Category Archives: Serbia

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia and Child Marriage

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Serbia and Child Marriage

A round table presented the results of the analysis of the project “Roma Women’s Activism in the Protection of Roma Girls from Violence Caused by Child Marriages”, which aims to reduce the rate of child marriages among the Roma population, and the 10 cities covered by the project, including Vranje, which has the highest rate of child marriages.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbian Elections and Vučić

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Serbian Elections and Vučić

The DW article had repercussions: Accusations of vote buying, new registration of voters, and also, Roma Sherifs (sic.) who promised Vučić that 90% pf the Roma will vote for his list.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbian Elections and Roma

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Serbian Elections and Roma

A reportage by Deutsche Welle ahead of the local elections in ten municipalities in Serbia. The DW team was in one of them, in Bor, where there is a lot of talk about the bought votes of local Roma and a sudden increase in the population before the elections.

Promises are made to Roma before those elections, promises seldom held …

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Romanes

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Romanes

How to strengthen the Romani language among young people? The guest of the show is Luan Coco, manager of the Centre for Education of Roma and Ethnic Communities, who talks about how to preserve the Romani language, encourage young people to use it and why it is important for it to remain a living part of everyday life and the community.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Inclusion

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Roma Inclusion

Students from the sixth to eighth grades of the “22. oktobar” Elementary School from Bački Monoštor, who attend the elective subject Romani language with elements of national culture, visited the Roma Inclusion Office in Novi Sad.

Accompanied by teacher Ivan Petrović, during this educational visit the students had the opportunity to learn firsthand about the work of this institution and the activities carried out to improve the position of the Roma community.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbian Settlements

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Serbian Settlements

Representatives of the National Council of the Serbian Roma National Minority visited the Roma settlement “Sever” in Bor in Eastern Serbia, where about 50 families live in very difficult socio-economic conditions.

The settlements “Sever” and “Brezonik” are located in the immediate vicinity of a mine, and the residents mainly live in old and dilapidated buildings that do not meet the basic requirements for a dignified life.

Croatia News Eastern Europe Serbia

Jovan Živadinović

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Jovan Živadinović

Jovan Živadinović, a Roma singer and songwriter from Serbia, debuted with the single Sve je isto in July 2021. A year after his first album, he participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song Greh, which led him to the final of the competition.

The second album brings a sonic blend of modern electro pop, club aesthetics and the discreet sensibility of soul and rhythm and blues. Through 19 tracks, the album follows a path of self-exploration, emotional conflicts and attempts to understand one’s own identity, from a short introductory confession by Džipsii’s mother to the final track “Kuda”.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma and Politics

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Roma and Politics

The Roma community in Serbia, which is estimated to number between 400,000 and 500,000 people, continues to face numerous challenges when it comes to political representation and real influence in public life. Although there are formal mechanisms for Roma political participation, many experts and activists believe that their political power is still limited.

In Serbia, Roma have certain institutional mechanisms for political action. One of the key ones is the National Council of the Roma National Minority, which represents the central institution of the Roma community in the areas of education, culture, information and official use of the language.

Well, those mechanisms have little influence, and can be called alibi excercises.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Romano Them

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Romano Them

The Romano Them Radio show on the Belgrade Radio features Professor Husein Kicuk talks about the forced name change of Roma in Bulgaria during communism and the consequences that this policy had on the identity and Romani language. Young Roma football players in the Czech Republic faced racist insults, and local authorities and sports clubs responded with the “No to Racism” campaign and support for the community. We present the work of the Commissioner for Roma Issues in the Government of the Czech Republic, Lucie Fukova, and her contribution to the inclusion of Roma in public life.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia and Roma

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Serbia and Roma

The 11th session of the Assembly of the National Council of the Roma National Minority in Belgrade, the results of the work in the previous year and plans for the coming period were discussed, aimed at strengthening the institutional role of the Council and improving the position of the Roma community.

Well, frankly, not much was done …

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Politics in Serbia

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Roma Politics in Serbia

Roma political activism in Serbia intensified in the early 2000s, when Roma parties and movements attempted to institutionalize the struggle for equality through the parliamentary system. However, after that period, the Roma political scene faced fragmentation, lack of a common strategy, and reduced influence on legislative processes. The last twenty years have been marked by initiatives at the local level, but without stable and long-term parliamentary continuity.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Activist

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Roma Activist

The lifeless body of a young man was pulled from the city lake in Zrenjanin, Serbia, on February 22nd. The Roma Party announced that it was nineteen-year-old Manuel Ametov, who disappeared eight days ago. A protest called “Justice for Manuel” was held last night because of this case. The crowd pointed out that the police were informed of the disappearance in a timely manner, but that there was no extensive search and alerting, which is available to the state.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Romanes

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Romanes

Regarding the position of the Romani language and script in Serbia and the region, Salih Saitović, president of the Democratic Union of Roma, said that the Romani language is recognized almost exclusively as a spoken language, while the written form is neglected, without systemic and institutional support.

There we agree. Unfortunately, he also advocates a standardisation, which so far has not succeeded,

News Eastern Europe Serbia

The French on Balkan Roma History

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The French on Balkan Roma History

As part of the cycle of Serbian-French talks on the history of the Balkans, the French Institute in Serbia will host the distinguished French historian Bernard Laurie, who will participate in panels dedicated to the history of Roma in the Balkans, in Belgrade on February 3 and in Niš on February 4, 2026.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Ball and Kitsch

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Roma Ball and Kitsch

An article, quite demeaning, on the kitsch of the outfits of women at the Roma Ball which took recently palce in Bujanovac, Serbia.

called “How much does your outfit cost”, and the latest video was inspired by the Roma World Ball. The outfits are questionable, the prices are astronomical, and the content “gave its soul” for virality, reactions and comments. A girl’s dress, which cost as much as 4,000 euros, stood out in particular.

The article’s title say Serbs wouldn’t pay 4 dinars for such kitsch.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

National Minorities

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National Minorities

20% of Serbia’s inhabitants do not declare themselves to be Serbs, but Albanians, Bosnians, Hungarians, Roma or Ruthenians… 23 National Councils are supposed to defend the interests of these communities, but they have been brought to heel by the ruling SNS.

The Roma community, one of the 23 officially recognized ethnic minorities in Serbia, has its own National Council where its political representatives sit. The National Councils of ethnic minorities are involved in education and culture. Srđan Šajn, president of the Roma Party (RP), believes that political pressure and legal changes have paralyzed the work of the National Council of Roma. “The National Councils are blocked because the elections are rigged and the ruling parties have installed their cronies,” he asserts, noting that previous governments also exerted pressure, but to a lesser extent. “President Vučić and his regime have dismantled all control systems; the National Councils have been completely paralyzed since 2015. They are ensuring that the National Council elections are a sham, just like all other elections.”

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Students

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Roma Students

The best Roma students in primary and secondary schools in Čačak, Serbia, were awarded 10 laptops, of which seven elementary school students and three high school students were awarded towards the end of 2025.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Serbia Slovakia

Milena Hübschmanova

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Milena Hübschmanova

A radio show in Serbia presenting the work of the prominent Czech linguist and ethnographer Milena Hübschmanova, a pioneer in the research of the Romani language and culture. She was among the first to lay the foundations of Romani studies in the then Czechoslovakia and one of the few who dedicated her life to the study and preservation of the Romani language, recording folk tales, songs and life testimonies of the Roma. Her work was of enormous importance for the affirmation of Romani identity and education, and her studies continue to serve as the basis for contemporary research on the Roma in Europe.

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