Author Archives: Roma Foundation

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Action Plan

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Slovak Action Plan

The SaS opposition party draws attention to the allegedly inefficient use of public funds within the government’s action plan to address the issue of excluded Roma communities. According to SaS MP Vladimír Ledecký, the document is expected to cost more than a billion euros, with 60 million of them going to planting trees around Roma settlements.

Hungary News Eastern Europe Slovakia

World War Two Murder

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World War Two Murder

Towards the end of the war, at least 47 people including at least 37 Roma were brutally murdered by Hungarian Nyilas soldiers near Dunajská Streda on the Klátovský branch of the Little Danube at the end of World War II. They do not have their own grave.

Italy News Western Europe

Amico Rom

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Amico Rom

The 32nd edition of Amico Rom, an event combining a competition, awards, music, cultural events, and celebrations, will get underway on October 3, 2025. Following the well-attended and moving celebration in memory of the deported Roma and Sinti children held on September 30, this Friday there will be three events in Lanciano: at 10:30 a.m., in the Parco delle Memorie, the solemn ceremony for the Samudaripen (Roma and Sinti genocide) will be held, with the laying of a laurel wreath and speeches by the authorities; At 4:00 pm, the Casa di Conversazione will screen the documentary “A Roma’s Dream,” starring Croatian MP Veljko Kajtazi.

News Western Europe Spain

Catalogna: Exhibition

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Catalogna: Exhibition

Mercedes Porras, a Romani activist and curator of the exhibition The Roma people in Catalonia: history and culture, which can be seen at the Museum of the History of Catalonia until August 2, 2026 is part of the commemoration of the 275th anniversary of the Great Raid of 1749 and the 600th anniversary of the arrival of the Roma people to the peninsula.

Germany News Western Europe

Final Rest

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Final Rest

Three Roma remains collected for racist research purposes around 150 years ago have been interred at Leipzig’s Südfriedhof Cemetery. “In the best case scenario, we can succeed in alleviating some of the suffering that was committed long ago in the here and now,” said Prof. Martin Gericke, who heads provenance research at the Institute of Anatomy in Leipzig.

News Switzerland

“Zigeuner”

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“Zigeuner”

The Zurich Anti-Racism Office removed the book title “Zigeuner” from an event. Isabella Huser, a Yenish author speaks of absurd censorship. The issue there is that Yenish, a traveller minority in German speaking lands (mostly Switzerland and Rhine valley) often denote themselves as “Zigenuer”. But for Sinti and Roma, the use of this term is akin to the N-word.

Germany News Western Europe

Ake Dikhea

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Ake Dikhea

The film festival “Ake Dikhea” is starting. Two films currently highlighted are “Reaching for the rope”, and “The earth beneath Margaret’s feet”.

Europe Germany News Western Europe

Georges Soros and Roma

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Georges Soros and Roma

The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is awarding this year’s European Civil Rights Prize to George Soros (95). The US founder, investor, and philanthropist is being honored for his decades-long international commitment to Sinti and Roma, the association announced in Heidelberg on Tuesday. The award is also intended to draw attention to the dangers of growing antigypsyism, which is once again manifesting itself in Germany and many European countries through violence against the minority by nationalists and right-wing extremists.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Crime

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Slovenia and Crime

The Police in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, reported a robbery committed by a group of young men aged between 12 and 14. According to the article information, they are Roma from Žabjak. The victims were two young men from whom the group took money, and then one of them was slapped and hit with a stick.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Stereotypes

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Slovenia and Stereotypes

According to the article, in the small town of Maglenča, Slovenia, stands the Roma Ethno-House, a unique cultural and tourist facility of the indigenous Croatian Roma – the Lovari. Well, Lovara are not indigenous to Croatia. They came in the late 19th ad early 20th century following the abolition of slavery in Romanian lands.

The exhibits unfortunately push stereotypes.

Austria News Western Europe

Early Weddings, Virginity, and Stereotypes

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Early Weddings, Virginity, and Stereotypes

A scandal currently seems to be on the front pages of several Austrian newspapers. The case of a wedding of 12 years old who, according to the press was no longer a virgin.

As usual, this is being described as common practice among all Roma. This is not the case, and concerns mostly a minority of all Roma communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Fascination

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Fascination

Another article about Roma graves in Slovakia. As usual, they dwell on the luxury, about the fact that families go and visit them, etc. No one writes an article about the neglected graves in those communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Police, and Roma

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Slovakia, Police, and Roma

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has allowed the Public Defender of Rights (VOP) Róbert Dobrovodský, as a third party, to enter the proceedings in the case of Miko and Jano v. Slovakia. This case concerns a police intervention in the village of Milhosť in 2023, in which, according to the findings of the Office of the Public Defender of Rights, serious violations of fundamental rights and freedoms, including the rights of minors, occurred.

On March 28, 2025, Róbert Dobrovodský, Public Defender of Rights, submitted an extraordinary report to the National Council of the Slovak Republic. In it, he revealed facts that indicate a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms by the actions of the Police Force.

“The case of the death of a person after the intervention of the Košice police, which shook Slovakia at the end of 2024, violence during interrogation, the case of a beaten homeless person in front of a department store, an unprovoked slap on a handcuffed person, an official intervention against Roma from Milhoste, the detention of a person with broken heels in an illegal reserved area for more than three days, the violation of the rights of a person held by the Bratislava police without proper registration for more than 12 hours, or the official intervention in March 2023 in the Police Detention Unit for Foreigners in Sečovce against foreigners,” Dobrovodský warned at the time.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, AfD, and Roma

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Germany, AfD, and Roma

In Gelsenkirchen, the SPD governed with an absolute majority for a long time. Now the shock is deep: In the local elections, the AfD fell just 0.5 percent short of victory. FOCUS-online reporter Ulf Lüdeke asked the local authorities why this was the case shortly before the mayoral runoff.

One of the statements of this article is that:

“The population has shrunk to around 270,000, 75,000 of whom do not have German passports. 11,000 are Roma and Sinti from Bulgaria and Romania. Thanks to EU labour freedom, criminal clans lure them legally to the Ruhr region, herd them into abandoned, dilapidated properties, and rip them off on social security contributions.”

Besides the fact that there are no Sinti in Bulgaria or Romania, this statement is utterly inacceptable.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much this week in France about Roma. Not surprising as there was many other more important news, like Sarkozy condemned to prison. In the South of France in Montpellier, a worrisome development, shots were fired at a Roma camp.

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro and Roma

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Montenegro and Roma

Another article about the lack of Romano representation in the parliament of Montenegro. The problem is somewhat more complex than the article states: Reserved seats for minorities are pretty much useless, and traditional parties shun Roma representatives.

This requires action from the Roma community which, in many countries has a close to 10% voting block, to act.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Regional Coordinators

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Czechia: Regional Coordinators

A working meeting of regional coordinators for Roma affairs, Roma advisors, field workers, representatives of local governments and state administration took place in Pardubice on September 18 and 19. The aim of the two-day event was to deepen cooperation between institutions and methodologically support the implementation of integration measures. The main focus was on the prevention of anti-Gypsyism in public administration and intergroup relations. The event was co-organized by the Pardubice Region, the Department of Human Rights and Protection of Minorities of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and the Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková.

Czech Republic Italy News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

The Catholic Church and Roma

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The Catholic Church and Roma

A Roma delegation from the Czech Republic led by Karel Karika, Chairman of the Czechoslovak Roma Union, today attended a general audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square. Representatives of the Roma community delivered an exceptional message to the Holy Father: They requested the symbolic lifting of the excommunication of Roma from the Catholic Church, which was declared in 1427 and not abrogated to this day!

Pope Leo XIV also signed a Romanes translation of the Bible during a personal meeting with a Roma delegation from the Czech Republic.

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