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PRESS RELEASE - 8th April – International Roma Day. A day for celebration, recognition and vindication
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It is the 8th of April, the time to commemorate the International Roma Day. This date recalls the Roma congress celebrated on this same day in London in 1971, where the Roma flag was flown and the anthem played for the very first time

08/04/2015
FSG

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PRESS RELEASE - 8th April – International Roma Day. A day for celebration, recognition and vindication<br>It is the 8th of April, the time to commemorate the International Roma Day. This date recalls the Roma congress celebrated on this same day in London in 1971, where the Roma flag was flown and the anthem played for the very first time

It is, therefore, a day of celebration for the Roma people in which the entire society should take part. International Roma Day is a good opportunity to make the Roma cause more visible and is a reason for celebrating together and demonstrating the unity and diversity of Roma around the world forming part of their respective societies.

It is also a date for recognition, for remembering the history of the Roma people, their long and painful pilgrimage marked by expulsions down through the centuries; a date to remember the victims of the Nazi genocide and of so many persecutions throughout history.

It is only fair to acknowledge the contributions Roma people have made to society, very important not only in terms of culture but also values. This is a day to take stock of the efforts made by so many Roma families, invisible to the media and most of society, who struggle day in and day out to try to get ahead, educate their children to give them a better future and play a full and active role as citizens. Hence, this is a day for solidarity, support and recognition from the entire society.

But this should also be a day for vindication because much remains to be done; Roma still have the dubious honour of being the most rejected and poorly considered minority in all of Europe. Many people contribute to maintaining and even bolstering this negative social image which does so much damage to the Roma people. Among them, this year we have to single out the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE). In the most recent edition of its dictionary, one of the definitions it gives for the term “gitano” (Roma in Spanish) is “swindler” thus associating the term with scamming and cheating. We deeply regret that a institution such as the RAE refuses to withdraw this definition as has been requested not only by the organizations forming part in the State Council of the Roma People, but also by many other organizations and institutions such as the Spanish Ombudsman. By insisting on maintaining its definition it lends support to the idea that the entire Roma community engages in deceitful activity.

This is why the 8th April 2015 poster and activities focus on a joint protest by the entities taking part in the State Council of the Roma People against this unfortunate definition proposed by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. With this campaign we intend to gather support and mobilize public opinion to join our protest against a definition which in our view discriminates against the Roma community. As our slogan says: “A discriminatory definition generates discrimination”.

But it is not only the RAE. Once again, the State Council of the Roma People has repeatedly denounced the irreparable damage being done by the airing of TV shows such as the “Gypsy Kings” or “Roma Word of Honour”. The broadcast of stereotyped and caricatured images, not representative at all of the vast majority of Roma families, contributes to strengthening the rejection of the Roma community by society. We appeal once again to the professional ethics of the media to stop broadcasting this negative image of Roma in the name of entertainment but at the expense of the entire Roma community.

In Spain we have to acknowledge still another year of the terrible effects of the economic crises on society’s most vulnerable, many of whom are Roma families. In our country we have a good track record of inclusion policies for the Roma community but are witnessing increasing levels of inequality in response to the economic crisis, i.e. budget cuts and lack of investments are increasingly taking a heavier toll on the disadvantaged and in areas with great impact over the medium-term such as inequality in education, an area in which school failure and early school leaving rates among Roma youth are much higher than those of society as a whole.

The alarming figures appearing in the most recent FOESSA report on poverty and social exclusion indicate that we are a long way from accomplishing the goals set by the 2012-2020 Spanish National Roma Integration Strategy, a political commitment by the public administrations at local, regional and national level but in which we must all get involved.

While significant progress has been made in recent decades, at the FSG we know we must keep insisting that there are still serious problems to address. Therefore, in an election year like 2015, we call on political parties to focus on three priorities: combat educational inequality because if this is not urgently addressed, an entire generation of young Roma will be denied the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and exclusion; support Roma in improving their professional qualifications and accessing the labour market; and eradicate shanty towns and segregated areas. It is likewise essential to guarantee the right to equality and combat discrimination and the growing wave of Romaphobia, not only in our society, but throughout the entire European Union.

There is much to be done, and for that reason April 8th must be a day to for celebration, recognition, but also for vindication.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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