Slovakia, formerly a part of Czechoslovakia, became an independent state in 1993. At that time, the transition to a market economy which started after the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 was already under way. One of the first effects of the process was mass unemployment, which started at a meager 1.6% in 1990, but grew to almost 12% by 1991 and reached a historic high of 19.2% in 2001.
Continue reading Slovakia’s unemployed riots of 2004In Bulgaria, Roma communities were sprayed with disinfectant from crop dusters this spring as coronavirus cases surged in the country. In Slovakia, their villages were the only ones where the army conducted testing. And across Central and Eastern Europe, reports of police using excessive force against Roma spiked as officers were deployed to enforce lockdowns in their towns.
Human rights activists and experts say local officials in several countries with significant Roma populations have used the pandemic to unlawfully target the minority group, which is Europe’s largest and has faced centuries of severe discrimination. With COVID-19 cases now resurging across the continent, some experts fear the repression will return, too.
Continue reading Some European officials use virus as a cover to target Roma
Viele Roma sind wegen ihrer ärmlichen Lebens- und Wohnbedingungen in der Coronakrise besonders gefährdet. Doch statt staatlicher Hilfe erleben sie derzeit eine doppelte Diskriminierung.
Continue reading Stigmatisierende Sondermaßnahmen gegen Roma: Der kollektive Virus-Verdacht
On International Roma Day this year, Amnesty International calls on the government of Slovakia to ensure that human rights are at the centre of any COVID-19 response measures. Amnesty International is seriously concerned that conducting targeted testing in Roma settlements without providing Roma the necessary means to protect themselves will only add to stigmatisation and prejudice they already face.
Europe’s Roma communities are often living on polluted wastelands and lacking running water or sanitation in their homes as a result of “environmental racism”, a report has concluded.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a pan-European network of green NGOs, found Roma communities were often excluded from basic services, such as piped drinking water, sanitation and rubbish collection, while frequently living at or near some of the dirtiest sites in Europe, such as landfills or contaminated industrial land.
As many as 10 million Roma people live in Europe, including 6 million in EU member states. While their social exclusion has been long documented, EEB researchers say denial of basic services and exposure to pollution has been overlooked. Continue reading Roma suffer under EU’s ‚environmental racism‘, report concludes
In Mittel- und Südosteuropa leben Hunderttausende Roma in Elendssiedlungen – hier bahnt sich ein Corona-Desaster an. Doch statt den Betroffenen zu helfen, setzen Regierungen oft Polizei und Militär ein. Continue reading Corona-Krise und Roma: Die vergessene Risikogruppe
This is a joint report commissioned by the Council of Europe to the Georg Eckert Institute in partnership with the Roma Education Fund which seeks to analyse the representation of Roma in curricula and textbooks currently in use in upper levels of primary and secondary schools across Europe. The study includes the subjects of history, civic education and geography from 21 member states of the Council of Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, and from Kosovo. The focus of the study is on the 10-18 age group, covered in most countries by lower and upper secondary schooling (namely ISCED levels 2 and 3).
Source: Georg Eckert Institute
Date: 06.04.2020
Die Coronakrise trifft Minderheiten besonders hart. Werden Sinti und Roma zu Sündenböcken? In Bulgarien wurden die ersten Siedlungen abgeriegelt.
Es ist nur ein Gerücht, aber es entfacht eine verheerende Wirkung: Angeblich haben Roma-Migranten, die aus Deutschland und anderen Teilen Westeuropas nach Bulgarien zurückreisten, das Coronavirus in den Balkanstaat eingeschleppt. Die ersten beiden Bulgaren, die sich infizierten und später sogar starben, sollen sich, wie es heißt, nur deshalb angesteckt haben, weil Roma entgegen den Empfehlungen der bulgarischen Regierung sorglos gehandelt und so ihre Landsleute in Gefahr gebracht hätten. Von „mangelnder Disziplin“ der Roma ist die Rede. Continue reading Sinti und Roma in der Coronakrise: Es drohen Rassismus, Pogrome, Hungersnot
The word “Zigeuner” (“gypsy”) is derived from the Greek athinganoi, meaning “untouchable” and refers to the position of Roma within the Indian caste system. Already in the thirteenth century, this exonym was applied to “asocial elements” – for example, within the context of the first European “edict against the Gypsy plight”. For the Nazis, the term was synonymous with “unwertes Leben” (unworthy of life) and was widely circulated in Nazi mass propaganda. Even today, the word is still often used without thinking about it.
Harri Stojka with his sisters Sissi (right) und Doris Stojka. Photo: Reinhard Loidl
The aim of the campaign Ich bin gegen das Wort “Zigeuner” (“I am against the word ‘Zigeuner’”) is to knowingly present the term as what it actually is: a negative and clearly discriminatory term, which is offensive to Roma. At the same time, the project aims to dismantle and fight prejudices against Roma and Sinti.<a id="anchor-footnote-1" href="https://www.eurozine.com/we-are-against-the-word-zigeuner/?fbclid=IwAR3bUeZ64FwtN9zpZUepRaMl2I-1GWqvlH9SY6rJMf-zeUTH-M4IocB7kZw#footnote-1" data-trigger="manual" data-placement="bottom" data-toggle="popover" data-html="TRUE" data-content="Roma and Sinti are the largest ethnic minority in Europe There are between ten and twelve million Roma… „>1
The campaign was initiated by people closely associated with the Gipsy Music Association, and demands that “Zigeuner” disappear from media reports, product names, and ultimately from everyday use all together. They also point out that the majority of the Roma community in Austria does not want to be called “Zigeuner” and demand that this wish finally be respected. The correct term is “Roma and Sinti”.
It is true that some Roma do indeed call themselves “Zigeuner.” There are many reasons for this, the most important one being that the word “Zigeuner” means different things in different languages. Roma in Hungary and Romania proudly call themselves “Zigeuner”, while in Slovakia the same word means “thief”. However, even Roma are often unaware of its meaning and negative connotations. For this reason, the initiators stress the importance that the campaign target everyone: Roma as well as non-Roma.
Gilda-Nancy Horvath. Photo: Reinhard Loidl
A central element of the campaign are photos of people from politics, media and other fields, holding up signs with the hand-written words: “Ich bin gegen das Wort ‘Zigeuner’.” Support for the campaign has been surprisingly broad: over 1,000 people have allowed their photos to be taken. These photos have been displayed in various exhibitions, a book and a video, in addition to their use in public relations and media co-operations. The campaign also includes workshops, for example in schools that aim to dismantle the prejudices around the values, culture and images of Roma.
Das European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) hat ein Video erhalten, das zeigt, wie Polizisten wahllos Roma auf der Straße in Zborov (Slowakei) angreifen. Die Polizei drang am 16. April in das Roma-Viertel ein und begann willkürlich Roma zu schlagen – einschließlich Kinder und ältere Leute.
Drei Menschen benötigten medizinische Hilfe: ein fünfjähriger Junge, ein Mann in den 40ern mit einem Herzleiden und eine ältere Frau mit Behinderungen. Das ERRC hat erfahren, dass der Krankenwagen, der gerufen wurde, um die verletzten Mitglieder der Community zu behandeln, zeitweise von der Polizei behindert wurde. Zeug_innen, die die Gewalt gefilmt hatten, bekamen später Besuch von der Polizei und wurden aufgefordert das Filmmaterial zu löschen. Unser Informant weigerte sich.
Die Polizei war gerufen worden, nachdem ein Streit in der Nachbarschaft ausgebrochen war. Sie reagierte mit gezogenen Schlagstöcken, verursachte Terror unter den Bewohner_innen und schlug Männer, Frauen und Kinder, die ihr in den Weg kamen. Ein Bewohner sagte: „Wenn jemand versuchte, vernünftig mit ihnen zu reden und an sie appellierte, aufzuhören, wurde er geschlagen.“
Innenminister Robert Kalinak hat Pläne angekündigt, mehr Polizeikräfte in Gemeinden mit hoher Roma-Bevölkerung einzusetzen.
Das ERRC hat Kriminalitätsstatistiken untersucht und herausgefunden, dass es sich bei den vorgeschlagenen Gemeinden nicht um diejenigen mit den höchsten Kriminalitätsraten handelt, sondern um diejenigen mit relativ hoher Roma-Bevölkerung. Aus den Daten der Regierung ergibt sich kein starker Zusammenhang zwischen hoher Roma-Bevölkerung in einer Gemeinde und erhöhter Kriminalitätsrate.
Die aktuelle Regierung benutzt Roma einmal mehr als Sündenbock für billige politische Ziele. Der Kampf gegen so genannte „Zigeunerkriminalität“ ist ein beliebtes Mittel slowakischer Politiker_innen, um an den unter Wähler_innen verbreiteten Antiromaismus zu appellieren. Es gibt wenig Beweise, dass es die Kriminalitätsrate in den Gebieten senken würde, wenn die Polizeikräfte in den Roma-Vierteln erhöht würde.
Quelle und Video: RAN
Stand: 29.05.2017