ROMA VIRTUAL NETWORK
On-Line Bulletin 22/05/2012
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Eurovision 2012 – Vote for Sofi Marinova: http://www.facebook.com/sofieurovisionOn-line Calendar of Roma Events: http://www.my.calendars.net/Roma_Network
Open Society Roma Initiatives now on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RomaInitiatives
Roma News on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Roma.Virtual.Network
Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015: http://www.facebook.com/RomaDecade
World Artists Initiative “Khetanes”: http://www.khetanes.com
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15/05/2012 – A leading Roma activist based in Britain is facing extradition to Bulgaria – where his life will be in danger from racists. Toma Nikolaev was imprisoned in Bulgaria after speaking out for Roma rights. “There’s a lot of discrimination and racism against Roma people in Bulgaria,” he told Socialist Worker.
He first came to Britain in 2001 and applied for political asylum here. But now the Bulgarian government has applied for his extradition. Toma was arrested under a European warrant shortly after he joined a protest at the Bulgarian embassy in London on 8 April. An extradition hearing is set to take place on Tuesday of next week. If Toma is forced to leave Britain he faces prison. He was sentenced to a year in jail for public order offences after a Bulgarian police officer accused him of “acting in a disorderly manner”.
Read more on http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=28487
Ireland’s National Roma Integration Strategy fails to address fact that Roma are not permitted to work in Ireland
15/05/2012 – The European Commission published an EU Framework for national Roma Integration Strategies in 2011. The Framework requires Member States to ensure that Roma are not discriminated against but treated like any other EU citizens with equal access to all fundamental rights as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Under the Framework, all Member States were expected to present to the European Commission a strategy for Roma inclusion or sets of policy measures within their social inclusion policies for improving the situation of Roma people. Ireland has duly submitted its policy, which was prepared by the Traveller Policy Division of the Department of Justice and Equality.
Before 2011, Nasc assisted a handful of Roma service-users each year. In mid 2011, we were invited to participate in a Roma Research Project spearheaded by the Cork City Partnership. The need for Nasc to provide a specific information and advocacy service for Roma people directly emerged because of the specific and multiple needs of this vulnerable group, and we commenced working with Roma people in 2011. Our work in this area resulted, for the first time to our knowledge in the city, in Roma people accessing information and assistance, and succeeding, in some exceptional cases, in accessing employment and social protection in the state.
Italian Authorities Must Protect Roma Facing Violence in Pescara
Budapest, Pescara, 18/05/2012 – The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) has asked Italian authorities to protect Romani citizens in Pescara, who are being targeted with threats of vigilante violence.
An Italian Romani man living in Pescara is suspected of murder, following a killing on 1 May 2012. On the night of the murder, an unknown perpetrator threw two petrol bombs at the suspect’s home. On 5 May the funeral of the murder victim was held, and this became a focal point for anti-Roma sentiment. Many of those who attended the funeral shouted death threats and other verbal attacks against Roma, including calls to expel Roma from Pescara. An online petition calling for the “Expulsion of Gypsies from Pescara” was started.
Read more on http://www.errc.org/article/italian-authorities-must-protect-roma-facing-violence-in-pescara/3989
Hungary: Roma integration policy elevated to ministerial level
21/05/2012 – Zoltan Balog, Hungary new human resources minister, said on Sunday that cooperation with organisations representing Roma would become closer and more efficient now that the matter of Roma integration had reached ministerial level. Balog said the role of the National Roma Self-Government (ORO) and its partnership with the state had to be strengthened at the national and international levels, because this would produce greater success than if it took initiatives by itself.
Balog was speaking at a event marking the first anniversary of the signing of an agreement on social inclusion by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and ORO head Florian Farkas in the village of Lakitelek (SE Hungary). Balog was state secretary in charge of social inclusion during the first half of the government’s term. Balog said there was a struggle on to determine who represents Hungary’s Roma, because the role of the ORO was “intentionally questioned” in “the world of the media, the world of politics” and on the international stage.
Read more on http://www.politics.hu/20120521/roma-integration-policy-elevated-to-ministerial-level/
Revealed: Abuse of Roma at Glasgow job centre ‘routine’
20/05/2012 - “ROMA people are routinely referred to as gypos, scum, beggars, suicide bombers, thieves and paedos amongst staff. It is almost as if there is a competition to see who can make the most outrageous statement for a cheap and nasty laugh,” wrote the whistleblower in an email. The author, who worked at the Laurieston Jobcentre Plus (JCP) in Glasgow, went on to relate the story of a Roma woman who arrived with her two children to sign on.
“The staff were all joking and saying they should sanction her for claiming whilst pimping out her kids. They then went on to make horrible remarks about the children, saying they were ‘mongs.’ “I joined JCP because I thought it would be a way of helping people find jobs and get their lives back on track. Instead, all I see is people having their dignity, confidence and self-respect worn away by JCP staff until they give up.
Read more on http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/revealed-abuse-of-roma-at-glasgow-job-centre-routine-1-2306203
Sulukule has been witness to many lives
A two-storey house used to greet you when you entered Sarmaşık Sokak (Ivy Road). This was Uncle Necati’s house–a very old building, its façade covered with an ivy plant. It was probably the most beautiful building of the neighborhood. The white-haired man had rigorously fought to save his house, but to no avail. Neither his home, nor he himself could survive this struggle. Uncle Necati passed away in the third year of his endeavor. Today, his desolate house is left to rot.
When you enter Sarmaşık Sokak, there used to be a coffee house in the middle of the road. When I went there four years ago, in 2006, I had walked through a courtyard full of ivy to reach this place known as “Şükrü’s coffee house.” A photograph on the wall had caught my attention: a man with a thin and long moustache holding a string of prayer beads in his hand–it was a b/w photograph of Şükrü’s father. His father had his photo taken in this very coffee house run by his son. The coffee house later became the locale of the Sulukule Romani Culture, Solidarity and Development Association and then the Children’s Workshop. And what happened to the coffee house in the four years? If only these rubbles could talk and tell you! The Sulukule Romani Orchestra was born here. Sounds of the tabor, the clarinet and the violin molded together with the shrill of the children. The sound of the violin resonating between the fingers of the fiddler, the children’s Uncle Ali, was heard above any other sound.
Read more on http://www.canimsulukule.blogspot.com/2012/05/sulukuleden-hayatlar-gecti.html
ECMI Caucasus launches Roma integration project in Georgia
19/05/2012 – European Centre for Minority Issues Caucasus starts a new project on Roma issues. The project will last for eight months, beginning in May. ECMI Caucasus’s most recent project is aiming at further advancement and empowerment of the Roma community. It is particularly oriented towards creating a positive environment for better economic, social and civil participation of all marginalized Roma communities in Georgia.
Read more on http://www.infoecmi.eu/index.php/ecmi-caucasus-launches-roma-integration-project-in-georgia/
Peggy Nash on Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on this bill really on behalf of my riding of Parkdale—High Park, an urban riding in the west end of Toronto and home to communities that have come together from many different countries. There are people who came, like my grandparents, from the U.K. There are people who have come from Asia, from Africa, from the U.S., from Europe, from all over, in waves of different immigrants.
Some, like my family, came with not much more than their ability to work hard and their desire to make a better life for themselves and their families. People who were able to immigrate to this great country have seen their families go on to make a contribution that was beyond their imagination at that time.
Read more on http://openparliament.ca/debates/2012/5/17/peggy-nash-1/only/
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Roma Education Conference – Corvinus University – Budapest, Hungary – 25 May 2012
WORKING TOGETHER FOR ROMA INCLUSION IN THE SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY – A conference to be held at the Corvinus University Budapest on the 25th May is now open for registration.
Link: http://www.romabuzzmonitor.net/2012/04/roma-education-conference-corvinus-university-25-may-2012/
The EU Roma Framework and its Recently presented National Strategies: A Critical Assessment – 29 May 2012 – Brussels, Belgium
This lunch debate by the Brussels office of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung analyses the recent EU Roma Framework and assesses the various strategies prepared by national governments as a response to this strategy.
In the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, endorsed by the European Council in June 2011, the European Commission defined four main areas in which improvement will have to be made in order to advance social and economic Roma inclusion in Europe: education, employment, healthcare and housing. Moreover, the Commission requested that all EU Member States draft their own national strategies by the end of 2011, since the situation of Roma is different in each and every country, and therefore needs different approaches in Prague than in Madrid. In other words: important progress has been made. Nevertheless, numerous experts and NGOs have criticised the EU Framework for not being comprehensive enough.
Read more on http://gef.eu/partner/the-eu-roma-framework-and-its-recently-presented-national-strategies-a-critical-assessment/
IRAF – International Romani Art Festival – 7 to 10 June 2012 – Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest will host in June 7 to 10 the next edition of one of the largest and most complex cultural events in the world.
Maintaining standards of excellence that has used the public festival, the 6th edition of IRAF first headliner of the event announced that none other than Lulo Reinhardt, a master of acoustic guitar in a jazz exceptionally project, which are honorable musical heritage of the famous Django Reinhardt, whose descendant is the artist.
Youth Assembly – 4-8 October 2012 – European Youth Centre Strasbourg
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Youth Foundation and the European Youth Centre are launching a call for applications for the Youth Assembly 2012: Youth and Democracy- the young generation sacrificed?
This activity will take place on 4-8 October 2012 (arrival and departure days) at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg. The Youth Assembly will bring together 170 young people from all over Europe to reflect on youth’s current challenges to democracy and to formulate common recommendations to the World Forum on democracy on how young people can better benefit and develop more democratic and inclusive societies. The event will take place in English and French with simultaneous interpretation.
Participants should be young people aged 16-25 who are actively involved in youth work, civil society movements or processes for democracy. Interested candidates should fill in their application online, folowing the link: http://youthapplications.coe.int. In order to be able to apply online, participants will be asked to register first and follow the instructions. A detailed description of the Youth Assembly can be found together with the online application form.
Please note that the deadline for applications is Wednesday 30th May 2012!
Alternative strategies of Romani mobilization - Cambridge, UK – 5-8 April 2013
UACES sponsored collaborative research network “Romanis in Europe” is now calling for papers for a panel on ‘Alternative strategies of Roma mobilization’ at the 2013 BASEES/ICCEES European Congress “Europe: Crisis and Renewal” in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge 5-8 April 2013.
Looking at the present day socio-economic situation of Roma communities across countries, discrimination and marginalization have proven to be pan-European phenomena. In this context, the Europeanization of the Roma ‘issue(s)’ has also brought about a large research interest in aspects of Roma trans-national and political organization. Yet, analyses of local, contextual and non-political strategies of Roma mobilization have remained peripheral within the literature.
Read more on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Baltic_Roma/message/1964
Call for application – Roma Access Program CEU 2012-2013
The Roma Access Program is a 9-month preparatory program for promising Roma students from Central and Eastern Europe, designed to prepare promising young Roma for international post-graduate studies in English language programs. Full scholarships will be awarded, covering tuition, housing, travel, and a living stipend.
The application deadline is 30th May 2012.
Roma Access Program: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwoi1EG71ZLTbGkxTmZ6NlIyVk0/edit
Application form: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwoi1EG71ZLTTlBuYWJaUXFDWEk/edit
Link: http://www.ceu.hu/rap-call
Translations Now Online – Call for Applications: Roma English Language Program 2012-2013
Central European University and the Open Society Roma Initiatives are pleased to announce scholarship opportunities for an 8-month intensive English language training program in Budapest during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Qualified young Roma university graduates from Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine are welcome to apply.
Application deadline: June 4, 2012.
Read more on http://www.romadecade.org/relp_2012
Roma English Language Program
Please find attached the Call for Applications to CEU’s Roma English Language Program 2012/2013. This is an 8-month-long intensive English Language training for young Roma graduates from Central and Eastern Europe in order for them to successfully apply for the European Commission Internship for Young Roma University Graduates, the Roma Access Program at CEU, and other internship, career and educational opportunities. Successful students will be awarded full scholarship covering tuition fee, accommodation, health insurance, travel expenses and a monthly stipend.
Applicants from the following countries are eligible to apply: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Application deadline: June 4, 2012.
Read more on http://www.romadecade.org/relp_2012
Call for Applications: Summer Roma Fellowship Program in Bulgaria
Open Society Institute Sofia and the United States Embassy in Sofia are announcing a first round of applications for two Fellowship positions in the Embassy. The Summer Roma Fellowship Program is only open to Roma Bulgarians who are either enrolled in university or have recently graduated.
The Roma Fellowship Program allows university students with an interest in international relations and public administration to gain an insight into the work of the Embassy. Using opportunities inherent in the Embassy environment, the Fellows will be exposed to language training, life coaching and professional experiences which could add significant value to their future career prospects. Serving as an “introductory professionalization course”, the Fellowship Program aims to develop basic skills that potential employers would consider beneficial.
Candidates must submit all documents no later than June 6th 2012.
Read more on http://bulgaria.usembassy.gov/event_05172012.html
