20 February 1856 - The End of Roma Slavery in Romania
Press Release
February 20th Bucharest
After 150 years from the abolition of slavery the collective image of Romanian Roma hasn’t changed much; they are still seen by most of the majority population as subhuman and inferior. That was the conclusion of today’s round table organized by Amare Romentza.
The round table brought together mainstream politicians, academics, government representatives, anti-discrimination activists and a large number of Romani public personalities.
The press conference following the round table saw Mircea Toma, a leading figure of the Romanian mass media, reading an introductory text in Romani as well as parts of the text from the original law abolishing slavery.
The press conference was followed by a march through Bucharest of the participants which passed the main state institutions and ended in the front of the main Romanian orthodox church .
The Romanian Orthodox Church was responsible for the enslavement of Roma for a period of over 500 years. Up to this point it has refused to apologise to the Romanian Roma.
The press covered the march and the activities of today at length, but some of the press coverage proved once again that anti-Gypsyism is rampant and considered normal in Romania.
A coalition of the major players in Romani Rights - Romani Criss, Agentia Impreuna, the Monitoring Agency of Academia Catavencu, Amare Romentza, with the support of the Romanian Agency for Roma - were behind today’s activities in Romania.
“It would be absolutely normal to have the Orthodox Church acknowledging and apologizing for slavery, would be normal to hear the same thing from the Romanian Government about the Holocaust of the Romanian Roma, and today is hopefully the start of the process of reparations and normality within the Romanian society” concluded Magda Matache the director of Romani Criss at the end of the day.
For more information, please see:
Romano Liloro (Photo Source): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romano_Liloro
Roma Network: http://www.romanetwork.org
European Roma Information Office: http://www.erionet.org
and
Anti-Slavery International: http://www.antislavery.org
Press Release
February 20th Bucharest
After 150 years from the abolition of slavery the collective image of Romanian Roma hasn’t changed much; they are still seen by most of the majority population as subhuman and inferior. That was the conclusion of today’s round table organized by Amare Romentza.
The round table brought together mainstream politicians, academics, government representatives, anti-discrimination activists and a large number of Romani public personalities.
The press conference following the round table saw Mircea Toma, a leading figure of the Romanian mass media, reading an introductory text in Romani as well as parts of the text from the original law abolishing slavery.
The press conference was followed by a march through Bucharest of the participants which passed the main state institutions and ended in the front of the main Romanian orthodox church .
The Romanian Orthodox Church was responsible for the enslavement of Roma for a period of over 500 years. Up to this point it has refused to apologise to the Romanian Roma.
The press covered the march and the activities of today at length, but some of the press coverage proved once again that anti-Gypsyism is rampant and considered normal in Romania.
A coalition of the major players in Romani Rights - Romani Criss, Agentia Impreuna, the Monitoring Agency of Academia Catavencu, Amare Romentza, with the support of the Romanian Agency for Roma - were behind today’s activities in Romania.
“It would be absolutely normal to have the Orthodox Church acknowledging and apologizing for slavery, would be normal to hear the same thing from the Romanian Government about the Holocaust of the Romanian Roma, and today is hopefully the start of the process of reparations and normality within the Romanian society” concluded Magda Matache the director of Romani Criss at the end of the day.
For more information, please see:
Romano Liloro (Photo Source): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romano_Liloro
Roma Network: http://www.romanetwork.org
European Roma Information Office: http://www.erionet.org
and
Anti-Slavery International: http://www.antislavery.org