by Michel Foucault's theory of biopower, it summarizes the history of these abuses and describes human rights campaigns involving domestic and international litigation, advocacy, and grassroots activism, as well as the responses of the Czech governments.
The conference on Forced and Coercive Sterilization of Roma Women: Justice and Reparations for Victims in the Czech Republic was organized by the OSCE/ODIHR on 1 June 2016 in Prague.
Every morning, in the moment just before we wake, we are all the same. Then, like the clothes we wear, our identities begin to fill in: Boy, girl, man, woman, child, teen, adult, senior. Doctor, painter, driver, accountant, manager, teacher, student.French, American, Czech, Latino, British, African, Roma, European.
V září 1989 přijela studovat češtinu, v Praze tato rodilá Američanka pak prožila pád komunistického režimu. Na neuvěřitelné týdny nemohla zapomenout a v roce 1994 se do Česka přestěhovala natrvalo. Své poslání Gwendolyn Albert poté našla v aktivismu a novinařině.
Ultra-right parties and their neo-Nazi supporters have unleashed an unprecedented level of coordinated anti-Roma demonstrations throughout the Czech Republic this year, aiming to tip the balance at the polls and increase their access to power in the country's upcoming elections.
Interview with me by Bernie Higgins about translating Baradla Cave.