Respected
Today, when is celebrated the 48th anniversary of establishing setting up base of the Roma identity, where the First World Roma Congress was held on April 8, 1971 in London - Great Britain, and at the same time decisions were made that we are all proud of being Roma as such. our Romani flag has been officially registered and that we have our anthem "Gelem, Gelem". But at the same time and today, after 48 years, we are still one of the most vulnerable communities in the world, and that is - the Roma community!
We are all witnesses of the increasing swing of the anti-Romani mood, and the great intolerance towards this community. Therefore, we need the International Roma Union - IRU as the oldest and largest organization representing this nationality, to point out several important elements for eliminating and stopping this negative trend
We remind that Europe and the world through their history have been and still are witnessing the rise of racism, xenophobia and intolerance, as well as violation of basic human rights precisely towards the Roma community.
Therefore, like IRU, we want to recommend several recommendations to the United Nations and the European institutions and its members.
This implies the expression of a clear political will to address these problems, as well as direct participation and the relevant Roma factor, such as the Non-Governmental Roma Sector, including the International Roma Union - IRU
The problems that are current and visible are in all fields (social, economics, health, housing, media, employment, religion, culture, tradition, etc.)
Therefore, greater mutual trust and cooperation between the Roma community and the institutions of the system is needed, whether it is working internationally, nationally or locally.
Joint coordination and implementation of all quality strategies, resolutions, programs and plans is needed without major delays and shortcomings. It also implies allocating funds for their realization, and at the same time direct inclusion of the Roma factor, as well as greater monitoring of the realization of those activities and greater accountability for the implementation and taking responsibility for the non-implemented programs.
Any prolongation, ignoring and selecting them lead to situations that happened in the past and in the present whose witnesses are all of us (recently we are well aware of such developments in some of the European countries such as Italy, France, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, etc.)
It is also necessary to undertake measures to encourage the Roma community to report such cases, and the establishment of monitoring and enforcement bodies
Therefore, we feel the need for us as an IRU to express our determination to solve these problems.
Otherwise, IRU took actions for such situations and has prepared a Resolution of IRU, the IRU Operational Strategic Program, which has already been submitted to the UN and the EU, and it is expected that they will be realized.
Let's note that the IRU two years ago gave an idea to open a Office for the Ombudsman for Roma People and, together with the ERTF - a European Roma and Travelers Forum based in Strasbourg, which has joint cooperation and membership in the Council of Europe, at its last held meeting in Helsinki , Finland from 25 to 27 March 2019 agreed and submitted a joint initiative to implement exactly this idea for the opening of a Roma national Ombudsman Office in Strasbourg, whose task would be to monitor and assist the Roma community in solving the Roma issues.
At the very end, with the fact that the Election of Members of Parliament in the European Parliament is approaching, the IRA sends public support and appeals to all future candidates for European Members of Parliament, that it will unselfishly support, motivate and encourage all candidates who in their programs and agendas of action will have to implement and implement exactly these important points, which means combating racism, xenophobia, intolerance and discrimination. Here, IRU will stand with its full capacity, credibility and all its membership for unreserved support during their election, and at the same time it will be at disposal for further realization of all commonly agreed plans and activities.
With respect
Zoran Dimov
President of the International Roma Union - IRU
