Hardly anyone knows the stories of the Roma who were persecuted by the National Socialists in Ukraine. The survivors still experience discrimination – and suffer particularly from Putin’s war.
The new collaboration of Roma organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary is well under way.
Ukrainian Roma are taking legal action after an attack of Roma refugees in Chisinau. The Roma refugees were sprayed with tear gas by security personnel. They complained to the EU Council on Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality. A criminal complaint against the assailants has also been initiated ex officio by the public prosecutor. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) will represent the Romani litigants in both proceedings.
There were Roma protests in Sofia following the death of a Roma taxi driver after a fight. The protests ended late last night without serious damage or arrests, the Ministry of the Interior reports. It is known that after the case of the deceased taxi driver, his relatives and friends blocked the capital’s intersections.
The gay German-Roma Gianni Jovanovic, born in Rüsselsheim, tells his life story on October 11th at an event of the Groß-Gerauer district adult education centre.
Bulgaria has made tangible progress since 2014 in combating intolerance, introducing inclusive education, combating anti-Semitism, promoting Roma integration and helping refugees. However, hatred and prejudice against LGBTI people persist and must be combated and measures for the integration of refugees must be extended. These are the findings of the new report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) which covers the period from June 2014 to the end of March 2022.
The historian Saul Friedländer, a Holocaust researcher and the author of a bouk on the Roma Holocaust (among many others) just turned 90.
An interview of Dijana Pavlovic spokesperson for the Kethane movement that protects the rights of Roma and Sinti in Italy on her views of the victory of the far right in Italy. One of the question is typical of so-called “journalism”:
“You believe that there is a security problem in Italy. Often most of the crimes, especially those related to heritage, are committed by Roma and Sinti, how do you judge this data?”. Ms. Pavlovic’s answer is the right one: “What data? From this point of view, the data does not exist, it is just a commonly shared perception.”
More news in France on Roma this week. First, a reportage on television about the anti-Roma riots in 2019 that started on rumours that Roma were stealing children. The ones who started the rumours were identified but not condemned. Sad. Near Paris, several Roma families are suing mayors for refusing to enrol Roma children in classes, something that is mandatory and guaranteed by the law. In Bobigny, near Paris, residents who had lobbied to have a camp closed as it was on private land are now defending the new camp on communal grounds. In Lyon, a camp has been growing. In Aubagne, in the South, a camp will be closed, and in Marseilles, neighbours of a squat are fed up.
Anyone who wants to learn something about the history of the Sinti and Roma is in the right place from Sunday in the Paderborn City Museum. This is where the new exhibition “Racial Diagnosis: Gypsy” begins.
A project in Dobšina in Domček, in central Slovakia where teachers together with Romnja help children oif a Roma settlement catching up in their education. The project is not funded because some of the women helping out did not finish high school.
The teachers from Dobšina started almost ten years ago with a few young Roma mothers from the settlement. When we talk about young mothers, we do not mean the age of 18 and over, but children who have children while still in elementary school.
One of them are the now 26-year-old twins, Magdaléna and Mariana, both coaches in the project. Magdalena gave birth for the first time in the seventh grade at elementary school and again sometime later. Both have unfinished primary education, but they are clear in their heads. They want their children and the children of the Dobšina Roma to experience success.
An article in the Slovenian press about a young Romni who finished high school. The article claims she is the first Romni to achieve this is Moldova which is more than doubtful. The article, while well meant, actually serves all stereotypes of an archaic Roma society.
Maria Stoian, a Roma girl from Moldova, was raised by her grandmother. She encouraged her throughout her primary schooling and stood by her side, because in Moldova, the vast majority of Roma girls stop going to school after the age of thirteen. “In our country, girls get married at the age of 15 at the latest. I have 18. I’m already too old,” Maria laughs and continues: “Of course I’m thinking about having a family, about having children, but not before the age of 25.” It was because of her grandmother that she enrolled in high school after finishing elementary school school in the city of Soroca. “I was scared, I cried because I was afraid that they wouldn’t accept me, since I was the only Roma in the class. But those were the best years of my life. I feel free, here at school I can put off the mask that the traditional environment in the Roma community put on me, here I can do what I want, talk about anything and learn.”
Several articles about Roma, Sinti Piemontese, who were arrested for having committed at least 21 thefts in homes of elderly people by passing themselves as gas technicians.
Bad.
For the first time in history, Roma are given the right to bilingual signs. This is the result of the recent census in which the
Međimurje municipality of Orehovica has become the first local self-government unit in which the Roma minority exceeded 33 percent of the population which is a prerequisite for bilingualism.
Of all the national minorities, only Roma recorded growth, and that by some six percent. This can have many reasons, as Roma usually do not declare themselves as such in censuses.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted a set of recommendations aimed at improving “the precarious situation of Roma settlements in the European Union”. MEPs underlined that the Roma – in all the diversity that this term covers – are the largest ethnic minority in Europe and suffer from poverty and social exclusion in several Member States.
This article interviewed the Slovak MPs and their reactions to the vote. The reactions are generally positive and highlight the difficulty to resolve the problems.
The EU Parliament passed a resolution acknowledging the plight of Roma in many European countries and the need for more action and changes in many European countries. The resolution also called on member states to ensure that EU funds earmarked to support Roma settlement communities are used effectively and to further integrate Roma populations into their societies. This latter point is not a moot one, as initiatives such as the Roma decade have shown that throwing money at the issue doesn’t really change the fundamental issues.
The resolution was adopted with 486 votes in favour, 109 against and 38 abstentions. It would be interesting to understand the rationale of those who voted against it and from which countries and parties they are.
A theatre piece is being played in Brooklyn by the Berlin company DorkyPark on Roma.
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.
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