Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC.
Dismayed by the slow progress individual countries have made in tackling
the problems faced by Roma, Romani activists increasingly call for international
organizations to take a stronger role in combating racism and guaranteeing
Roma rights. Nicolae Gheorghe has lobbied the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the European Union,
calling for Roma to be recognized as a European minority rather than a
national minority of specific countries. Gheorghe is a senior researcher
at the Institute of Sociology in Bucharest and coordinator of the nongovernmental
organization Romani Crisis-the Roma Center for Social Intervention and
Studies. Gheorghe spoke to Transitions on 12 December [1998] during an
international conference, The Roma Community and Multiethnicity in the
Countries of Central Europe: a European Problem, held outside of Prague
under the auspices of the Czech Foreign Ministry.
Transitions: You have spoken of the possibility of new momentum
in countries aspiring to the European Union, because governments know they
will have to improve the situation of Roma. But how much can they really
do if the economic situation remains poor in so many places?
Nicolae Gheorghe: That's right if we think of the main issue
as that of unemployment or poverty. There are difficulties. But we believe
the issue that can be addressed and solved is that of combating discrimination
and racially or ethnically motivated violence.
There is still a debate. When we complain about discrimination against
Roma and poverty and unemployment being a result of past and present discrimination,
the governments answer with the so-called social problem approach: there
is poverty because Roma are not educated, [because] they are not skilled,
and so on. As long as they formulate the problem in such terms, there will
be no solution. Economic factors make it difficult to solve the problem
in this way--it will be a long-term approach. But there is a short-term
approach that can be taken: acknowledging the discrimination and the ethnically
motivated violence--which is not yet the case--and trying to improve the
judiciary so as to condemn these kind of ethnically motivated attacks,
to develop better prosecution in order to deal with the racial component
of these attacks, which also is not yet the case. The media are very much
contributing to reproducing the prejudice. Of course the media are
not under the control of the state, but still the state has its own, let's
say, "educative" tools in relation to the population. So for this you don't
need big money. ... What the European Union is asking of states that are
preparing for accession is to prove this willingness to address the issue,
and to try to implement [changes] so that the Roma are treated [according
to] the rule of law.
Transitions: Could you explain more about the push for a European
convention on Roma rights?
Gheorghe: It's a proposal launched [in 1994] by Romani nongovernmental
organizations, especially by the Roma National Congress. We have slowly
promoted it in the OSCE, and there were two OSCE meetings that acknowledged
this proposal. There remains a lot to do on our side, on the side of Romani
nongovernmental organizations, and there are different versions about what
this European convention on Romani rights might look like. Some organizations
want it to be a legally binding document among the states that will
give protection to Roma, but this is a quite complicated process.
I am for the position of a politically or morally binding document--something
that can be done quickly in the OSCE. It would be like a catalogue of rights
that have to be implemented in the case of Roma, as part of general human
rights, and then some specific instruments to [enforce these rights] in
the case of Roma. I am working on this document. I think next year
in June we will present the first version, and of course there will be
debate.
Transitions: Is the feeling behind this that the European Convention
on Human Rights isn't enough, that you need a document that will specifically
target Roma?
Gheorghe: No, it is enough. The problem is that still we are
in this awareness-raising process. People are not aware enough that the
general rules in the European Convention on Human Rights are not
implemented or respected in the case of Roma. So [Roma] need the added
protection. ... I favor a moderate version that deals more with instruments,
with tools to implement general provisions--not to create new provisions
only for Roma. That would be difficult, and it's still controversial among
Roma whether we need special status or whether we would like to be treated
simply in a non-discriminatory way.