LIVE BROADCAST: Elena Gorolová and European Commission Vice-President Jourová open international conference on anti-Roma racism
On Monday, 29 March, the international launching conference for the “CHACHIPEN” project researching anti-Roma racism, also called antigypsyism, will begin at 9 AM. The crucial aim of the project is to respond to historically rooted, systemic antigypsyism and to achieve justice, equality, non-discrimination and the full participation of Romani people in all activities of importance as equal citizens in Europe.
News server Romea.cz will broadcast the conference live. The project will be making use an approach following the Truth and Reconciliation model to assess past cases of rights violations and the ongoing structural discrimination of Romani people in the EU.
The opening section will include Věra Jourová, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency and Duna Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. Romani community member Elena Gorolová of the Czech Republic will then discuss the forced sterilizations that have taken place in the former Czechoslovakia and present-day Czech Republic.
“We will discuss how we can renew trust between non-Romani people and Romani people, and what role mainstream institutions can play in that. Our experts will also discuss differences of approach and the role of activism for the civil rights of Romani people as part of the new EU Roma strategic framework for equality and inclusion,” organizers have announced along with the information that the conference will be interpreted into Romanes.
The international conference is being held ahead of the 50th anniversary of the first international meeting of Romani people in 1971, which will fall on 8 April as International Romani Day and is being organized by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the European Roma Grassroots Organizations network, the Federación de Asociaciones Gitanas de Cataluña (FAGIC), Asociatia Fast Forward and the ARESEL network from Romania. The conference program is here:
