The newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel met with Romane students in Prague’s castle, his official residence.
Serbia is working on an initiative to amend family law to define and recognize child marriage as a form of human trafficking, as 22-50% of Serbian Romane girls are married before the age of 18 years old.
A recent UNICEF report revealed that more than half of girls from Roma settlements in Serbia and 22% of girls from low-income families marry before the age of 18. Even more worryingly, 16% of Roma girls marry before the age of 15 and 5% give birth at this age.
As usual, take these percentages with a pinch of salt. These usually refer to the Roma that are recorded as such, not to all Roma.
On the occasion of April 8th, the City of Poznań, in cooperation with the Bahtałe Roma Foundation, organized a meeting with Roma culture in the White Room of the office. There was music and performance by the Sara Czureja Band.
The head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Brian Aggeler was in Mostar. He insisted that there is a need to improve education and the status of Roma besides fighting corruption in the country.
Roma high school students visited the Faculty of Law. The Faculty of Law of the University of Niš has signed an agreement on cooperation with the Roma Education Foundation to ensure the greatest degree of inclusivity in education.
Let’s see if this works out …
33 books are nominated for the prestigious Czech Magnesia Litera award for the year 2022. Among them, a book by a Romano author, Patrick Banga entitle “True Way Out”.
Another article on the speech of the Slovene President Nataša Pirc Musar who stated that the Roma community in our country is still very neglected, without access to basic rights such as drinking water, education, social and health care.
According to this article in the Bulgarian press, about half of the Roma in the Ukraine are currently refugees and about a quarter of them have a relative fighting on the front. This statement was made by Ned’s Korunovska, of the European Institute for Art and Culture.
These numbers seem somewhat stretched. We doubt that many of the Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine and Bessarabia fled. Some did, we can testify to this. This will need to be followed up.
On World Roma Day, the President of the Slovenian Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, organised a consultation in the presidential palace attended by members of the Council of the Roma Community and councillors from municipalities where Roma have the right to elect their representatives to the municipal council.
She bemoaned the lack of access to clean water, and the fact that the health and social services have let the Roma down in many communities.
A new exhibition about Romas in Transcarpathian Ukraine opened up in the Uzhhorod castle.
According to the Slovenian Ombudsman, the Constitution guarantees equality to the Roma, but in fact they are pushed away and excluded from society. The president of the Association of Roma in Slovenia, Jožek Horvat – Muc, assessed that the situation of the Roma community in Slovenia is better than in many other countries, despite this, many problems remain. Many Roma settlements are still communally unorganized, there are challenges in the education of Roma children and the employment of adult Roma. In order to improve the situation, it would be necessary to renew some measures that have proven to be outdated and ineffective in recent years, he warned.
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.
Speaking to the Upper House of the Czech Parliament last week, Senator Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová called mixing Roma and non-Roma students in schools “an unworkable idea.” According to her, separate classes would give Roma children a better chance of succeeding. These remarks have aroused strong criticism in a country where school segregation largely remains and is often criticized by international institutions. Hungary was recently condemned for exactly this reason.
It is difficult to accept one’s Roma identity. All nations in Europe have a majority population, but Roma are a minority in all European countries. That they are the same and yet different is a realization that Roma arrive to very early.
Bojan Branković (34) tells DW that as a child from a mixed marriage, he grew up in a small community, in Trstenik. He experienced discrimination for the first time at school: “Given that I am a child of different cultures, there was prejudice in my primary school, at the expense of my mother, who is a Romni.”
With the traditional greeting “Bibijako sastipe” (To the health of Auntie), the Days of Roma Culture began in Čačak, Serbia. These culture days will last from April 7 to 12,.
Bibija, Romani patron saint, healer and not yet canonized saint, is celebrated among Roma of the Orthodox faith. This celebration has been included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Serbia since 2019.
This year, Bibija will be commemorated in Čačak with a special program organized by Roma associations. The following will be organized: an exhibition, a traditional meal, performances by cultural and artistic societies and dance groups, film screenings and concerts by the bands Kal and Pretty Loud.
One year after the adoption of the first action plan of the Strategy for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation until 2030, it will be necessary to strengthen communication and monitoring of the completion of the tasks. Ján Hero, the representative of the Slovak government for Roma communities, admitted it. Former Roma plenipotentiary, current Member of the European Parliament Peter Pollák Sr. points out that even the perfect strategy and action plan cannot improve the situation of marginalized Roma if all those involved do not make increased efforts.
A round table was held in Ukraine’s Commissioner’s Secretariat on the occasion of the International Roma Day. The discussion was attended by the management and representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman, Ukrainian state institutions, international and public organizations.
During the introductory speech, Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets noted that the issue of the status of national communities is one of the conditions for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, therefore this issue is extremely important for Ukraine as a whole and for the work of the Ombudsman’s Office. In particular, the protection of the rights of the Roma minority, which is one of the most vulnerable national communities.
Acting General Director of Vojvodina Radio and Television, Jožef Klem, and the President of the National Council of the Roma National Minority, Dalibor Nakić, discussed the possibilities and ways to improve programs in the Roma language in Novi Sad. They also highlighted the problems that hinder further progress.
The President of the Association of Roma in Slovenia, Jožek Horvat Muc, says that assessments of the situation of Roma in Slovenia vary, depending on who gives them, but in his opinion, this is better than in many other countries. Compared to other EU countries, the position of the Roma is relatively good, but there are also areas to which more attention should be paid, the President of the Roma Association, Jožek Horvat Muc, and the Director of the Office for Nationalities, Stanko Baluh, warn ahead of World Roma Day. In doing so, they highlight the areas of education, employment and security.
Frankly, this is not quite the truth. The situation is quite bad, as the press in Slovenia loves to highlight.
Germany has resumed the deportation of rejected refugees. This is particularly controversial in the case of Moldova. Most of the people from Moldova requesting asylum in Germany are Roma, and there, they are discriminated against.
DE 
EN 
FR