The Honorable Ms. Mary Robinson
High Commissioner for Human Rights
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Dear Ms. Robinson:

Given the fact that the year 2002 is the United Nations Year of Cultural Heritage, I drafted this letter today, February 21, on the UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day, to bring your attention to the ethnocide or forceful assimilation of the Csango people of Romania.

As it was brought to your attention in previous instances, the Romanian authorities are currently forbidding them the right to education in their Hungarian mother tongue.

The Romanian government has a double standard, one set of laws and regulations for the eyes of the foreign countries, and a government approved and condoned set of behaviour of local government authorities.

For the eyes of the general public, the Constitution of Romania is stating, “The State recognizes and guarantees the right of persons belonging to national minorities, to the preservation, development, and expression of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity” (paragraph 6 [Minorities] subsection 1).

In dealing with the Csango people, the Romanian authorities have another set of standard, namely: the extracurricular mother language education was forbidden, lawsuits were brought against the foundations and associations attempting to organize such education, children are forbidden to use their mother tongue in the state run schools, and children who were attending extracurricular education of their mother language were ridiculed in front of the others by the educators of the above schools.

To explain somehow all these violations, the Romanian government formulated, and is currently disseminating false information about the Csango people, stating that they are not real Csangos, but rather Romanians who got assimilated by the Hungarian people, and based on this, they do not deserve Hungarian language education. This false theory is contradicting all historical evidence recorded by the Vatican, foreign priests and Romanian historians themselves.

In spite of international recommendations received so far on the safeguarding of the Csango culture, the Romanian authorities are intimidating and harassing those who are contributing to saving this culture by using methods of terror involving police and secret police actions well rehearsed in the communist era.

Please find attached to this letter brief account of the latest Romanian government orchestrated oppression and violation of human rights of the Csango people.

Dear Commissioner Robinson, please do investigate these violations and do whatever is in your power to protect the human rights of the Csango people living in Romania.

Respectfully yours,

(your name and adress here)