Roma Virtual Network - On-line Bulletin - 21 May 2009
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ROMA VIRTUAL
NETWORK
On-Line Bulletin
21/05/2009
Guardian Weekly: Roma still face racism in the EU
15/05/2009 - Last month, the EU's
Fundamental Rights Agency found that racism and discrimination across the EU is
far more widespread than previously thought, with Europe's estimated 12 million
Roma, or Gypsy, population particularly affected. Earlier this month it was
reported that Roma in Hungary had taken to the streets in self-defence after a
wave of attacks led to five of their community being murdered in 10 months.
Here, Helene Weiss describes life as a Romany in Hamburg, where her family have
lived for 600 years, but still suffer discrimination today.
PACE report on situation of Roma
in Europe to be presented in Jan. 2010
20/05/2009 - Jozsef Berenyi’s Report on
the situation of the Roma living in Europe will be presented in January 2010,
Sen. Gyorgy Frunda announced in the end of the meeting of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights, taking place in Targu Mures (central Romania), on Tuesday.
Sen. Frunda referred to the report by the
PACE Committee’s Slovakian rapporteur Joszef Berenyi, on the situation of the
gypsy minority living in Europe and the Council of Europe’s activities in the
field, first heard in Targu Mures on Monday.
Read more on http://www.financiarul.ro/2009/05/20/pace-report-on-situation-of-roma-in-europe-to-be-presented-in-jan-2010/
Jozsef Berenyi (PACE): Rroma, most
vulnerable community
19/05/2009 - Rapporteur of the Committee
on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) Jozsef Berenyi from the Slovak Republic, stated on Monday,
within a meeting in Targu Mures (center) that rroma is the most vulnerable
community, mainly in the current context of the economic crisis.
Within the hearings on the “Situation of
rroma community in Europe and the activities of the Council of Europe in this
field” rapporteur Jozsef Berenyi emphasized that, on the background of the
economic downturn, “the groups of extremists adopted the aim to destroy rroma
communities”, without giving examples.
Read more on http://www.financiarul.ro/2009/05/19/jozsef-berenyi-pace-rroma-most-vulnerable-community/
Bleak picture for Europe's ignored
Roma
14/05/2009 - David Mark answers questions
on the Roma situation in Europe, highlighting current discrimination forms and
threats for the future.
"This kind of anti-gypsy climate is
similar to the one we were seeing in Europe before the beginning of the second
world war. History is there to remind us of what the concrete dangers
are."
Strong words from David Mark, 26, who is
the Open Society Institute Roma Initiatives fellow, and coordinator for the
European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC). He talks about the Roma situation
in Europe, the responsibility of the EU as well as national governments, and the
risks for the future.
Read the text of an interview on
http://beta.vita.it/news/view/91964
Romanian MP Nastase
campaigning for establishment of a Roma European
Agency
19/05/2009 - MP Adrian Nastase of
the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Adrian Nastase, a member on the Committee on
Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) reasserted on Monday in Targu Mures the need for the establishment
of a Roma European Agency.
‘Besides strategies, besides the
state of affairs in various parts of Europe, the issue of the Roma ethnics and
their situation can only be solved at European level. I believe the
establishment of a European Agency for Roma is necessary, because this way the
problems will migrate from one place to another, in compliance with the
principle of communicating vessels,’ said Nastase.
Read more on http://www.financiarul.ro/2009/05/19/romanian-mp-nastase-campaigning-for-establishment-of-a-roma-european-agency/
UNICEF, World Bank warn
crisis will hit Romania's children
Bucharest, 19/05/2009 - The
UN's child welfare agency UNICEF and the World Bank warned Tuesday that the
economic crisis would have a grave effect on children and young people in
Romania, a poor European Union member state.
"We estimate an increase in the
poverty rate from 5.7 percent in 2008 to 7.4 percent in 2009," they said in a
report, adding that children and young people up to 24 years old "face the
highest risk of poverty."
The report said the impact of the
economic crisis on the country's budget meant it was "highly unlikely" that the
current state welfare system would protect families with children at risk of
poverty.
The report also said there would be
an upsurge in urban poverty because of unemployment and that the Roma minority
would be particularly affected, with poverty rates rising to 42.2 percent this
year.
Source: AFP
Standing up for the
gypsies
The largest illegal travellers' camp
in Britain has found a divine ally in its survival battle.
15/05/2009 - To say that Marianne McCarthy
is house-proud would be something of an understatement. The dainty gravel garden
outside her two bedroom prefab is immaculately kept, boasting two freshly
painted miniature cannons and a host of cheerful garden gnomes to greet her
visitors. Step through her front door and the inside of the house is spotless. A
gleaming white kitchen with clear plastic stools leads into a sparse but
welcoming sitting room where a simple crucifix, two chandeliers and an
embroidered "God Bless Home" sign are the room's only adornments.
It's a far cry from what outsiders might expect the 68-year-old widow's home to look like. "Most people think this area will be filthy, with rubbish and sewage and everything," she says. "They think we're dangerous and that you have to come with bullet-proof vests. We've had to put up with all sort of accusations."
Mrs McCarthy expects people to have a negative perception of her modest dwelling because the "estate" on which she lives, Dale Farm, where she has called home for the past seven years, is the largest illegal gypsy site in the country.
It's a far cry from what outsiders might expect the 68-year-old widow's home to look like. "Most people think this area will be filthy, with rubbish and sewage and everything," she says. "They think we're dangerous and that you have to come with bullet-proof vests. We've had to put up with all sort of accusations."
Mrs McCarthy expects people to have a negative perception of her modest dwelling because the "estate" on which she lives, Dale Farm, where she has called home for the past seven years, is the largest illegal gypsy site in the country.
Read more on http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/standing-up-for-the-gypsies-1685206.html
Lords refuse to hear Travellers'
appeal, whilst UN pledges support
20/05/2009 - Dale Farm residents' hopes of
an eleventh hour reprieve from eviction have been crushed by the House of Lords'
refusal to hear their appeal - a matter of hours after a spirited meeting in
parliament saw the UN pledge its support.
Residents from Dale Farm in Essex, often described as the largest 'illegal' Traveller site in Europe, were lobbying the House of Lords, hoping for an eleventh hour intervention. This followed the Court of Appeal ruling on 22 January 2009, which had found in favour of a decision taken by Basildon Council to forcibly remove the families from the land which they partly own, but have not been given planning permission to build on.[1]
Yet the Lords refused permission to hear their appeal, hours after a meeting in parliament hosted by Lord Avebury at which the UN's Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE) endorsed the residents' plea to remain in their homes. The residents' only remaining legal option now is to apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Read more on http://www.irr.org.uk/2009/may/bw000038.html
Residents from Dale Farm in Essex, often described as the largest 'illegal' Traveller site in Europe, were lobbying the House of Lords, hoping for an eleventh hour intervention. This followed the Court of Appeal ruling on 22 January 2009, which had found in favour of a decision taken by Basildon Council to forcibly remove the families from the land which they partly own, but have not been given planning permission to build on.[1]
Yet the Lords refused permission to hear their appeal, hours after a meeting in parliament hosted by Lord Avebury at which the UN's Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE) endorsed the residents' plea to remain in their homes. The residents' only remaining legal option now is to apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Read more on http://www.irr.org.uk/2009/may/bw000038.html
Analysts: EU money cannot solve
Czech, Slovak Roma problems
Bratislava, May 14 (CTK) - Not even the millions of euros that Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be able to gain from the EU will suffice to improve the education of Romany children, Slovak and Czech experts CTK has addressed agreed.
At the same time, the experts consider education one of the key steps for people not to live in deprived settlements. An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Roma live in Slovakia. A big part of them inhabit settlements where there is no running water and electric power. The prospects of improvement are frustrated by many Romani children being unable to complete elementary school, which is responsible for their inability to find jobs, and they rely on state benefits.
Read more on http://praguemonitor.com/2009/05/15/analysts-eu-money-cannot-solve-czech-slovak-roma-problems
Czech Republic: Fighting to honor the
Roma
19/05/2009 - In a small grassy clearing
marked with boulders, dozens gathered last week to pay homage to the hundreds of
Roma who perished in a concentration camp that is now home to a pig farm. For
more than a decade, the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust has been
calling on successive Czech governments to either close down or relocate the pig
farm, which they say is an affront to the Romani — or Gypsy — victims of the
Holocaust.
The official records, generally regarded
as incomplete, show 1,327 prisoners passed through the Lety Camp in the 10
months it operated as a concentration camp, from August 1942 until it was closed
on May 13, 1943, with one final transport train to Auschwitz-Birkenau, according
to Markus Pape, who wrote a book about the Lety Camp in 1997, titled, “And No
One Will Believe You.”
Slovakia: Anger at ‘Abu Ghraib’
attack on Roma boys
Police filmed forcing teenagers to
strip, hit and kiss each otherFrom Billy Briggs in Kosice
16/05/2009 - THE SINISTER film echoes the
infamous Abu Ghraib prison abuses in Iraq. Police dog handlers threaten young
boys with Alsatian dogs and as officers shout orders the detainees are forced to
hit each other on the face to the amusement of their captors. The shockingly
brutal video was filmed at a police station in the Slovakian town of Kosice and
has provoked outrage since it was leaked. According to the graphic footage seven
Slovak police officers forced six Roma boys between the ages of 10 and 16 to
violently hit each other, kiss each other and strip naked. It has also been
alleged that police set the dogs loose on the youths and that two of the boys
were bitten. The Kosice video is just the latest incident in a string of violent
attacks against Roma in Europe as the recession deepens. Slovakia in particular
has an appalling record of virulent racism against Europe's most oppressed
minority.
There are an estimated 400,000 Roma living
in Slovakia - almost 10% of the Slovak population. They form one of the largest
Roma minorities in Europe. Many Roma claim they are the victims of widespread
and institutionalised racism, which leaves them facing discrimination in labour
markets and prevents them from receiving proper education.Unemployment in some
Roma communities runs at close to 100%, and crime and alcoholism rates among
Roma are among the highest in the country.
Slovenia: Roma Commission Calls on
Ministries to Act
Ljubljana, 20/05/2009 - The
government commission for the Roma community, headed by Education Minister Igor
Luksic, met for the first time on Wednesday, tasking ministries with drawing up
proposals on how to address the problems of the Roma. The commission will also
propose to the government the appointment of additional members to the
body.
Source: STA
Slovenia: Erjavec Takes on Illegal
Roma Settlements
Ljubljana, 20/05/2009 - Minister for
Environment and Spacial Planning, Karel Erjavec, discussed on Wednesday the
issue of illegal Roma settlements with the representatives of the Roma
community, announcing that many of the settlement could soon be
legalised.
Source: STA
180 new houses for the Roma
community in Kosovo
19/05/2009 - The Kosovo authorities
have made public the action plan of the Municipality of Mitrovica, supported by
the central government, to build 180 houses in an area of 4.5 hectares in the so
called "Roma Mahalla" in the northern part of Mitrovica. The implementation of
this plan should solve permanently the problem of the Roma camps in northern
Kosovo which have been an issue of great concern.
Source: Kosovo Times
Turkish bulldozers raze 1,000 years of Rom history
19/05/2009 - Ferdi
Celep sat on a sofa surrounded by the debris of his life, watching city workers
empty clothes and furniture from a row of two dozen colourful houses huddled
against the Byzantine battlements of Istanbul's old city. Within hours, the last
remnants of a thousand years of Rom history were wiped out by
bulldozers.
Anti-riot police
supervised this final phase last week of the demolition of Sulukule, a
neighborhood on the European bank of Istanbul once home to a vibrant community
of musicians and artists whose rhythmic songs and belly dancing served as the
city's musical heart. Similar scenes have been repeated across the country as
municipalities, supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP),
drive home a programme of urban renewal, destroying ramshackle and often
unsanitary housing in favour of new tower blocks, often many kilometers (miles)
outside localities.
SULUKULE: US Helsinki Commission
letter to the Turkish Prime Minister
Washington, 20/05/2009 - Senator Benjamin
L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings
(D-FL), today released the following statements upon reports that the Turkish
government completed the demolition of Sulukule, a suburb of Istanbul that has
been home to the Roma minority since 1054.
“The bulldozing of Sulukule this week by the Turkish government shows a lack of regard for the Romani people, and sadly erases a centuries old fixture of Istanbul’s history,” Cardin said. “The Turkish government should adequately compensate the Romani families and provide alternative housing to keep the community united now that their historic neighborhood is gone.”
“The bulldozing of Sulukule this week by the Turkish government shows a lack of regard for the Romani people, and sadly erases a centuries old fixture of Istanbul’s history,” Cardin said. “The Turkish government should adequately compensate the Romani families and provide alternative housing to keep the community united now that their historic neighborhood is gone.”
“The Turkish government should adequately
compensate the Romani families and provide alternative housing to keep the
community united now that their historic neighborhood is gone.”
Read more on
Read more on
ERRC and EDROM call on Turkey to
join the Decade of Roma Inclusion
Budapest, Edirne, 21 May
2009: Today, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the Edirne Roman Derneği
(EDROM) sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
urging him to consider joining in the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015.
The organisations outlined the fundamental objectives of the Decade and underlined that, like Turkey, all of the member countries have significant Romani communities that live in disadvantaged economic and social circumstances.
The ERRC and the EDROM pointed out that a group of Romani NGOs from various cities of Turkey met in Ankara recently at a workshop to discuss the Decade of Roma Inclusion with international experts. After a lively debate, the representatives reached the consensus that Romani communities in Turkey would benefit from the Decade process, and issued a declaration to urge the Republic of Turkey to become a party to the Decade of Roma Inclusion.
Read more on http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=3036
The organisations outlined the fundamental objectives of the Decade and underlined that, like Turkey, all of the member countries have significant Romani communities that live in disadvantaged economic and social circumstances.
The ERRC and the EDROM pointed out that a group of Romani NGOs from various cities of Turkey met in Ankara recently at a workshop to discuss the Decade of Roma Inclusion with international experts. After a lively debate, the representatives reached the consensus that Romani communities in Turkey would benefit from the Decade process, and issued a declaration to urge the Republic of Turkey to become a party to the Decade of Roma Inclusion.
Read more on http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=3036
Link: EU-MIDIS at a
glance
22/04/2009 - An introduction
to the European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey
Racist crime, harassment and
discrimination grossly under-reported. Resignation among minorities. Lack of
rights awareness
Link: EU-MIDIS 'Data
in Focus' Report 1: The Roma
First EU-MIDIS ‘Data in
Focus’ report examining discrimination and victimisation experienced by the
Roma. Survey reveals extent of discrimination, under-reporting and sense of
resignation.
Of all the groups surveyed
by the FRA, the Roma emerged as the group most vulnerable to discrimination and
crime. The FRA has therefore analysed their situation in a ‘data in focus’
report, the first in a series of reports on minority groups and issues covered
by the survey. The report on the Roma reveals a bleak picture for the estimated
12 million Roma in the EU. Roma reported the highest overall levels of
discrimination across all areas surveyed. 66-92% of Roma (depending on the
country) did not report their most recent experience of discrimination to any
competent authority. 65-100% of the Roma respondents reported lack of confidence
in law enforcement and justice structures.
Vacancy: Adviser on
Roma and Sinti Issues, Warsaw
Closing Date: Sunday, 24 May
2009
Human Rights for Gypsies, by C. J.
Singh, Ph. D.
19/05/2009 - Gypsies, the long-lost
children of northwest India, number about 12 million worldwide. The Gypsies
first arrived in Europe in the thirteenth century as asylum seekers, fleeing
forcible conversion to Islam by the invading Turks. Their descendants today
number 8 million, constituting Europe’s largest ethnic minoritya
marginalized and much maligned minority, whose contributions to Western culture
are often ignored. Three examples of luminaries they produced: Sonya Kavalesky,
who, in 1884, became the first woman university professor in the world in
Sweden, teaching mathematics; Charles Chaplin, the legendary filmmaker; and Bill
Clinton, the former president of the United States. Both Chaplin and Clinton are
descendants of British Gypsies. Ian Hancock, himself a British Gypsy, in his
book We Are the Romani People (University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002) includes
brief biographies of more than one hundred major Gypsy contributors to Western
culture. Hancock is professor of English at the University of Texas,
Austin. His book describes Patricio Lafcadio Hearn, who in the late
nineteenth century pioneered the journalistic style of writing; Antonio Cansino,
the creator of the Bolero dance, and his granddaughter, Margarita Carmen
Cansino, widely known under her Hollywood name, Rita Hayworth.
Hancock’s book attempts to correct
European disdain of Gypsy history. Two other recent books with the same
objective are W. R. Rishi’s Roma: The Punjabi Emigrants in Europe (Punjabi
University Press, 1996) and Isabel Fonseca’s Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and
their Journey (Random House, 1996). Also remarkable are the films of Tony
Gatlif, of French Gypsy descent, especially his documentary Latcho Drom: A
Musical History of the Gypsies from India to Spain, which won the Cannes award
in 1994.
Read more on http://euyouthspeak.org/roma/?p=10262
International Romani Art Festival
at its third edition
TURN Cultural Association releases the
third edition of International Romani Art Festival www.iraf.ro
Recognized as one of the most important
multicultural events in Europe, the festival will take place in Romania,
Timisoara, between July 23rd and 26th at the Summer Cinema - Banatul
Philharmonic. 14 concerts, dance and theatre shows, fire jogling, film
projections, photo exhibitions, parties, activities for children, activities for
people deprived of liberty – are all events that will stir this summer Timisoara
to live at full.
The flamenco rhythms paced by Mr. Paco
Pena (Spain), the founder of the first universitary flamenco guitar course in
the world, the progressive electro world beat project of Mitsoura (Hungary),
“The Gypsies and the UFO” of the boys from Zdob si Zdub (Republic of Moldova)
freshly kidnapped by aliens, are only a few of the reasons that will make the
music go to your head and want to buy a ticket. The traditional instruments of
few of the best musicians in Hungary (Romano Drom, Szilvàsi Gipsy Band, Ternipe)
reunited in a new project - Olah Gipsy Allstars, the mix of balkan with reggae,
dub, bossa, jazz, electronics, trip hop and break beats of Dunkelbunt (Austria),
the crazy riot of Kal (Serbia) and Estelle Goldfarb’s violin (France) that
brings all the power and excitement of high energy rock will all release your
energies and make you feel alive.
An event recommended by www.feestival.ro and
www.enude.ro
All the invisible children: Emir
Kusturica: Blue Gypsy (2005)
Scenes from the short film "Blue Gypsy"
directed by Emir Kusturica. "All the Invisible Children" (2005) is a collection
of seven short films, each focused on a different types of children abuse and
exploitation. "Blue Gypsy" (set in Serbia & Montenegro) deals with a boy
(Uros) who is released from a juvenile detention center. He wants to be a
barber. However, his father forces him to steal again.
______________________________________
Roma Virtual Network (RVN) is a public organization affiliated
with the International Romani Union (IRU). It is aimed
to provide the international Roma community and related non-Roma organizations
with useful information on Roma issues in variety of languages via the Internet.
The activity of RVN actively helps facilitate the cooperation
and exchange of information within Roma organizations and individuals, between
Roma and non-Roma organizations and individuals and also between Roma civil
society and official institutions. It relates with the variety of
Roma-related political, cultural, economic and social issues on local and
international levels. It is aimed to support the improvement of the Roma
situation in Europe and other regions of the
world.
Roma Virtual Network (RVN) is officially recognized and registered as public
organization (No. 580478410) according to the decision
of Certification Organizations Registry within the
Israeli Ministry of Justice.
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