Message of a Romanian Roma activist

[Roma Virtual Network]

2 August 2016

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

On such a sad day for us, I decided to share with you my personal story, an event which happened to me recently.

I have been an activist for about 20 years. I spent my youth working on Roma rights in Romania, hoping that I could bring change and our situation would improve. But, after so many years I am very sad to see that not much has changed. State institutions, in particular the equality bodies, which have the ability to tackle discrimination and take preventive measures so that discrimination does not take place are completely inefficient. I’ve also created an NGO with the scope of advancing the rights of the Roma and brought before the equality body a few complaints on discrimination. There is no response so far and more than 5 months have passed from the date of making the complaints. Please see below an excerpt for a facebook message I posted a few days ago:

I’ve been at the bank where my NGO accounts’ are including my own personal bank account. I wanted to talk to the director of the bank in a particular matter so I waited for her to come out of a meeting and then I asked her if I could talk to her for 10 seconds. She did not even let me speak for three seconds, treating me like I was not a human being, humiliating me for even daring to address her. Unfortunately, this is not a singular case. Probably this happens to many Roma across Europe. I consider that she had created an ethnic profile in her mind seeing that I was darker and she refused to even receive my business card. I complained by phone to the bank headquarters for about 38 minutes. There are not many people who can afford to talk for so long on the phone.  Moreover, I am thinking how people with low income, including Roma are treated when they need the service of a bank. I would complain to the Equality Body but I promised myself that I would only bring common cases before this institution. The Romanian Equality Body is an inefficient institution, and here I would like to particularly point out the Board of Directors. There are people sitting in the Board for more than 14 years. I have sent a few complaints to the Equality Body by now but I haven’t received any resolution so far. I am asking for the second time in a few weeks that the Board of Directors of the Equality Body resign. We, Roma are fed up with being discriminated against on a daily basis, just because we are darker. We have other qualities too for which we should be treated with respect.

Therefore, I encourage you to share your stories of being discriminated as well as your experiences with the equality bodies in your countries. If we come together, our voice will be heard. Not saying anything will not help us. Our situation will never get better if we don’t take action.

 

Madalin Morteanu,

mada...@yahoo.com