In Romania of the last years, the anti-Roma racism/antigypsyism increased and diversified, as the National Research Report “Antigypsyism in Romania: Lessons (not) learned” (17 November 2022), the most recent report on the anti-Roma racism in Romania, shows, underlining that “The most egregious manifestations of antigypsyism in Romania include school segregation, police violence, inequality in administration of justice, hate speech, lack of environmental justice, exclusion from knowledge production, and the absence of Roma cultural institutions.
Roma are the least trusted persons in Romania, according to a survey conducted by the Institutul Roman pentru Evaluare si Strategie (IRES) [Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy] in July 2020, with 70% percent of respondents claiming not to trust Roma. Seven of the eight characteristics which respondents used to describe Roma were negative and only one was neutral (Europa Libera, 2020). These results are consistent with other polls assessing trust in Roma, indicating that distrust in Roma is widespread.” (Rostas and Nodis 2022: 9-10).
The aim of the paper ‘National Policy Recommendatons on Fighting Antigypsyism in Romania‘, authored by Amare Rromentza, is to conduct a process of lobby, advocacy and pressure on the state authorities to recognize and assume the issue of the anti-Roma racism/antigypsyism and to realize and understand the concept of transitional justice as a mean to prevent and combat the anti-Roma racism/antigypsyism, to repair and compensate, at least partially, the chronic/historical and current racial discrimination and to build reconciliation among the Roma and the majority society and to create an intercultural public space.
About the author: Amare Rromentza is a non-profit, apolitical association whose mission is the multisectoral development of Roma people based on the exercise of civil, economic, social, cultural, and political rights, ensuring access to resources, and identity reconstruction.
The paper ‘National Policy Recommendatons on Fighting Antigypsyism in Romania’ is available in both English and Romanian and can be downloaded below.
