Breaking the Cycle of Hate: The Rights and Voices of Roma in Europe

Good afternoon, everybody.
Good morning, depending from where you are joining.
My name is Simona Cruani and I am political affairs officer at the UN Office on genocide Prevention and the responsibility to Protect.
It's my pleasure to welcome you to this event today as participants, speakers in this event on the sideline of the International Day for countering a speech, focusing on breaking the cycles of hate and discrimination against the Roma population in Europe.
Before we start, as a chair, let me thank the organizers of this event, starting from the General Rapporteur on Roma and Travelers of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and the permanent mission of Greece to the United Nations, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program, the UN Development Coordination Office for Europe and Central Asia, and my office, the UN Office on Genocide Prevention, and the responsibility to Protect.
I We start and I'll give now the floor to the permanent representative of Greece to the United Nations, Ambassador Aglaa Balta.
Ambassador, the floor is yours.
So much.
Thank you.
To all.
I would like to welcome you to this important event in the framework of the fifth International Day for countering hate speech.
I would like to thank the UN Office on the prevention of genocide and the responsibility to P and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for partnering with us in order to bring this event to life.
Special thanks to the General Rapporteur on Roma and travelers of the Committee on equality and non discrimination at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr.
Rgotamas, whose determination and hard work keep the rights of the Roma high on the international agenda.
Dear colleagues, before turning the floor over to our distinguished panelists, allow me to share some words about the situation of the Roma in my own country, Greece.
The Roma people constitute an integral part of the Greek population and as Greek citizens, they are protected by the Constitution and the laws of the Greek state.
Roma communities are generally young with over one third of the population under 18-years-old, while 8.3% are over 60.
The Greek government has created a robust national strategy and action plan for the social inclusion of the Roma for the years 2021 to 2030 with the active participation of Roma representatives.
It focuses on four pillars, prevention and fight against Roma poverty and social exclusion, enhancing equal access of the Roma to basic services and goods, including education, employment, health, social care, and housing, preventing and combating stereotypes, and discrimination against the Roma and promoting the active participation of the Roma in social, economic and political life.
Regarding education, Roma participation has improved particularly in preschool and primary education, but significant challenges remain.
Only 42% of Roma children attend lower secondary education, 13% upper secondary education, and 17 do not attend school regularly.
Iliteracy remains high, with 33% of the Roma reporting severe or complete illiteracy.
Major barriers include poverty, lack of trust in the education system, enrollment difficulties, early marriage, and poor living conditions.
Greece has implemented measures such as free transportation, flexible enrollment procedures, reception classes, and support from psychologists and social workers.
School curricula increasingly include Roma history, culture, and anti discrimination themes.
Discrimination and social exclusion continue to affect the Roma in housing, education, employment, healthcare, and civic participation.
Greece has strengthened anti discrimination measures through legal reforms, improved hate crime recording systems, police training, and the establishment of the Directorate of Social Policing in 2025.
Independent institutions such as the Ocbudsman and the National Commission for Human Rights participate in monitoring and advisory mechanism.
Raising awareness and empowering the Roma is an important priority for Greece.
Government bodies, municipalities, NGOs, and international partners have implemented initiatives promoting Roma inclusion, intercultural dialogue, and women's empowerment through educational campaigns, cultural activities, and commemorative events.
No society is truly inclusive while segments of the population face discrimination and hate speech online or offline.
I look forward to hearing from our distinguished panelists today on how we can dismantle the barriers to the meaningful participation of the Romaine private and public life.
I thank you.
Thank you, Ambassador Balta for your opening remarks, and then I give the floor to Under Secretary-General and S advisor on the prevention of genocide, Mr.
Charlo Cabagnai.
Thank you very much, Chair.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to welcome you today to this first event that we are jointly hosting on one of the most profoundly under talked issues, which is the vulnerability of the position and experience of Roma in Europe as a target of discrimination, rhetoric, and hate speech.
At the outset, I'd like to thank Her Excellency, Ambassador, miss Aglaa Bota, the permanent representative of Greece the United Nations and Mr.
Giorgio Domaits, the General Rapporteur on Roma and Travelers of the Council of Europe for partnering up with my office and enabling this topic to come forth at the United Nations as we mark the commemoration of the fifth International Day for countering hate speech.
The official theme of this year's marketing is precisely the power of partnerships to break the cycles of hat.
In line with this theme, I'm grateful that for this event today, we are partnering also with the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program.
In our Department of Global Communications and the UN Development Coordination Office for Europe and Central Asia.
These offices that Greg analyzed my mandates and the work of my office, and I look forward to our continuing good cooperation.
Distinguished guests, this side event, the International Day for Countering hate speech focuses on the rights and voices of Roma in Europe, rights and voices that have been forgotten, just as the Romani Holocaust itself and silenced for too long.
The mandate of my office was established in 2004 to provide early warning to ensure that the horrors of genocide never happened again.
It is shaped by the lessons of the Holocaust, of the 1994 genocide against the Tusi in Wanda, and the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, a genocide committed along wider war crimes and crimes against humanity across Bosnia and Herzevina.
Both the Holocaust and the Srepanese genocide happened on European soil.
The Roman population was among the victims of the Romani Holocaust, the Pimos or devouring The Parahimos cutting up in which about 250,000 to 500,000 Roma and Sind people were massacred by the Nazis 1939-1945.
Victims who suffering was rarely mentioned, and when it was recognized, it was recognized insufficiently or late.
Notably in 2015, the European Parliament designated 2nd of August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Roma have been victimized both by the horrors of the crimes committed against them, including forced sterilization and by the absence of visibility of what happened to them.
For example, the Harsina massacre by the Eustace, Croatia in 1945, in ten months at a Gypsy concentration camp at Old Swispek where 21,000 of the 23,000 Roma people who were deported there died.
This is the forgotten Holocaust, despite Roma sharing the experiences of Jewish people and other undesirables and unworthy in the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime.
They also shared the brutal experiences of the conflicts of the 90s in the Balkans being killed, tortured, and displaced.
Brutal experiences that have not yet been fully explained or recognized.
Roma are waiting to be heard as part of the history of the 20th century.
They're also waiting for justice to be done and for reparations to be ensured.
It is not hard to see why this is happening.
The ancient prejudice and stereotypes that have driven the suffering and exclusion of Roma during and after the Holocaust are still alive.
They continue feeding discrimination, hate speech, and hate crimes against this community.
It is a fact that Roma continue to be stigmatized, stereotypes, and dehumanized daily.
In two main contexts, they are considered as public enemies and what many call the Roma issue.
Constitutes a derogatory consideration in itself, is constantly being addressed only through a security lens.
Structural discrimination of Roma is also present in European societies, in many instances visible from the very beginning when Roma children are separated from other schoolchildren in the same schools or placed in schools for children with special needs, despite numerous legal warnings and infringement procedures from the relevant regional organizations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, the European Court of Justice, no less, these practices persist.
Trapping generation after generation into a two tiered, low quality education system and lower starting position in society.
Distinguished guests, this vicious sake of hat needs to be broken once and for all to dismantle centuries of discrimination and hatred and with a direct support and contribution of Roma themselves.
This can be achieved in different ways, including by having Roma stories from the Holocaust, from the war in the former Yugoslavia, and from the lived experience of Roma all the way to today heard and integrated into our history, including history books.
Because education, and we know this from experience, plays a crucial role in understanding the past and present and in preventing future violence and atrocity crimes.
Failing to recognize and address the Roma historical and current experiences puts this community and its existence at enhanced risk of violence and atrocity crimes.
This failure is a direct contributor of hate speech and dehumanization and increases the risk of recurrence as per the framework of analysis of atrocity crimes, the analytical tool used by my office and developed by it to assess the risk of genocide and atrocity crimes.
This is also recognized by the UN strategy and plan of action on his speech, of which my office is the focal point.
Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, hate speech proceeds, accompanies, supersedes, and makes more likely the commission of atrocity crimes.
This is why recognized memory is important.
Only in 1982 did the former West Germany formally recognize the Nazis genocide of Sinti and Roma people, while Poland declared second August as Roman genocide Remembrance Day in 1911, and Germany unveiled a memorial to the Roman genocide in Berlin in 2012.
Beyond that, we need recorded history and holistic integrated education as essential tools to help wreck the walls of prejudice, to open the door for empathy and solidarity, and to enforce the guardrails of protection against current and future violence.
But again, this cannot and must not happen without Roma being front and center in the narrative, in the policy development and in designing and implementing activities focused on addressing systematic discrimination, prejudice, and stigmatization against them.
And first and foremost, with Roma voices in national parliaments, in the European institutions, and in global organizations as well.
Distinguished guests, I call on all of us today to make these recommendations a reality to include Roma stories past and present in our shared history.
To begin to memorialize seriously the atrocities committed against Roma, including in the Holocaust, and to develop education curricula that includes Roma as part and parcel of our societies.
In support of wider strategies to counter stigmas, stereotypes, and hate speech against this community.
If we do not do this, we will have failed as policymakers and as practitioners to uphold the human rights of the Roma globally, including in Europe in a truly comprehensive way.
I hope that our gathering today will take us forward in this right direction and open the door to substantive discussions and to the identification of effective steps for our collective action.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Special Adviser Bagnai, for your insights, and I now give the floor to the General Rapporteur on Roman and Travelers of the Council of Europe, Mr.
Gorgos Tomats.
The floor is yours.
Thank you.
Thank you, Simona.
Dear ambassador, Dear Special Advisor, dear friends.
For me, it's a great honor to be here as a general aportur on Roman Travelers on Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe.
Once again, I would like to thank the Greek Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Georgio Gill Petro, gave us this opportunity with cooperation with the ambassador to have this event here.
Dear Special Advisor, I think your speech your emotion speeds about all things about the Roma and about the history, about what happened in the Roma history, especially from Nazis show us the steps that we need to do in our future.
Now, we are in a better position than before because we have many scientists, we have many good practices to prove what happened in the history of Roma.
But at the same time, we have to see the next date about the future.
But allow me to see when we talk about the hate speech against Roma, we have to start from the politicians.
Most of the countries they have parliamentarian that they are against Roma, and this is a problem.
From the other side, the media and the stereotypes is against Roma, and this is the problem.
We have to find some solutions.
I think now we start with many stakeholders in the Council of Europe to see how the crucial role of the history and education, the arts and sports can play a crucial role, how to prove and how to include these people in our societies.
In most of the cases, in most of the Roma communities in Europe, Roma people, Roma communities, they don't know their history.
This is a problem.
From the other side, no Roma population, they don't know and sometimes they don't recognize that the Roma exist in the last ten centuries in Europe.
Of course, we have very good examples that came from Romania, from Spain, and how these countries use the culture, the arts and the education system to include the Roma people in our societies.
But in the same time, We have to see that we have a hidden population, almost 10 million, 12 million people in Europe, that they live in the settlements without water and without electricity.
Of course, without access to health and to education, this gives opportunity to the populists in many countries of Europe, including the member states of the Council of Europe, not to want to work with the Roma population.
And from the other side, all the political parties in Europe, they have closed doors to the Roma, the Roma that they want to be members in the political parties.
That means democracy, means visibility, and we need more visibility as this event today, we have to to see how difficult it is sometimes to show to the people that you are with them.
People like Roma need us, but also we need Roma.
Maybe their special advisor, Roma is sometimes belongs to the Europe.
But as a human rights issue belongs to the United Nations.
I think we need this cooperation with the United Nations, with your office, and of course, with many stakeholders of the United Nations because when we talk about the human rights, we talk about all the human rights, access to the health, access to the school, et cetera You know better than me more European countries didn't recognize genocide of Roma from Nazis regime.
We have the decision of the European Parliament that recognize the Holocaust of Roma and most of the countries don't recognize the Holocaust of Roma.
As a parliamentarians and me as a person as a general rapporteur, my role is to convince more parliamentarians in its political parties, especially in the member states of the Council of Europe, that the Roma people exist, they are European citizens, they have rights, and of course, we have to fight more and more for them.
In this period, in Europe, we have the living condition crisis.
We have housing problem about the Roma.
Most of these people living in the settlements, and of course, dear friends we have in many communities, in many countries.
Early marriages, that means that the girls, they are not humans, that as girls in 13 years, they 14-years-old, they have children.
In the same time, We have this conversation about the situation of rights of women in Afghanistan or in other countries, but we don't talk about the rights of women of Roma population.
And also, we need your help on this issue because it's not a European issue, not the issue in the Council of Europe is a global issue.
So in this world, I'd like to give the floor to Simona to the more special speakers that we have that for me is a great opportunity to have you here because for me, all these people, they work every day to show that the Roma population needs more visibility and needs a better life.
Thank you.
Thank you, Georgia, for your very profound remarks.
Because you said that Roma issues are human rights issues that not only belong to Europe, but they belong to the United Nations, being a a human rights issue.
Let me now give the floor before getting to the expert panel to the regional UN Director for Europe and Central Asia.
Miss Ypson, we have a video message that she sent to us.
She couldn't participate in person.
In a video message, she will reflect on the efforts of the United Nations on the ground in response to the waves of online and offline hate speech in the European region.
Including those trends of hate speech affecting the Roma population.
We have the video message now.
Class, distinguished representatives, Roma leaders, and colleagues and friends.
Thank you for bringing us together to mark the International Day for countering hate speech.
Today's focus is urgent, breaking the cycle of hate against Roma communities in Europe.
Hate speech is not only about words, it is about dignity, safety, belonging.
It can normalize exclusion and shape how people are treated in schools, workplaces, housing, healthcare, and public life.
Today, I would like to offer three reflections.
First, remembrance matters.
We cannot address hate speech against Roma communities today without acknowledging the long history of exclusion, persecution, and violence that came before it.
During the Second World War, Roma communities were subjected to internment, forced labor, deportation, and mass murder.
Remembering this history honors the victims and reminds us how dangerous narratives begin with the stereotypes, dehumanizing language, and silence.
Second, discrimination is not only historical, Roma and travelers are Europe's largest minority group with an estimated ten to 12 million people.
Yet discrimination remains part of daily life for too many.
The 2024 survey of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that around one in three Roma and respondents felt discriminated because of their ethnic background in the previous 12 months.
Behind this number are people, families, and communities.
Unicef Inocente estimates there are around 4.5 million Roma children in Europe, which is a reminder that exclusion shapes not only lives today, but the confidence and opportunities of the next generation.
Inclusion on paper is not the same as belonging in daily life.
Third, breaking the cycle of hate requires practical, coordinated, and roman led responses.
Across Europe and Central Asia, the study conducted by DCO, HCHR and UNDP shows that hate speech and disinformation can weaken social cohesion, deepen divisions, and undermine human rights.
That is why partnership and collective action are essential.
Member States must ensure that laws, policies and institutions protect people from discrimination while safeguarding freedom of expression.
Civil society and roma organizations are essential in documenting harm, supporting communities, challenging stereotypes, and bringing forward lived experience.
Regional organizations, educators, media, digital platforms, and the UN system also have responsibilities.
For this year, our role is to support resident coordinators and UN country teams to advance prevention, human rights, inclusion, and social cohesion.
But effective responses cannot be designed for roma communities without roma communities.
Roma voices, experiences, and leadership must be at the center from the very outset.
Let me close with one clear appeal.
As we mark this international day, let us strengthen coalitions with Roma led organizations and civil society support rights based monitoring and response and connect efforts to counter hate speech with the broader fight against discrimination and exclusion.
Breaking the cycle of hate will not happen through one event or one institution alone.
It requires memory, honesty, and sustained action.
Above all, it requires us to affirm that Roma communities must be fully included, fully heard, fully respected.
Thank you.
I thank miss Quin open from the Regional Office for Europe in Central Asia or the United Nations.
We now start the second part of this event today, the technical panel.
But before we go into our very interesting list of speakers, let me say a couple of words that discrimination and speech against Roma dates back centuriesm.
We have heard about this from our distinguished speakers today and that continues today so it's not only an all phenomenon, it continues and it's getting worse, also because of the inception of social media and emerging technology.
It is a stable in the daily life of the Roma population.
Hate speech, we know divides communities, fuel discriminations and leads to violence.
We learned that from history.
To break this highness cycle, we need to look at the issue from various perspectives.
We also need to better understand the root causes and the impact on society of this phenomenon, especially when it affect the Roma communities that is the topic of today's event.
Today's technical panel speakers aim at doing exactly that.
With that, I have the pleasure of introducing our eminent speakers who are doctor Ismail Cortes, Executive Director of the Instituto de Kaltura dana of Spain, doctor Stephan Ladderlik, Executive Director of the Roma Foundation, Zurich, miss Ana Mirga Kruslsna, Executive Director of Ara, that is the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, and Mr.
Mustafa Yakupov from the Monitoring and Information Center on anti Gypsism in Germany.
Without further ado, I will now give the floor to the first speaker, doctor Cortes.
Doctor Cortes, the floor is yours and inviting you to speak.
I'm also reminding you and all the speakers to please stick to 5 minutes.
14.
Thank you, miss Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, Excellencies, distinguished representatives of the United Nations Council of Europe and Roma Civil Society organization.
It is a privilege to join you today in this important discussion on breaking the cycle of hat and discrimination against Roma communities in Europe.
I would like to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the organizers for convening this timely dialogue and for their continued commitment to promoting human rights, equality, inclusion, and non discrimination by bringing together international institutions, public authorities, and Roma representatives, which is essential if we are to address the persistent challenges of anti Gypsism and ensure that Roma voices are heard, respected, and meaningfully included in shaping our common future.
At a time when democratic values and social cohesion are being tested across our societies, this conversation is not only relevant, it is more necessary than ever before.
It reminds us that the protection of minority rights, it is not a peripheral issue, but it is a fundamental measure of strength and credibility of our democracies.
The history of the Roma people in Europe, as it has been said here before, is one of resilience, cultural richness, and continuous contribution to our societies, yet.
It is also a history marked by exclusion, persecution, and discrimination and anti Gypsyism remains one of the most persistent and socially accepted, maybe the last accepted form of racism in Europe today.
It affects millions of Roma citizens and continues to undermine the fundamental principles of equality, dignity, and human rights upon which our democratic societies are built.
In the case of Europe, over the last decade, important legislative and policy efforts have been developed at national, European, and international levels.
The European Union, for example, has adopted a strategic framework aimed at promoting Roma equality, inclusion, and participation and the Council of Europe has strengthened its commitment to combating anti gypsyism through recommendations, special recommendations, monitoring mechanisms, and awareness raising initiatives and also at the level of the United Nations various human rights instruments and mechanisms have been repeatedly highlighted the need to address structural discrimination against Roma communities.
Talking about Spain, while the period I was a member of parliament 2019-2023, we have witnessed important progress that illustrates how public institutions can move from recognition to action.
One significant step helps win the incorporation of anti Gypsism into the penal code, into the legal framework addressing hate crimes and discrimination in Spain.
This development reflects an increase in awareness that discrimination against Roma is not an isolated phenomenon, but a specific form of racism that requires targeted legal responses and institutional vigilance.
At the same time, Spain has advanced in the recognition of the Roma historical memory through the National Democratic memory law.
Another important achievement has been the incorporation of Roma history and culture into the compulsory education curriculum.
This represents a transformative opportunity Since education is one of the most effective tools for preventing racism and dissemination by ensuring that new generations and future generations learn about Roma history from early school and contributions of the Roma to our societies and cultural heritage that can help dismantle stereotypes and promote a more inclusive understanding of our shared society, multicultural societies that the Roma are part of and recognition in the classroom of this richness of interculturality in Europe contributes directly to recognition in public life.
However, the legislation alone is not enough.
Law can establish rights, protection, and obligation, but the true values depends on implementations.
Here is when it comes to the responsibility of public institutions that must take a proactive role in ensuring that legislation is effectively enforced and translated into tangible improvements in people's lives.
Rights are not guaranteed by the merit recognition in law, a right that cannot be effectively exercised, protected, and enforced is in practice a denied right and the legitimacy of democratic institutions depends not only on the promises that they proclaim, but on their capacity to ensure that legal guarantees produce tangible outcome in the lives of citizens.
In the sense and I finish, one of the main challenges one of the most important lessons we have learned in Spain is that effective policies cannot be designed for Roma communities without the meaningful participation, continuous and constant participation of Roma people themselves.
Participation is not merely a principle of good governance, it is a democratic necessity in terms of values, but also in terms of efficiency.
Thank you very much for your attention and I'm looking forward for questions, comments if there are any.
Thank you, Mr.
Cortes, for highlighting and examining how historical and cultural discrimination has affected this contribution to the situation of the Roma community right now.
Thank you for also guiding us to the work of some major institution in Europe.
You mentioned the European Union, you mentioned the Council of Europe.
You also mentioned the work of the United Nations, and then you dig into the specific work in Spain.
Let me now go back to the next speaker.
Doctor Lederk before you dig into your remarks, I think since we have heard that discrimination dates back centuries and also had a very important role in the Holocaust of the Roma people.
We know that you will prepare recently a report on this specific subject on the Holocaust and Holocaust denial with regards to Roma.
Can you tell us more on how history has contributed and continues to contribute to Roma discrimination and how this discrimination continue to manifest today? Doctor Ladaric, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much for this.
Dear ambassadors, dear special advisor, dear guests.
Thank you very much for being able to be present here.
I'm facing quite a bit of a challenge that in 5 minutes trying to present the reasons and the background on Holocaust denial, on the persecution of Roma in Europe.
Let me try to be very brief.
Ant Sganism and racism against Roma started pretty much immediately after the arrival of Roma in 14 18 in Western Europe.
They were branded as sieves, Ottoman spies, and almost immediately persecuted.
This phenomenon was mostly concentrated and this is something which is less known in Western Europe.
In the Byzantine Empire, the Greek ambassador was mentioning some things there, this has changed.
There was no stigma against Roma in the Ottoman Empire, neither.
It is something that happened in Western Europe and was propagated to central especially through the expansion of the Habsburg Empire.
Further east in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Baltic, in comparison to Western Europe, there was really very little.
To contrast this, my country, Switzerland forbids the entry of Roma in 14 97, officially until 1972, followed by the German states in the Holy Roman Empire.
Roma could be killed, Roma, could be deported.
This was the case in Netherlands in France and all Western Europe nations deported Roma to their colonies or to other places.
So the stigmatization and stereotypes of Roma as being unadapted to civilization, being travelers, thieves, beggars, or not wanting to work or eventually led to the genocide during the Nazi era.
This is a bias that we unfortunately really still encounter nowadays.
Roma were persecuted For social reasons because they were deemed a social and not for racial reason.
Actually, the Nazis decreed that one single grandparent of foreign origin was sufficient to be deported, which is stricter than what was deemed on a Jewish side.
Effectively, we have a racial persecution, which is still deemed to be a social persecution.
This is still encountered today.
We did a very informal survey across ten languages, mostly Southern Slavic, Central European and Western European languages on what people are telling about the wholocaust of of Roman during this period.
Uh.
There are still many people who say that, uh, Roma were, unfortunately, not killed boldly, but Hitler didn't finish the job.
This is a very common thing.
Roma were killed because they were socials and the number of victims of the Roman genocide during the Holocaust is consequently belittled.
We have a continuation of this Western European, stigma, which was expanded to all of Europe nowadays because it's common even in the Balkan where it was not in the 19th century.
We have a strong stigma that prevents Roma from saying that they are Roma because they don't want to be confronted with this.
For example, in my own country, I've been asked several times, even by my own government, whether I know how to read and write.
This gives you an idea of how common racism against Roma is still ingrained and totally acceptable in the current society.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you, doctor Lade, for these short but very to the point remarks.
I'm very sad because you really highlighted the connection of racial and social discrimination and persecution against Roma in Europe and also linked and connected to the denial of the Holocaust against this community.
On this note, let me give the floor now to the next speaker.
Who will be a video intervention.
Next speaker is miss Anna Merga Kunska.
Just let me say a couple of words about what she does.
Her work combines exploration of ethnopolitical Romani identities, often to culture and memory.
He video message we will talk about the work of the European Roman Institutes for arts and culture.
The best practices and recommendations in this regard.
The video message will now be played.
Tovene Bartale Romale.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, Your Excellencies, good afternoon and thank you very much for the invitation.
It is an honor to speak to you today on behalf of A, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture.
In my short address to you, I'd like to make three points.
My first point is about history.
We Roma, have been part of European history for more than seven centuries.
Yet throughout that time, our communities have experienced prejudice, exclusion, discrimination, violence, and oppression.
The history of anti Roma racism or anti Gypsism has taken many forms, ranging from five centuries of slavery in territories of present day Romania to forced assimilation, from forced labor and mass imprisonment to segregation, exclusion, and persecution.
This history reaches its most tragic point during the Second World War.
Alongside Jews, Roma were targeted by the Nazi regime and its collaborators for complete extermination on racial grounds.
During the Holocaust, as many as half of Europe's Roma population was murdered.
Yet discrimination did not end with the war.
Structural exclusion, segregation, and institutional discrimination continued for decades.
The prejudice that made the Holocaust possible still persists today.
This history has profound consequences.
Let us be clear.
The poverty, marginalization, social exclusion that many Roma face are not defining features of Roma culture.
They are the cumulative result of centuries of discrimination and yet, this is only one side of our story.
The history of Roma in Europe is also history of resilience of creativity, and of contribution.
Roma have enriched societies through music, arts, craftsmanship, languages, trade, and cultural innovation.
We have contributed as soldiers, workers, artists, intellectuals, and community leaders.
We have helped shape the cultural, social and economic fabric of Europe.
Our history is not only a history of suffering.
It is also a history of strength, resistance, and achievement.
Unfortunately, both sides of this history remain largely invisible.
Roma history is rarely taught in schools and it's often absent from museums, memorials, public institutions, and mainstream cultural narratives.
As a result, stereotypes continue to fill the vacuum left by the absence of knowledge.
My second point is about what we can do about it.
At AAC, we are acutely aware that anti Gypsism is the main driver of social injustice and socioeconomic exclusion affecting Roma today.
This is why our work matters.
Founded in 2017 by the Council of Europe, Open Society Foundations and the Alliance for AAC, our institution is the first international organization dedicated to the promotion and production and promotion of Roma culture and arts.
With our community of over 200 Roma and non Roma members from around the world, we employ arts and culture, history, and remembrance, media, knowledge production, and Romani language to challenge anti Gypsism by transforming the way Roma are represented, understood, and remembered.
We believe that arts and culture are a powerful tool for social change.
For centuries, cultural representations helped create and normalize stereotypes about Roma.
Today, culture can help dismantle them.
Through artistic production, research, exhibitions, publications, and cultural diplomacy, we create new narratives and new images of Roma identity.
A key principle guiding our work is self representation.
For too long, knowledge about drama has been produced primarily by others and policies affecting Roma communities have been designed without meaningful Roma participation.
We believe that Roma must have the opportunity to speak in first person, to define our own narratives, produce our own knowledge, and shape our own future.
But this work cannot be carried out by Roma alone.
Serious institutional commitment is essential.
We need schools to teach Roma history and culture.
We need museums, universities, memorials, and cultural institutions that recognize Roma contributions as an integral part of national histories.
We need public spaces that reflect the diversity of our societies.
Roma history cannot remain at the margins of the mainstream narratives and conversations about the future cannot happen without Roma at the table.
My third point is about why does it even matter? We are Europe's largest ethnic minority, numbering 10-12 million people across the continent and more than 15 million worldwide.
Dignity in the quality forma is not only a matter of justice and human rights.
It is also a matter of social and economic sustainability.
When millions of people are prevented from fully contributing their talent, skills, creativity, entire societies lose valuable human potential.
At the time when the Western world faces demographic decline, labor shortages and growing social divisions, inclusion is not charity.
It is an investment in our shared future.
Today, as we witness the rise of nationalism, xenophobia and intolerance across many parts of the world, we must remember that prejudice thrives when knowledge is absent and where human dignity is denied.
Back in 1990, Vatslav Havel famously said that the treatment of Roma is a litmus test for democracy.
If that is true, then the state of our democracy is deteriorating.
The time to act is now, not only through strategies, declarations, and simpolic gestures, but through real political, financial, and institutional commitment.
Culture is an anchor of democracy and the powerful tool for sustaining our shared values.
At A, we are doing our part, but we need allies, partners, and friends because this work cannot be done alone.
So let us work together to ensure that future generations inherit not the divisions of the past, but a world enriched by its diversity, confident in its shared humanity and united by the conviction that every life, every culture, and every voice matters.
Nice, Tuque.
Thank you very much for your attention.
I thank Anna Mia Krunska for her very insightful remarks on the contribution of the Roma population to the history of many countries in Europe, to the history of Europe.
Also, I think I was particularly struck by the comments on the role of culture and arts in the In combating discrimination.
On that, I think I would like to share that this Friday, there is a side event organized on the sideline of the International Day for countering hate speech by the Department of Global Communication, which is also a co sponsor of this event today, that specifically focuses on the role of arts and culture in, in processing trauma related to genocide and atrocity crimes and contributing to non recurrence and prevention.
I will invite you as a follow up to this meeting and to the contribution of miss Krulsnia to attend also the SD event, and maybe at the end of this event today we can get also more more details by our co sponsor from DGC today.
Without further ado, let me go to our last speaker today, Mr.
Yakupov, your work focused very much on the issue of hate speech targeting Roma, including online.
You work for years to advocate for the inclusion of Roma youth in particular and to monitor and document Roma discriminations, including through hate speech.
Could you guide us through the work of the monitoring and I center that is your organization? What are the main challenges of your work and what are your expectation for the future? These are very big questions, but please the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the invitation and for creating space for this important discussion.
My name is Mustafa akopov and I'm the Deputy Director of the Reporting and Information Center of Anti Gypsyism in Germany.
For many years, it was already mentioned, I worked on Roma youth participation, inclusion, and empowerment.
And today my work focused mainly on monitoring and document the anti gypsies incident.
Look at these experiences together, I can just say that while inclusion efforts expanded across Europe, anti gypsism as a specific form of racism directed at Cynthian Roma remains remarkably persistent.
Since the beginning of our work over the last four years, we've documented 5,608 anti gypsies incidents in German.
And these figures are telling a very important story because it's not what many people assume that it's isolated incidents that are being recorded.
But we are talking about a reoccurring pattern.
We are talking about different actors, different locations, different contexts, but yet remarkably similar mechanisms.
That brings me to the first insight of monitoring.
The most surprisingly finding is not where anti gypsism appears.
It's a The most surprising finding is where it appears the least.
Many people believe that our greatest concern is that anti gypsism appears among anonymously extremists online, et cetera But anti gypsism in reality appears in ordinary interactions with institutions that are expected to guarantee equality protections and participation.
We see anti gypsyism in schools where children are stereotype.
Bullied or treated differently.
We see it in housing where families face barriers to access, accommodation or hostility in the neighborhoods.
Here, in fact, Mia has documented over 900 housing related incidents over the last four years.
We see it in interaction with public authorities, social services, job center, and law enforcement institution.
This leads me to a second insight that hate speech and discrimination rarely exist separately.
We often speak about hate speech as if it is a matter only of harmful words.
Unfortunately, the lessons from our monitoring is that hate speech should be not understood only as a harmful expression because this is actually the reality is that hate speech is the beginning of a process and it prepares the ground for discrimination.
From a monitoring perspective, hate speech is therefore not only something people say, it is something societies do.
Here, we also observed that actually online and offline spaces increasingly reinforce each other when it comes to hate speech.
Digital platforms do not create anti gypsyism but they accelerate it because the circulation amplifies stereotypes and extends the reach of it.
This result is done that all prejudices now travel faster, further and with greater impact than before.
The third insight is that anti gypsyism reproduces itself to institution.
Across all four years of monitoring, we see that actually the educational settings create the most of our cases.
One third of the victims are children, one third of our cases are happening in educational settings.
This means that many Roma children encounter anti gypsyism not first on social media or political debates, but in the very institution that are there or meant to protect and empowerment.
They're not learning subject of history or the math, they're learning fear and coming home with fears.
This is actually where we are reproducing inequalities across generation and we still have anti gypsism appearing.
Many people still know very little about Roma, yet they feel comfortable holding strong opinions about them.
In this sense, hate speech is not only a driver of exclusion, exclusion itself becomes a factory that produces new hate speech.
Another lesson from my monitoring is that Roma are among the most research population in Europe, yet often among the least listened to.
And after 5,608 incidents, one conclusion is unavoidable.
It's that anti gypsism is not only an issue that is affecting Roma communities, it's a governance issue.
When discrimination repeatedly appears in education, housing, social services, and public administration, we are no longer looking at our individual pres, we're looking at a challenge for democratic institutions.
And let me finish with as someone who has worked both in the youth inclusion sector and in the monitoring now, I believe the challenge before us not only to protect Roma from hate speech.
It is to build society in which hate speech can no longer thrive because stereotypes on which it depends have lost their credibility.
It is a test for our humanity.
It's a test for Europe's commitment to equality, democracy and human rights.
One point our data suggested is The greater danger is not always the extremists who speak openly.
The danger is the stereotype that has become so normal that nobody is noticing it anymore.
The greatest success of anti Gypsism is not that people hate Roma.
The greatest success of anti gypsism nowadays is that millions of European no longer notice when Roma are hated.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr.
Kupova.
I think you really centered the very painful nerve is that anti Gypsy and his speech that derives from anti gypsies has become so mainstream that we don't notice it anymore.
And even myself, I come from a European country that I let you guess based on my accent.
Where calling somebody gypsy is an insult.
If you want to insult somebody, very shortly you call him gypsy and you will have insulted somebody.
I think this is unacceptable that his speech has become an integral part of the language of my country, but also of many other countries in Europe.
Um So since we have some extra time, and this is a very interesting discussion said but very interesting, I would like to follow up with our online speakers because we have heard a lot about what doesn't work, what is the issue from the past to the present, denial of past suffering of the Holocaust into current discrimination, including through hate speech and the social, social division of the European population and the deconstruction of us versus them.
But I would like to hear from you now and building on the spirit of the International Day for countering hate speech that tomorrow will be celebrated in a high level event with a focus on partnership.
How can societies come together and join hands and to fight hate speech globally.
Can you please tell us more about Maybe hopefully there are some good practices.
Of combating anti gypsism, combating discrimination against the Roma community, combating hate speech against the Roma community.
Do you know of any good practices including that are based on multi partnerships of different sector in our societies that aim at combating what we are talking about during this event today and whether they have worked and whether there are any lessons that we can share in today event and maybe also wider because this is the first that we are coming together here today, but we will definitely continue.
Can you share with us some good practices in your work? Maybe I give the floor to you one by one, starting with doctor Cortes.
Thank you, miss Chair.
There was an interesting experience in Spain while I was a member of parliament.
For six months, we created a special committee on in gpsason and 30 experts from civil society, Roman and Roman came in front of all political groups of the Spanish parliament to diagnose and propose concrete measures up to 160 measures to talk about the anti Gp season.
That was an opportunity to exchange public debate because it was recorded and archived in the records of the House of the Congress in Spain.
But it was also a political debate, so all political parties and member of parliament has the opportunity and the chance to exchange views on the current issue and historical issue of anti Gypsies.
I think that this can be a good model to replicate either at the European Parliament or the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or why not? At the United Nations that we can have experts from different countries during a long term, in the case of Spania it was six men.
That we could go in depth discussion on the different dimensions of anti Gypsis to propose also concrete measures in the sphere of culture, education, labor, and so on.
I think I was very much satisfied with this experience and that's why I'm sharing here.
Yes.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Cortes.
And we took note of what you just said, and I floor to doctor Laderlak.
Well, I want to say this stand fully behind Ana Min statements about area.
We need to change the perception of Roma among the non Roma Gad population.
One of the challenges that I'm facing that we're facing is often, we say there are Roma, who are intubrated, there are Roma who are part of the society contributing to the society and people tell you, yeah, but the only ones I see are the ones who are begging or living in *****.
So we have to really work on presenting the other side of the Roma society and the ones who are really contributing to the society.
I think that's one of the goals that Ichi is really pursuing and I'm very much for that because without changing the really ingrained perception of Roma as being useless socials, we will never get further.
Really having the role models and getting them out in the open, I think is a very crucial point.
Thank you.
Thank you for these very important comments and changing perception is definitely very good recommendations and it involves a lot of work.
So we took good note of that.
And last but not least, I give the floor to Mr.
Cobo Mr.
Abo.
Thank you very much.
I would just use our example as the reporting and Information Center on anti gypsism.
We are not only documenting the incidents, we are actually fighting also the under representation and statistic.
We're working with the victim of anti gypsism on the fear of consequences if they are reporting, we encourage them to report and we are supporting that by giving referral advice and by having our legal aid network for victims of anti gypsism.
Since last year, almost one year now we are having lawyers that are working with victims of anti gypsism and actually, we are giving legal advice and we are representing victims of anti gypsyism and we're offering this support in court cases, et cetera.
For example, we supported two Cinti to actually after many, many years since the Nazi regime, they lost their citizenship and a few months ago, we managed to actually get their citizenship back.
They became again, German citizens.
For example, I think we also need to offer the tools or to put the tools in hands of the people that they can actually fight against anti gypsism through the system, through legal system.
But of course, Still, we having the issues of under representation that was mentioned of Roman position of power.
We are marginalized in the public narratives.
We are insufficiently represented in institution, and this is how actually stereotypes continue to reproduce themselves.
But one experience that is very positively and working is that we actually offering legal aid to victims of anti gypsism.
This is actually how we supporting the people that are also reporting the incidents and want actually the help we are providing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Hugo, for really highlighting the role of rule of law in protecting the Roma population.
In the context of your work.
We have six more minutes before we finish.
I would like to give the floor back to our high level speakers because we heard so much.
This was such an intense and profound discussion.
We heard so much from our panelists that I'm sure our high level speakers have a couple of final words to comment about this incredible rich and important discussion.
Maybe let me start with Mr.
Samats Thank you.
I would like to mention some things.
You know, the most difficult now that we have as a challenge is to find more parliamentarians to involve about the social inclusion of Roman travelers in Europe.
This is the first.
The second one is the crucial role can play the municipalities.
And unfortunately, we don't have many good practices that municipalities help the governments when the government wants to take some measures for the Roma people to help in a better good life.
This is the second one.
The third one is about the visibility of history.
Without visibility of history, without cultural centers, without all these that we need to show to the people that the Roma people belongs to the European heritage and the European culture.
They are European citizens, but at the same time, they don't have the same rights.
We have to find how to close this gap.
Of course, Mr.
Yakupov and the others, Mr.
Cortes, they say the whole truth, what happened exactly about in the last ten centuries in Europe against the Roma.
Once again, thank you for this opportunity to have this floor here and allow me to say, Maybe we have to find from these events opportunity for a bookstore to the United Nations to bring some books about the Holocaust, about the history of Roma in Europe to be published here in the United Nations.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Esmats and now I give the floor to Mr.
Chocblai, special advisor on the Prevention of genocide.
Thank you very much, this morning.
Thank you very much, colleagues.
This has been a very enriching discussion touching almost every aspect of the issues faced by the rumors.
But in my concluding remarks, I'd just like to address a number of themes.
First, the theme of belonging and exclusion.
The Roma belong to Europe.
They left a South Asia around the fifth century, passed through Egypt and hence the derogatory term, the Gypsies, into Europe and got into Europe around the tenth century and they've been in Europe ever since then.
What we call stigmatization and we have heard different facets of this from the Ottoman Empire, israel incitement to hatred against the Roma started at that time and still continuing is the normalization of taboo against the Roma.
We have heard that the Roma fair specific forms of racial discrimination or racism, and this is evident in the education sector.
I think the statements have pointed out to that.
But we still have two outstanding decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, famously DH versus the Czech Republic in 2007, which ruled against Roma children being enrolled in schools of children with mental disabilities and took statistical data to indicate that this was wrong.
And then this was followed in 2013, Horvath and Keys versus Hungary, where Roma children again were misorganized with mental health problems and therefore excluded from normal educational systems and holding that this was discriminatory and wrong.
To date, these decisions have not been implemented by the committee of Ministers of the European the Council of Europe.
We've heard about the context, the erosion of democratic values exacerbating what essentially is the normalization of discrimination.
But Europe has had liberal democratic states for a long time and still the Roma were marginalized and excluded.
But of course, what we see and the emergence of the far right in most European states will only mean that the situation of the Roma will get worse.
I'll come back to how partnerships can try and help against this.
When we look at our framework of analysis from the point of view of indicators and risk factors, we find that the humanization of the roma is an indicator of a risk factor against them.
Persecution often is a prelude or part of extermination in relation to genocide or in the context of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing.
The issue of the denial of the Holocaust, the Romani Holocaust, of course, is hate speech.
We see this in relation to the Holocaust itself.
Of which the Roma were part of.
We see it in relation to the genocide against the T cis in Wanda.
We see it in the context of the Srebrenica massacre.
It's a rising and rising tide.
We're given a glimpse of some of the tools that may be useful here, the rule of law and effective enforcement of law, but much more than that in terms of the rule of law and equality before the law is socialization, acceptance, mindset, and the issue of cultterization.
Legal guarantees to make sure that they are tangible outcomes, perhaps with some limited degrees of success.
We have seen that the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights have not been implemented, so we have to go beyond law as a means of making sure that the issue is addressed, including with the participation of the Roma.
As special rapporteur on IDPs in my previous life, I came face to face with the Roma in Sabia and in Kosovo twice.
They lived in deplorable conditions, no documentation in terms of birth certificates, IDs denied completely as a factor of denying their humanity.
By the time I paid my second visit, at least Sabia had begun some form of birth registration for the Roma.
Advocacy may work instead of simply neglect and moaning about the issue.
This event has been very much about shining a spotlight on the Roma and it answers the issue from Europe.
To the global, to the United Nations.
From this event, we firmly place the Roma in the context of all the menu of our tools, our UN strategy and plan of action on hate speech, and all the other strategies and plans that we have to make sure that this is not a one off event.
But the clarion call is to make sure that the partnerships that we have built here as the theme itself is in the context of partnerships are carried forward.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Special Adviser, and the last word goes to the Ambassador Ambassador Balata.
We are very grateful for Greece to champion this event today.
The floor is yours.
Thank you so much, Simona.
First of all, I would like to congratulate all those who have organized this event today.
I would like to thank orgstamas for having this idea for this event today because here at the UN, we tend to put aside certain topics if We don't have someone to pull us aside and say, there is this very important topic that you tend to forget.
I would like also to thank our speakers for their powerful interventions and especially for their foot of thought.
I leave the room today with three conclusions, raise awareness, learn history, learn about the Romans that came to Europe, and we tend to forget their history throughout all these centuries.
Raise awareness, raise awareness of the people who live by our side and we tend to pass through them and not acknowledge them.
Third conclusion, change the perception, change the perception anyway we can.
This is my take and thanks again for this event.
Although Greece has been one of the organizers.
Thank you.
Thank you to everybody, to all of those who were here with us in the room and to the 70 or more participants who were following us online, and the meeting is adjourned.