Kosovo: Albanians, Serbs - And what about the Roma?

After five years living in the Balkans, and longer if I count Italy and France, there are a few things I know about Europe and Kosovo, and even more I remember about that area and the rest of former Yugoslavia. I recall one particular orientation in Pristina; one of those sessions most, if not all, international civilian mission staff have endured. Usually I actually liked them for the information we learned on the people we would work with and the regions into which we were sent. Yet in much the same way media are reporting Kosovo/Kosova and the Balkans today, in this seminar in Pristina in 2000 we were briefed on the Kosovar Albanians and on the Kosovo Serbs, yet not one word about Kosovo's Roma. So, of course I asked. After all, we were in Kosovo to work with the Roma, too. I've written about Europe's Romani citizens before on this blog and will do so again, but I'll repeat myself - the Roma, the Rom, Romani, etc., are Europe's largest ethnic minority population, whom many outsiders still call "Gypsies". In all the public discourse and reporting on Kosovo, and even on the Balkans and Europe overall, why are the Roma still almost always excluded? More powerful than anything I can offer is Sani Rifati's own firsthand account of his birthplace, along with this link to a powerful, if a bit dated, related report. When I think of my time in Kosovo (and elsewhere in the Balkans) in my mind's eye I see the pregnant woman IDP ("internally displaced person") with two school-age kids. I remember the long, narrow storage container which was "home" to several unrelated families. I remember the refugee day center in Macedonia, near Skopje: Kosovo Roma refugees sitting, waiting for so-called 'third-country refugee resettlement' invitations that never arrived. As human beings wherever we are, all of us can and, hopefully, will do far better, for each other and consequently for ourselves.

From ERRC, European Roma Rights Center:

"Minority Rights Anti-Discrimination Capacitation in Kosovo
From the beginning of May 2007, the ERRC will implement a 1-year project in Kosovo with its partner, Roma and Ashkaeli Documentation Centre (RADC), to further the implementation of Kosovo’s anti-discrimination law. The ERRC and RADC are grateful to the British government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office for supporting this project.

The aims of the project are to:

Raise awareness of racial discrimination against RAE and other minorities in Kosovo;

Undertake activities aiming to further implementation of Kosovo’s anti-discrimination law for the benefit of all minority groups in Kosovo;

Strengthen the capacity of stakeholders including judges and prosecutors, independent lawyers, RAE and other minority activists and NGOs, and human rights advocates to work in the field of anti-discrimination law in Kosovo; and

Make a significant contribution towards ending race-based human rights abuse of RAE and other minorities in Kosovo.

Within the project, the ERRC and RADC will undertake the following activities:

1. Conduct a training seminar for 30 judges and prosecutors on anti-discrimination and human rights law and implementation;
2. Conduct a training seminar for 30 lawyers on anti-discrimination and human rights law and implementation;
3. Conduct a series of 4 training workshops for 80 minority representatives/activists on anti-discrimination law and advocacy;
4. Document cases of discrimination and human rights abuse of Roma, Ashkaeli and Egyptians in Kosovo;
5. Publish a full length report on the human rights situation of Roma, Ashkaeli and Egyptians in Kosovo; and
6. File 6 strategic test cases before Kosovo courts under the anti-discrimination law, with a view to testing implementation of the law and securing redress for victims of discrimination.
For further information on this project, please contact Tara Bedard at ( tara [dot] bedard [at] errc.org. )