Austria has had a national strategy for the inclusion of Roma and Romnja in society for more than a decade. Viennese scientists have now evaluated it: the results are mixed – discrimination is “deeply rooted” in Austria and has not decreased.
Bulgaria has been condemned to pay 109’000 Euros to Roma who were expelled from Vojvodinovo. Good!
Voting in the country’s Roma neighbourhoods was met with an extremely low interest, probably due to regular and massive police operations against vote-buyers, an unfortunately common practice. The previous trend of local voters favouring GERB, a conservative and populist party and to some extent DPS was maintained, as can be seen from the protocols of the sectional election commissions.
That Roma favour GERB is somewhat surprising, as they are not specially kind to them.
During the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference organised by the OSCE, the plight of Ukrainian Roma both inside and outside of the country was thematised. Ukrainian Roma NOGs attended the conference, most notably the Chirikli Romnja NGO.
In the current Bulgarian elections, one party (SIK) claims that another one (GERB) voted instead of the Roma in a Roma neighbourhood in Shumen.
There were some information of potential sabotage of voting machines in some Roma neighbourhoods in Bulgaria. Several voters claim that the machine miscounted their vote.
A nice article on Anina Ciuciu, a young Romanian Romni who lived in a Roma camp but is meanwhile a lawyer who fights for the right to education. Other news are more of the usual kind, unfortunately. Near Paris, parents are demanding the scolarisation of 9 Roma children; Near Nantes, Roma left a camp just to move a bit further; in Toulouse, neighbours of a camp have had enough of it; and the prefect of the Herault department, who has become known for closing Roma camps is caught up in a racist controversy following a tweet that he then subsequently deleted.
A new book, called “A starling pencil on the cuff. The story of Roma literature” by Karolína Ryvolová was just published. According to Romea’s Review, she is a strong storyteller, the book has an exciting plot and contains an incredible amount of previous research work. She succeeded in creating such a bridge between the narrative and the literary-scientific quest for Romani literature.
The National Council of the Slovak Republic (NR SR) adopted the definition of anti-Roma racism. The definition was developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – IHRA, and Slovakia is one of its 35 member countries. Among other things, the adopted resolution of the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic defines the current manifestations of anti-Roma racism, among which are, for example, the distortion or denial of the genocide of the Roma or the stereotyping of the Roma as persons who commit criminal behavior. The definition serves as an important practical tool that can help individuals, organizations and governments to raise public awareness of the problem of anti-Roma racism in society. It will help recognize anti-Roma stereotypes and can also be used in the fight against hate speech against Roma.
The German Federal Government granted 25 million euros for the planned conversion and new construction of the Documentation Centre of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg. This was decided by the Budget Committee of the Bundestag. The total cost of the project is estimated at 50 million, so half of it is already covered. With this promise, further steps can now be taken, according to the chairman of the Federal Association of German Sinti and Roma Romani Rose. The first draft by the architectural office “Bez und Kock” is now to be further developed. This had already triggered a debate in the summer of 2021 because some residents of the old town were bothered by the windowless facade. The state of Baden-Württemberg had also promised funding for the project. Romani Rose would now like to speak to the state government promptly about the amount of the grant.
The German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg supports the integration of Roma displaced from the Ukraine. All offers for refugees should also be available to members of the Roma minority and other Romani-speaking people.
Apart from the fact that few non-Roma speak Romanes (they probably wanted to include Sinti), this is welcome.
The Landesverband Sinti and Roma from Mannheim, Germany, received German federal funding for their RomnoKher project.
Well done.
Three days to celebrate Roma culture: on October 3, 4 and 6 there will be the twenty-ninth edition of the Amico Rom international art competition. For the first time the event will take place in three cities simultaneously: Laterza in the province of Taranto, Lanciano in the province of Chieti and Campobasso. It is a contest of “literature dedicated to Roma and written by Roma”, explains the statement.
To combat discrimination, the Roma in Duisburg, Germany, have to organise themselves. This is all but simple.
An opinion and presentation of the situation of Roma in the Ukraine and about those who fled.
The Freiburg Roma Office has presented its fourth discrimination report. It collects subjective experiences of discrimination by Sinti and Roma, as well as reflections on the coexistence of majority society and minorities and the communication between them.
On Tuesday, the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic approved the working definition of anti-Roma racism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). This was reported by the Slovak TASR agency. Slovak Roma representative Ján Hero welcomed the decision of the NR SR.
Many years have passed since the terrifying attacks on Roma families in the settlement in Záhorská Ves. From 2003 to 2007, unknown masked criminals attacked the local Roma with sticks several times and even set fire to the house where they lived. Well, on the morning of Monday, September 26, 2022, the case took a major turn. Elite NAKA policemen detained members of the criminal group of the takáčov gang, after which horrifying information about years of unexplained attacks on Roma in Záhorská Ves came to light. NAKA accused the mayor Boris Šimkovič and the boss of the takáčovci gsng, Ivan Mego. After the intervention of NAKA, 19 people are accused and 9 detained.
The ROMODROM event will open on October 1, 2022. at 8 p.m. in the Ciglana club with a discussion entitled “Roma in Serbian cinematography” . Participants in the debate are Goran Gocić , writer, journalist and film critic, Sreten Jovanović , film producer, Radenko Ranković , professor of film production and Gordana Nešić , journalist. The talk will be followed by a treat for music connoisseurs, a concert by the AMARO DEL group.
The ROMODROM project, will see several manifestations whose aim is educating the majority population about culture, traditional heritage and the participation of Roma in the cultural and socio-scientific life of our country. It is aimed at overcoming the gap created by centuries of stereotypical views of the Roma. Through cooperation with various artists and scientists of both Roma and non-Roma origin, the idea is to encourage and strengthen the healthy national pride of the Roma, which has been shaken over time and sometimes even led to negation.
Soon 27 Roma families from the Bair neighbourhood in Bitola will be able to renovate their homes. The project “Bair – Joint action of Bitola for the inclusion of Roma”, will fund the renovations but after the legalization of the buildings, and the acquisitions of title deeds.
This is always an issue in Roma neighbourhood where many houses simply do not have any deeds, even in cases where the houses have stood there for many years.
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