“75 years since liberation and a lesson unlearnt! Antigypsyism is still alive and present in our society.”
On 2 August 1944, over 4,300 Sinti and Roma were murdered in the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were taken during the night from their barracks to the gas chamber by SS guards, who only months earlier had been driven back by the fierce resistance of the Romani prisoners fighting with nothing but picks and shovels. Every year on this tragic day, Sinti and Roma around the world come together to commemorate the more than 500,000 Romani people who were murdered in camps, fields, and unmarked trenches all across Europe during WWII.
Although Roma have been part of Europe for centuries, our narratives and contributions to European societies remain largely ignored and on the margins of what European history should be representing, namely united through diversity.
75 years have passed since the end of World War II, but children are still not learning about the Sinti and Roma Holocaust in school. Historical facts about the persecution of Romani people throughout centuries remain unknown and ignored by governments, the media and society at large. The historical responsibility for seeking the truth and reconcile, to recognize what has been done to the Sinti and Roma is only very slowly being taken up by governments.
The lessons of World War II are unlearnt when it comes to the Roma. We are still facing antigypsyism, discrimination, hate speech and exclusion. Prejudices and stereotypes related to our ethnicity remain the primary obstacle in our efforts for an equal start and treatment and in the exercise of our fundamental rights and obligations.
Europe is facing a real challenge to respond to the rise of antigypsyism, which is accelerating in the current crisis. Roma in Europe are more likely to live in poverty than the majority population, have a higher risk of unemployment and have poorer health. They are exposed to racism (with, in some countries, one third to half the population not wanting to work with Roma colleagues), and are more often victims of police brutality. Locked in ghettos supposedly due to Covid-19 safety measures, we became even more targets of populism and hatred, largely ignored by policymakers in Europe.
Today, with the rise of racism and far-right movements across Europe and the world, raising awareness of the Roma Holocaust is urgently necessary. We need recognition, remembrance and commemoration of the Sinti and Roma Holocaust in order to learn for the future by remembering the past, and we need to act in the presence to prevent the past from ever happening again in the future. Ignorance and denial of the Holocaust of Roma and Sinti, as of any other event in the history of a nation, prevents opportunities to learn about each other, from each other; and to set out together on a path of mutual trust, respect and understanding.
This is our world; we must avoid that it is becoming a community of fear and hatred, instead we should strive to be a proud and equal society of mutual respect of all!
On the occasion of the commemoration of the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, we as ERGO Network join the efforts of the European Roma Holocaust Remembrance Coalition and call on governments and the international community to:
Formally recognize the 2nd August as the official Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma;
Build, honor and preserve monuments and memorial sites dedicated to the Sinti and Roma victims of the Holocaust;
Invest into museums, research centers and other institutions dedicated to Roma Holocaust, Roma History and Roma Culture;
Make Roma history and culture part of educational curricula and textbook;
Acknowledge antigypsyism as a specific form of racism targeting Roma communities and adapt diverse preventive and reactive tools to fight it.
Throughout Europe, most governments have not designed or implemented specific measures to address the vulnerability of Roma, Sinti and Travellers during the coronavirus pandemic. Roma, Sinti and Travellers are amongst the most affected and impacted by Covid-19, mainly due to devastating living conditions, exclusion, and widespread antigypsyism.
ERGO Network is conducting a study which aims to look into the impact of Covid-19 on Roma communities in Europe, by illustrating the situation of Roma, Sinti and Travellers in their access to basic services and humanitarian aid, education, employment, health care, housing, and social protection, as well as how they are affected by discrimination and racism. It will also look into the situation of those forced to migrate internally or to another European country for economic reasons. The questionnaire was inspired by the study conducted by the Fundatión Secretariado Gitano in Spain.
The results of the study will be used by the ERGO Network Secretariat and its members to engage in advocacy with policy makers at EU and national levels regarding the integration of Roma and Travellers specific measures within the EU Recovery Plan and European funding instruments for temporary support and the Emergency Fund for Vulnerable Group Rights and Value Programme, the European Semester, the New Green Deal etc. Equally, study recommendations should be reflected in the post 2020 EU Roma Framework Strategy and National Roma Integration Strategies.
We are asking you to take 20 minutes and fill in the questionnaire and let us know about your experience in education, employment, poverty, healthcare, housing, migration and discrimination under Covid-19. We want to hear your story and the positive or negative actions undertaken by the national authorities or organizations in order to respond to realities on the ground.
On 25 May 2020 George Floyd, an African American man, was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mass protests in response to his death quickly spread across the United States and internationally in a joint mobilisation against police violence and structural racism. Across the world, people have started to take down statues of colonisers and racist figures. A global Black Lives Matter movement is surging alongside wider anti-racist movements in an attempt to restore centuries of injustice, killings and oppression of people of African descent, but also institutional and structural racism and discrimination of all ethnic and racialised minorities.
As ERGO Network we stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and we say it loud and clear: In Europe, Black and Brown Lives matter! We hope that everyone now protesting on the streets takes this into account in their political demands as well as in their own everyday lives.
Photo: Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga
Structural racism and discrimination against ethnic and racialised minorities are deeply rooted in European societies. Across the EU, people of African descent, Roma, Muslims, Jews and immigrants face widespread and entrenched prejudice and exclusion. Racial discrimination and harassment are common place.
Roma in Europe are more likely to live in poverty than the majority population, have a higher risk of unemployment and have poorer health – as tragically seen during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are exposed to racism by their co-citizens (with, in some countries, one third to half the population not wanting to work with Roma colleagues according to a Fundamental Rights Agency survey), and more often victims police brutality. Just in the last couple of months, 14 year old Gabriel Djordjevic was severely beaten by police in Paris, 5 Romani children between 7 and 11 were beaten by police in Slovakia, approximately 20 Romani men and women were beaten by police in Romania and a young man during a police control in the Netherlands.
The pandemic exposed the racial bias of the police even more: Between March and May 2020, Amnesty International documented cases of militarized quarantines of ten Roma settlements in Bulgaria and Slovakia. This disproportionate restriction on freedom of movement that selectively targets ethnic minority groups, without evidence that they represent an objective threat to public health or security, imposes an unnecessary and disproportionate burden on this group and amounts to discrimination.
It is regrettable that 70 years after the adoption of the European Convention of Human Rights and subsequent international and EU standards on equality and anti-discrimination, minorities continue to be racialised, harassed, attacked and killed in Europe because of their innate characteristics. It is scandalous that the EU and national legislative frameworks and state institutions fail to protect them and to educate themselves and the majority populations about historical facts, diversity, compassion and living together as equal human beings.
Looking at the construction, priorities and progress of the European Union, it is safe to claim that European leaders have prioritised economic growth over the protection of the most vulnerable groups in our societies and over ensuring equity of wealth and wellbeing across the world. The strong awakening, protesting and mobilisation of the majority population in times of a global pandemic to the persistent racism and dehumanization and consequences of colonialism, slavery and historic oppression such as the Holocaust is an unprecedented moment in the history of humanity. It speaks to the urgency with which world and European leaders need to take corresponding unprecedented steps to bring about fundamental changes in our society. Only with systemic change can we set up a social contract that ensures justice and equality for all, prioritizing those most marginalised and oppressed to date.
Since the start of the protests, many political figures in Europe have spoken out in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. While we appreciate condemnation of police violence in the US, the EU leadership has not said or done enough to acknowledge and address structural racism and racist police violence in the EU against ethnic and religious minorities. As quoted in the Financial Times on 3 June 2020, European Commission Vice-President Schinas went as far as saying “I do not think that we have issues now in Europe that blatantly pertain to police brutality or issues of race transcending into our systems.” This is a slap in the face of all victims of police violence in Europe, including many Roma. Member of the European Parliament Pierrette Herzberger Fofana set the record straight when she had the courage to publicly talk about her personal experience with racist police violence at the Gare du Nord in Brussels just a few days after Schinas’ comment.
Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana | Photo credit: European Parliament Audiovisual
In a rushed action, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on anti-racism protests (2020/2685(RSP)) on 19 June. It shows that public pressure can work and that the Parliament sees an urgency to react, but failed to appropriately address structural racism in Europe. The title of the resolution is related to the US protests following the death of George Floyd, without a clear intention and focus on structural racism against all racialized minorities in Europe, triggered by events in the US. An immediate reaction and a resolution by the European Parliament requesting an unprecedented response by the European Commission and EU Council like in the case of Covid-19 is still necessary; therefore such a resolution should have focused primarily on EU Members States, Enlargement and Neighborhood Countries and involved Roma and other anti-racist civil society and racialized minorities in drafting it. Structural and institutional racism cannot be tackled without listening to those suffering under it. When it comes to its ambitions, the resolution is asking for an European Anti-Racism Summit, a comprehensive strategy against racism and discrimination and an EU Framework for National Action Plans Against Racism, the creation of a EU Council mechanism for equality and an interinstitutional task force to fight racism and discrimination at EU level.
Following the adoption of the resolution, the all-white European Commission held an internal debate on racism and decided that an “Action Plan to address racial discrimination and Afrophobia” would be prepared by Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli. While we believe this is a too low of a bargain for racialized minorities,we truly hope that this Action Plan on paper will really be followed up by REAL Action – not just by the EU institutions but also by its Member States and adhering countries, and that it will be prepared in close consultation and at equal level with ALL racialized minorities, including Roma, and CSOs.
Here are some of our recommendations to the EU institutions and member States.
Finally adopt the 10-year old draft of the Horizontal Anti-discrimination Directive
Systematically record and publish disaggregated data on hate crime
Fully transpose and apply the provisions of the Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia, treating racist and xenophobic motivation as an aggravating circumstance
Address ongoing ill-treatment, profiling and over-policing of minorities by police officers.
Reform internal policies and working methods in order to ensure a fair representation of minority populations within EU institutions as well as an adequate participation and consultation of minority groups in EU decisions in policies, programmes and funding
Commit to an ambitious, comprehensive, and binding EU Strategic Framework for Roma to achieve equality, social and economic justice, and combat antigypsyism.
Ensure equitable access to quality inclusive education for all children and invest consistently in raising awareness and adequately teach European societies about their colonial and racist past, including the history of antigypsyism.
Define segregation as illegal in housing and in education.
Address discrimination of minority groups in employment.
Take into account the needs of racialised minorities and define them as a priority in all mainstream policies and measures of the Covid-19 recovery plan; meaningfully involve Roma stakeholders and their civil society organisations in the design, implementation, and monitoring of such recovery plans
Ensure funding for equality and fundamental rights of minority groups under the Multi-Annual Framework.
For more information on our work addressing antigypsyism in Europe, please contact Senior Advocacy Officer Isabela Mihalache (i.mihalache@ergonetwork.org).
Coronavirus: NGOs warn against Roma exclusion from EU crisis response
ERGO Network together with 8 other (pro-)Roma civil society organisations have sent a letter to EU Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, calling on the Commission to do its utmost to ensure that in drawing down on crisis funds, Member States do not further discriminate against Roma and other racialized minorities.
The Brussels Times reported about the letter here.
The letter was signed by the European Roma Rights Centre, ERGO Network, European Network against Racism, Roma Education Fund, European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Roma Active Albania, Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and Fundacion Secretariado Gitano.
In order to ensure a strong commitment and tangible results by European institutions to the post-2020 EU policy on Roma, a number of Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations have come together and established a Post-2020 European Roma Coalition (working title). The aim of the Coalition is to achieve substantive equality, participation and social justice of Roma in all spheres of life by combating antigypsyism, strengthening Roma and pro-Roma civil society and by fostering principles of good governance into the Roma policies at the EU and national levels, political will and institutional accountability.
The Coalition started being operational on 17 February 2020, on the occasion of the European Commission`s publication of the Roadmap-setting out the EU post 2020 Roma equality and inclusion policy.
The Post-2020 European Roma Coalition welcomes the commitment of the European Commission to develop a reinforced post-2020 European Strategic Framework and calls for an ambitious and binding “Post-2020 European Strategic Framework for Roma equality, social and economic justice, and combating antigypsyism” aiming at achieving substantive equality and full participation of Roma as equal citizens across Europe to be created.
In addition, the joint statement addresses several aspects of the Roadmap that should be fully considered when designing the future EU Strategic Framework, such as:
Ensuring the fundamental-rights, anti-racism, and empowerment approach;
Improving governance, policy mainstreaming, and effective implementation;
Increasing investment of the EU and Member states to Roma communities.
The Coalition is also calling for seven main priority areas to be established under the EU Framework, including: (a) fighting antigypsyism and discrimination; (b) effective empowerment and participation in art, history and media; (c) quality and inclusive education; (d) quality and sustainable employment; (e) quality healthcare and universal health insurance; (f) adequate and desegregated housing and (g) eradicating poverty and social exclusion.
Furthermore, the Coalition asked the European Commission to expand the list of cross-cutting priorities within the EU Framework, including, but are not limited to: Environmental injustice/racism; Gender mainstreaming and intersectional and multiple discrimination with a focus on key priority groups: children, young people, women, LGBTQI+ persons, persons with disabilities, and elderly people; Intra-EU mobility and migration; and Diversity of Roma (Sinti, Travellers, Manush, Kale, and other related groups).
All signatory organisations underlined that Roma and civil society organisations should be an integral part in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the Framework. In addition, the Roadmap should transform Roma participation into a binding common quality standard for the future European Strategic Framework and National Strategies.
The Coalition members which have contributed to the letter include: Alliance against Antigypsyism, Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Center for Policy Studies of the Central European University, European Network Against Racism (ENAR), European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network, European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG), Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI), Phiren Amenca International Network, Roma Active Albania (RAA), Roma Education Fund (REF), Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI), and ternYpe International Roma Youth Network.
