Author Archives: Roma Foundation

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Condemned

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The district court of Neumünster sentenced the operator of a fitness studio to a one thousand Euros fine and thus agreed with Kelly Laubinger, a Sintica from Neumünster. She had suspected that she was denied membership of the fitness studio because of her last name – Laubinger which is a name that many Sinti bear. She hopes that her recent court victory will encourage others to take action against inequality.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Mayors

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A record number of Roma mayors won in the municipal elections. In the next election period, there will be 52 of them.

For comparison – in 2010, there were only 12 of them. Despite the growing number, Roma are only slowly getting involved in local government affairs.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Forced Sterilisations

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The scandalous reluctance of the Ministry of Health to compensate victims of forced sterilizations is reflected in the still deeply rooted racism in Czech society.

The Association of Women Victims of Illegal Sterilization has been fighting for compensation for affected women for several decades. Romnja were sterilized because they are Romani. Compensation for this is hampered by some officials for the same reason.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Discrimination in Education

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Marek Tatar (28), a Czech Rom, is currently studying transcultural communication in his third year at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové and works as a programmer in IT. Hi path to higher education was not smooth. He faced bullying in elementary school, overheard a conversation between two of his teachers in the school corridor about the fact that they didn’t want a gypsy at school, which prompted him to stop his studies. Fortunately, he was convinced by his family to do at least the minimum, which allowed him later to start studies.

It shows how discrimination and racism early on can disadvantage children from minorities for their entire lives. Fortunately, there are also example like him.

News Western Europe Spain

Cadix: The Day of the Andalusian Gitanos

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The Delegation of Ethnic Minorities presented a program for the Day of the Andalusian Gypsies. The Andalusian Roma Day, is celebrated on November 22.

Germany News Western Europe

The Press and Roma

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The German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – short FAZ – was forced to remove a picture on one of its articles after critique from the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.

In FAZ’ November 1st issue, a photo showing a mountain of rubbish on Gutleutstrasse in Frankfurt am Main was used to illustrate the report “Fighting environmental crime more effectively”. In the caption, the focus was set on the Roma minority, although this had no relation to the text next to it. Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma commented: “Here a global crime is highligheted and the selection of images conveys that the Roma minority is involved in these environmental crimes through street garbage.” On Tuesday, the FAZ exchanged the picture for a photograph of EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius. Below the text, the addition was added: “This article appeared at times with an image that was not appropriate to the topic. We changed the illustration.”

This highlights how choices of pictures in articles in the press convey and further existing stereotypes regarding Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Sterilisations

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Some comments to the recent judgement denying a Romni compensation for forced sterilisations even though the medical record indicates that the reason was she was Romani. The Czech Human Right Commissioner reacts.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic and Discrimination

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An interview with dental hygienist Daniela Patkaňová. For years she has been working as a dental hygienist in one of the facilities in Prague. It originally comes from Svidňik, Slovakia. Her journey to the dentist’s office was far from straightforward. She started in the field of sales, went to the Czech Republic for work and later also to Great Britain. It was there that she completed her education and started as a dental nurse. Although she encountered rejection in the areas of housing and employment because of her Roma status, she did not give in. What was decisive for her was the meeting with associate professor Mariá Bartoňová, with whom she still works.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Ljubljana’s Mayor and Racism

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Zoran Janković, the current mayor of Ljubljana, Slovenia, is trying to be re-elected for the fifth time in a row and also to get a majority in the city council to govern. He is however involved in a controversy about the burial of Roma from Ižan, victims of the Nazis and of the Partisans in Ljubljana’s cemetery. He is opposing the burial and has now been officially accused of racism by the Assembly for the Republic who published a harsh statement: By not burying the Roma from Ižan, he showed a level of racism hitherto unknown in Ljubljana, that he despises the sanctity of life by abusing cemeteries, that he incited intolerance and hatred with his political appearances.

Germany News Western Europe

Sachsenhausen: Exhibition

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Adolescents and younger adults from different countries, among them descendants of former prisoners, dealt with the history of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and with the question of how it can be remembered today and how the victims can be commemorated in artistic workshops. The results can be seen from Saturday.

The focus of the artistic interventions are the perspectives of the participants on today’s memorial and the question of which stories are missing. For example, the commemoration of Sinti and Roma, the memory of Spanish prisoners or also of female prisoners who had to work as forced prostitutes are discussed. The exhibition is interactive. Each work of art poses a question to the viewer and invites them to make their own statement.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine and Roma

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An article in the German press on Roma in the Ukraine. As usual, the focus lies on Transcarpathia and, together with Bessarabia, represent an exception regarding to the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. In those two regions, the situation is really bad, with ghettoes and unemployment. But in places where the majority of Roma are Xaladytka and Servi, the situation is very different.

This is almost never presented in the press.

Lithuania News Eastern Europe Poland

Kwik Family

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An article in the Polish press about the Lithuanian Roma group “Sare Roma”. The group is led by the Kwik family, Lithuanian Lovara and was founded 70 years ago by the grandfather of Isztwan Kwik.

Germany News Western Europe

Hamburg Commemoration

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The Hamburg Parliament and the Hamburg Senate commemorated the victims of war, Nazi tyranny and terrorism around the world on  the day of national mourning. The President of the Hamburg Parliament, Carola Veit, and Hamburg’s Deputy Mayor, Katharina Fegebank, laid wreaths at the international memorial of the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial site and at the memorial site “Denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof”. A central hour of remembrance then took place in the main church of St. Michaelis.

Germany News Western Europe

Sinto Settlement in Kiel, Germany

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A reportage in the Sinto Settlement “Maro Temm” in Kiel. Well, with some stereotypes from the journalists too. Large families, feasts, etc.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine, Roma, and the War

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The story of several Roma from Svalyava, in Transcarpathian Ukraine who volunteered in the Ukrainian Army in the fight against Russia. The oldest among them is Mykhailo Tytychko, alias Baron. He got this nickname for his considerable authority in the Roma community. He is the only one of the volunteers who had military service experience.

Baron shares that at first the other guys in their unit were wary. A certain tension was felt. Later, Mykhailo himself found out in a conversation with his brothers that there were certain fears. They lived in constant tension and fear that something would be stolen from them – they themselves admitted to me a month later. But this mistrust passed very quickly – as soon as the boys took a good look at us, we became so close that we became like a family.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Documentary

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The movie “Injustice and Resistance” (Germany/Austria 2022, 113 minutes) by Peter Nestler received the 3sat Documentary Film Award, endowed with 6000 euros, for the best German-language documentary at the 46th Duisburg Film Week.

In Peter Nestler’s film, civil rights activist Romani Rose talks about his family history and his experiences. As early as 1970 Nestler shot “Att vara zigenare” (“To be a gypsy”) for Swedish television. Back then it was the first film that didn’t talk about the minority, but rather let the people themselves have their say. 52 years later, Nestler shows how stubbornly prejudices and enemy stereotypes have persisted.

Austria News Western Europe

Austria: Commemoration

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A commemoration of the Roma victims in the former concentration camp of Lackenbach was held this week.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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This week is more usual. An article about the effectiveness of the “transition village” that was set up in Montpellier, with more people finding jobs and housing, showing this is the better way to do things. In Nantes, a conference will be held on Roma and precarity. And the rest is the usual: A fire in a Roma camp near Paris; a closure of a camp in Villeurbane near Lyon and another one that neighbours would like to see closed in the same town.

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