Slovak President Andrej Kiska gives state honors to two Romani figures
Slovak President Andrej Kiska has given high state honors to two distinguished Romani figures, among others: Klára Orgovánová, the former Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for the Roma Community, was awarded the Order of Ľudovít Štúr First Class and historian Zuzana Kumanová was awarded the Pribin Cross First Class. The honors ceremony was held on the occasion of the state holiday marking the anniversary of an independent Slovakia, which falls on 1 January and is the country’s 26th this year.
Kiska honored a total of 30 persons, including the Czech actor Josef Abrhám, and gave posthumous honors to the late lawyer and politician Dagmar Burešová, the recently-murdered journalist Ján Kuciak, and the late singer Miroslav Žbirka. “It is my personal pleasure to honor, in the name of the Slovak Republic, 30 people thanks to whom our country is more just, more decent, and a better place for us all to live,” the President said in his speech.
“Today I am able to give these decorations to those who make us proud,” Kiska said. Orgovánová received her honors for her exceptional service to the development of democracy and the protection of human rights and freedoms.
Originally from Prešov, she graduated in clinical psychology from the Faculty of Arts at the university in Košice. During the 1980s she worked as a registered clinical psychologist at a psychiatric treatment facility in Prešov.
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For 30 years she has dedicated herself with great focus to improving the position of excluded Romani communities in Slovakia. In 1991 Orgovánová established the Foundation for the Romani Child and in 1995 the InfoRoma Foundation, which she led until 2001.
From 1991-1993 she worked for the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in its Section for Nationalities and Human Rights as an adviser on nationalities, and from 1993-2001 she worked as a program director of the Open Society Foundation in Bratislava (NOS/OSF). In 2001 she became the Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for the Romani Community.
Orgovánová served in that office until 2007. Currently she is the director of the Roma Institute and is a recent recipient of the Lúč z tmy (Light in the Darkness) award.
Ethnographer and historian Zuzana Kumanová received state honors for her exceptional contribution to the social development of the Slovak Republic in the area of ethnography and history and for her activities through the Ma bisteren! project, thanks to which she has disseminated the watchword “Never Forget!” Kumanová researches the Holocaust and its Romani victims and tells their stories, which have been forgotten for years.
For decades she has aided with restoring the identities of these otherwise anonymous victims. She organizes regular commemorative ceremonies and has installed memorial plaques at significant locations where Romani people died during the existence of the Slovak State (1939-1945).
Kumanová also received the Light in the Darkness award recently. As for double bassist Roman Patkoló, he was honored for his exceptional contribution to the cultural development of the Slovak Republic in the area of the performing arts.
These state honors were the last to be awarded by President Kiska, whose five-year term ends in June and who has already decided not to run for re-election. Last year he gave state honors to 25 eminent figures.
