The Montenegrin Ministry of Justice made an open call for finding a translator for Romanes. Applicants can send their CVs within the next 20 days.
A new Roma glossary by Dr. Vesna Delić was published by the Public Institution Centre for the Preservation and Development of the Culture of Minorities of Montenegro. As far as is known, it is a unique publication that allows the interested public to get to know and get more information about Roma.
A fire ripped through a Roma settlement in Bar, Montenegro. The Roma Council has now allocated 12’000 euros for the repairs.
A fire in a Roma settlement in Bar, Montenegro, on Volujica hill, left four people dead.
The Roma Council said their thoughts are with the families of the victims and they bemoaned the precarious living conditions of the Roma there.
“Isen Gaši dedicated his entire life to the fight for Roma rights, he was often lonely, but he never gave up on his principles. As the president of the Roma Council, Isen Gaši left an indelible mark on the development, integration, inclusion and socialization of the Roma community in Montenegrin society “, the statement of the Roma Council points out.
May he rest in peace.
A survey was conducted in the second half of October and the first half of November last year by the NGO “Association for the Support of Roma and Egyptians” in the Montenegro town of Berane. The aim was to understand the interactions of the Roma and general population. Based on a very limited sample of
200 respondents of the majority population and 148 respondents of the Roma population.
Out of 200 surveyed citizens of Beran, 112 of them answered that they or someone close to them had as a close friend a member of the RE population, or 56 percent, while 88 survey participants among the local population, or 44 percent, answered negatively to this question.
The Roma Council and the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Sistem” strongly condemn the shameful verdict that was pronounced by the decision of the High Court, a prison sentence of 12 years, for the murder of Zumrita Nerda, in January of last year.
The condemned Dalibor Nikolić, according to the indictment, brutally murdered his pregnant wife in front of her other children.
The councillor and president of the Roma Council Mensur Šalaj said he believes that the census now will take place. The opposition will participate in the census as well as the minority councils after Prime Minister Milojko Spajić accepted the demands of the opposition when it comes to the census. According to Mensur Šalaj, The Roma Council is satisfied with the fact that a certain number of census enumerators will be Roma.
Mensur Šalaj is the first Roma Montenegrin MP in Podgorica. He is the leader of the Democratic Party of Roma, the first party of that minority, founded four years ago.
Two articles, one from Slovenia, one from Montenegro on the International Romanes Day. The one from Slovenia, says the language as being threatened, as parents do not teach it anymore to their children.
The promotion of the Dictionary of the Roma-Montenegrin and Montenegrin-Roma language / Rromengo alavari by Dr. Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić was held in the National Library “Radosav Ljumović” in Podgorica, Montenegro. The publisher of the Dictionary is the JU Centre for the Preservation and Development of Minority Culture of Montenegro.
The NGO “Center for the Affirmation of the RE Population – CAREP” organized a two-day workshop on the topic of democracy, and 20 young people from the municipalities of Nikšić and Plužine took part.
The workshop was realized as part of the “Young, brave, loud” project.
“With this project, we want to increase the degree of participation of young people in the local community, especially young people from vulnerable groups, and thus contribute to social cohesion in Nikšić and Plužine. Young people are very interested in our activities, and we will also have a two-day training on youth participation, English lessons language, swimming and music, but also a two-month, paid internship program for young people from the RE community”, explained Nardi Ahmetović, executive director of the NGO “CAREP”.
The NGO “Koračite sa nama – Phiren Amenca” opened the exhibition “Racial diagnosis: “Gypsy” – the Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti and the long struggle for recognition” paid a special tribute to the victims of the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War.
UNICEF, the EU and the NGO HELP call on Montenegrin national and local authorities to provide an adequate number of Roma mediators employed in the educational, health and child and social welfare systems in order to end the poverty of Roma children in Montenegro.
The President of the Montenegro Roma Council, Mensur Šalaj, warned that the problem of child begging is widespread throughout the country. According to the council, there are no systemic measures to fight child begging, and often only the consequences, and not the causes, of this phenomenon are dealt with.
Roma activists in Montenegro are pushing for a reduction of the census hurdle from 0.7% to 0.35% in order to be represented in parliament. Roma activists say that not one member of parliament proposed an amendment on the reduction of the census by affirmative action for the Roma which shows their interest in the community and the inclusion of Roma in Montenegro.
The Institute of Roma-Egyptian RE mediators has proven to be one of the most successful models in the Western Balkans region, which enables this community to have easier and faster access to basic rights at the local level, and now it is up to the state authorities of Montenegro to do their part, i.e. to systematize the position of mediator in local services – it was concluded at the two-day international conference organized by Help on the occasion of the completion of the project “Social inclusion of the RE population through associates in social inclusion – RE Mediators”.
“We received assurances from the representatives of the state institutions of Montenegro on this occasion that work is being done to introduce the position of RE mediator in services at the local level,” said the representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Budimirka Đukanović.
The debate in Montenegro about reserved seats for the Roma minority continues.
According to the debate held, it is necessary to ensure that the Roma community has a representative in the Parliament of Montenegro, because members of that people would explain in the best way what problems they are facing and what they see as a solution. This was assessed at the panel discussion “Reserved mandate for members of the RE population in the Parliament of Montenegro”, organized by the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) and the MINA agency.
The right question is to ask what a single (or even a few) reserved seats for minorities can do to change things. The anser is easy: NOTHING. This is an alibi exercise.
The greatest responsibility for the fact that the Roma community still does not have its own representative in the parliament lies with the politicians, because their voting on any socio-political issue depends on their agreements and party interests, according to the Institution of the Protector of Human Rights and freedom of Montenegro.
Back in 2013, the Institution of the Protector expressed the position that the Roma community should be provided with a lower census in order to be adequately represented in the Parliament of Montenegro, but even today, 30 years after the introduction of multi-party system, the Roma are the only national minority that does not have its own representative in the parliament.
Well, one can and should argue that members of parliament should NOT be allocated along ethnic lines but rather that parties should get minorities involved.
Elvis Beriša, the founder and executive director of the NGO “Phiren amenca” comments last week’s scandal when the Montenegrin cultural network promoted the project Montenegro without divisions – with a photo of young people in national costumes, where Roma were presented in utility company workers uniforms:
“I believe that we haven’t had a more obvious example of discrimination and anti-Gypsyism in Montenegro for a long time. The CKM campaign and the portrayal of the Roma community in it is the definition of antigypsyism. Presenting an entire national community as workers of a utility company surpasses all recorded cases of stereotypes and prejudices that we could see in the public space. It is simply incomprehensible that the organizers could not consult with the Roma community about the best way to present it in the campaign. If, as they say, they could not find the national costume of the Roma, they could present them in ordinary everyday clothes. Anything would be better except for what they ended up doing.
EN 
DE 
FR