ERIO’s Conference “Remembering the Forgotten Roma Holocaust”

On 25 January ERIO organised a conference entitled “Remembering the Forgotten Roma Holocaust” at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels. The conference aimed at raising awareness about the Roma Holocaust and generating debate and reflection by linking the Roma persecution during Nazism and their ongoing discrimination. The conference brought together 70 participants, including Roma activists, civil society representatives from across the EU, international organisations, academia, media sector and high level EU officials.

Opening the conference, Ivan Ivanov (Executive Director of ERIO), stated that ignorance about Roma history among Roma and non-Roma contributes to today’s mistrust and prejudice against Europe’s biggest minority. He stressed the need for the recognition of the Roma Holocaust by European institutions. In the first panel, Lina Papamichalopoulou (European Commission, DG Justice) stressed that the “time has come to write a new chapter, a better chapter, a hope chapter”. Jan Jařab (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) emphasized that Roma victims of Nazi persecution should be given full recognition and not only treated as victims of bloody war like other civilians. Stanislav Daniel (OSCE, ODHIR, Contact Point on Roma and Sinti Issues) stated that a bridge must be created between the past and present and that civil society is mandated to raise awareness of the Roma Holocaust.

During the second panel, Patrick Desbois (Yahad in Unum, France) talked about his research on collecting testimonies of Roma Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe and presented a short film based on these testimonies. Aleksos Tsolakis (European Commission, DG Regional Development) emphasized the need to promote respect about Roma culture among both Roma and non-Roma. Closing this panel, George Weiss (Radio La Benevolencija, Netherlands) put the emphasis on how the Jewish experience can be used by Roma to make the Roma Holocaust recognized. The third panel was opened by MEP Lívia Járóka who stressed the need to reflect and remember the unknown Roma Holocaust and to pay tribute to its victims. She highlighted the importance to support research institutes and academics in raising awareness about these past atrocities. Staffan Nilsson (President of the European Economic and Social Committee) stated his commitment and engagement towards Roma inclusion. He said that “history teach us that we never learn from history”. As such, he stressed the need to raise awareness of and remember the Roma Holocaust. The conference ended with the projection of the documentary “A blue hole in the sky” by Bob Entrop (Sol Film Productions, Netherlands).

ERIONEWS

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding has called upon Bulgaria to present its national strategy for Roma integration

The European Commission has on Thursday criticised Bulgaria over failing to meet the deadline (31 Dec. 2011) to present its national strategy for Roma integration. Apart from Bulgaria Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden are yet to present their strategies.

“I call upon Bulgaria and the remaining 8 EU states that have not done their European homework yet to submit their national strategies on Roma integration as fast as possible,” EU Commissioner Viviane Reding told the Trud daily.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n269059

EU becoming less tolerant, NGO says

Racist mobs in Greece and Hungary, mistreatment of Roma, Arab migrants and Muslim terrorist suspects and a feeble reaction by EU institutions point to a worrying right-wing shift inside the European Union, according to US-based NGO Human Rights Watch.

The most shocking racist attack in Europe last year saw Norwegian Anders Breivik kill 77 people in what he called a campaign to stop the continent being taken over by Islam.

In less-well documented incidents, a far-right mob in Greece in May stormed a Pakistani suburb hospitalising 25 people, some with stab wounds. In April in Hungary, the Red Cross evacuated 277 Roma because right-wing vigilantes held military-type drills beside their homes.

The Human Rights Watch report pulls no punches in linking the extreme cases to bad leadership by EU governments.

http://euobserver.com/22/114978

“Europe’s Migrant Policies: Illusions of Integration”

In this edition of the show we discuss the book Europe’s Migrant Policies: Illusions of Integration, written by Suzanne Mulcahy.With anti-immigrant sentiments rising throughout Europe, Suzanne Mulcahy takes stock of immigrant integration policies in the EU and 15 member states.

Europe is becoming increasingly anxious about issues of immigration and immigrant integration.

Bans on the construction of minarets in Switzerland, prohibition of the wearing of face-covering veils in Belgium and crackdowns on Roma migrants in France and Italy are all signs of the growing prominence of the issue.

Apart from these headline-grabbing policies, many European countries have also been imposing civic integration policies on migrants and restricting their rights to participate in public life. What is driving such policies at the national level? And where does the EU fit into this picture?

This book provides a comparative analysis of the impact of the EU, if any, on the policies and politics of immigrant integration in its member states. It investigates whether the EU can be a force for good in a policy area until now thought to be at the discretion of member states.

http://www.presstv.ir/Program/222814.html

EU calls for comments on PROGRESS programme

The European Commission is inviting individuals, organisations and institutions that follow policy debate in the field of employment and social affairs, as well as those involved in national and EU policy-making or implementation, to contribute to the performance monitoring of the PROGRESS Programme by participating in the Annual Survey 2011.

PROGRESS supports policy and legislation development and implementation in five separate, yet closely interlinked policy sections:

• Employment
• Social protection and social inclusion
• Working conditions
• Anti-discrimination
• Gender equality.

PROGRESS is strongly committed to results-based management, which involves the continuous measurement of the programme’s progress towards its objectives, as well as reporting and taking action to improve its performance. This online survey has been designed to collect data on the programme’s performance and is executed on behalf of the Commission by an external contractor (Public Policy and Management Institute).

All interested participants are invited to contribute to this performance monitoring process by filling an online questionnaire. It should take approximately 15 minutes to complete a questionnaire. Responses to this survey are strictly confidential and will not be divulged to anyone.

Court ruling opens door to integration

HUMAN rights watchdogs in Slovakia have long highlighted cases of segregation involving Roma children attending primary schools. They argue that being separated from their non-Roma peers disadvantages Roma children when it comes to reaching higher levels of education. However, some Slovak teachers have responded by arguing that the practice of special classes for Roma children is justified in order to maintain educational standards. Now, a ruling by the Prešov District Court, which recently found that a school applying the practice was in violation of the principle of equal treatment, could result in a breakthrough in the stand-off on the issue. The court ruled at the beginning of January that the primary school in the small town of Šarišské Michaľany discriminated against its Roma children by creating special classes to educate them based on their ethnicity.

While human rights activists and in particular the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Košice, which sued the school over what it called the violation of the principle of equal treatment established by the anti-discrimination law, welcomed the ruling, teachers in Šarišské Michaľany said they would consider appealing.

http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/45107/2/court_ruling_opens_door_to_integration.html

French Financial Aid Helps Bulgaria Launch Initiative on Human Trafficking

The National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and the Embassy of France in Bulgaria held Tuesday a press conference on the occasion of the launching a project titled “Prevention of trafficking in human beings who belong to ethnic groups with a focus on the Roma minority in Bulgaria”.

The pilot project is managed by the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and will be implemented in the Varna municipality for a period of two years with the financial support of the Embassy of France in Bulgaria, the Permanent Representation of France to the United Nations Office andother international organizations in Vienna, and the Embassy of France in Romania. During Tuesday’s press conference it emerged that traffickers recruit over 2.5 million women and children every year.

According to statistics presented during the discussion, Bulgaria has handed down harsh sentences for human trafficking to 111 offenders over the past few years.

The pilot project is being launched in the Varna municipality because it has been reported as a place of origin of human trafficking victims and also a destination for internal and external human trafficking.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=136022

Integrated Social Policies for Roma Communities

The project was implemented with the partnership between EDROM (Edirne Roma Culture Research, Development and Solidarity Association), Bosphorus University Social Policy Forum and Anatolia Culture Foundation. The outputs and social policy proposals attained by field researches conducted in different regions of Turkey were presented in the conference. Under the light of the disclosed report, the experts from Europe and Turkey discussed the social policies for Roma communities.

The conference was supported by TACSO and the outputs of the project were aimed to facilitate a more efficient social policy advocacy to Roma CSOs against the social exclusion experienced by Roma people.