An interview with Magdalena Karvayova, co-founder of the Awen Amenca association which focuses on equal access to quality education for Roma children.
There is a long way to go still
The Romanian Orthodox Church should apologize for centuries of Roma slavery. It would be a long overdue symbolic gesture, historians, sociologists and representatives of the Roma community believe.
On March 3rd, 1943, 80 years ago, German police arrested Sinti and Roma and deported them to concentration camps.
Several articles in the German press commemorated this day.
Being threatened with a lawsuit by Roma for their involvement in Slavery, the Orthodox Church of Romania denies exclusive responsibility in the enslavement of Roma in Romania.
A long article about the Romani artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas and her plans for the future. She recently received a scholarship in Berlin, visits friends in London, opens an exhibition in Sweden, brings new ideas to her studio in Szaflary in Podhale, and comes to her hometown of Czarna Góra in Spiš. Her work is raising a lot of interest. Recently, the New York Times proposed to prepare a large reportage about her.
After the supreme court judgement on school segregation, condemning the state and town of Stará Ľubovňa-Podsadek, another case of segregation was judged by the regional court in Prešov. This one concerned three Roma students in the Elementary School with Kindergarten in Hermanovce in the Prešov district. The court judged they were discriminated against. The parents of the three children will receive each 5’000 EUR.
Sinti and Roma organisations as well as other victims associations are asking the members of the Hamburg Parliament to include not only the fight against anti-Semitism but also anti-Gypsyism as a state goal in the state constitution. “With the change in the preamble to the Hamburg Constitution, you will soon have the rare opportunity to take responsibility for the memory of National Socialist terror,” says a letter published on Monday by the Auschwitz Committee, National Association of Sinti in Hamburg, Rome and Cinti Union and the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime – Association of Anti-Fascists to the MPs.
A leader of the Romanian Roma community, Dorin Cioaba, is planning to sue the Romanian church for its role in Roma slavery in Romania. This would be a good thing for the church to have to admit their involvement and guilt in the Romanian Roma Slavery.
The case of two Roma who were assaulted by the police has been reopened in Romania. This is a first in Romania where the court contradicted the prosecution who wanted the case dismissed.
At the end of a five day visit to the Czech Republic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic did not mince her words and stated that the country needed to do more to stop discrimination against Roma. She also added that schooling is all too often still segregated and that the prejudices of the teachers and staff against Roma need to be addressed.
The President elect of the Czech Republic visited a Roma housing estate and stated that social exclusion needs to be addressed.
This is new in the Czech Republic and a breath of fresh air.
For its 15th anniversary, the Slovene Roma Academic Club launched the RomaSam.eu initiative, as part of which they are preparing a major awareness campaign about the various roles of Roma in Slovenian society and innovative, didactic material for learning, getting to know and informing about the Roma community. The final event and commemoration of the anniversary will take place on June 14 at Brdo pri Kranje.
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