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UN
- COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh session - March-April 2001
Agenda item 14
Oral statement by the International Romani Union,
a non-governmental organization in Special Consultative Status
Delivered by Paolo Pietrosanti, Commissioner for Foreign Affairs
Mr. Chairman,
I speak on behalf of the International Romani Union.
We may say that the Roma are a minority; we may say that such a minority,
wherever the Roma are a minority, has to be protected, supported. We do
believe, on the contrary, that we all face a concrete, dramatically concrete
problem: the one of a not adequate, at least a not anymore adequate viewpoint.
Let's take Europe as an example, Mr. Chairman. If the dream, the political
will of the prominent European federalists of the past (none of them was
a Roma...) had become a reality, the Roma would not be a minority. Or,
they would be a "minority" as 85 million Germans are.
It is, evidently, a matter of viewpoints.
It is also evident that the most adequate viewpoints meeting the interest
of the Roma corresponds to the most adequate one for the interest of the
entire Europe, both inside and outside the European Union.
The Roma Nation, made by individual citizens of dozens of States, needs
and deserves adequate laws, which, not per chance, are the same that everyone
needs and deserves in a deeply rapidly changing society. A trans-Statual
Nation needs a trans-statual rule of law.
Montesquieu said that each individual belongs to humanity because he/she
was born, we join him when he says that this he or she is a citizen of
a State or another merely by accident.
The Fifth World Congress of the International Romani Union, last July,
solemnly approved the Declaration of the Roma Nation, as it is known;
a Nation which does not want to become a State, but definitely asks for
a representation. Even in the frame of the United Nations (Nations, Mr.
Chairman...).
With Emil Scuka, the President of the International Romani Union, we have
delivered so far the Declaration of the Roma Nation to Heads of State
and of Governments, in official meetings: to President Havel of the Czech
Republic, to Italian Prime Minister Amato, to Yugoslav President Kostunica,
to President Stojanov of Bulgaria, as well as to Minister Ferrero-Waldner
of Austria; while other meetings at the highest level will be scheduled
soon. During these meetings with prominent leaders, we have also proposed
the creation of the European Citizenship for the Roma, as a first step
on what is the implementation of an old promise made by the Governments
of Europe and that is provided in European Treaties. Nothing more and
nothing less, Mr. chairman, than the implementation of what had to be
implemented a long time ago.
We "have a dream", Mr. Chairman, the same political, concrete, realistic
dream of Martin Luther King, who did not fight merely for the emancipation
of a minority, but for the implementation and enforcement of the American
Constitution, the founding document of one of the oldest democracy. Dr.
King was murdered on April 4th 1968; maybe significantly, the first "Memorandum
of Understanding and Cooperation" between the International Romani Union
and a Government was signed on April 4th 2001. It happened in Prague,
and the Government is the one of the Czech Republic, a country where -
as Czech Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Martin Palous openly and
honestly admitted a few days ago in this very august hall - the conditions
of the individuals belonging to the Roma community are increasing, but,
at the same time too often continue to be negative.
Should we express, Mr. Chairman, our gratitude to the Czech Government?
We would say no, since it is not a matter of gratitude but rather of Admiration
for the intelligence of those involved in that operation.
Such an intelligence is evident in the Memorandum itself, and I quote
"the view that the Roma minority in the Czech Republic forms a part of
the Roma Nation living in Europe." The request for the general recognition
of the Roma Nation, continues the Memorandum, is not a problem of principal
nature.
As it is evident, Mr. Chairman, we are offering a chance to the International
Community, the one of adequately respond to the concrete needs of a changing
society. Needs to be fulfilled by adequate institutional reforms, capable
of making the rule of law a concrete METHOD of how to live together, rather
than an abstract "value". Democracy itself, Mr. Chairman, is credible
if it is a method, and not a value, which can too easily be transformed
into an alibi.
We have something to offer while requesting a representation for the Roma
Nation which does not want to be a State; we have also something to propose
to the "others": an investment. Investing on education for the Roma children,
following the example of the very few Roma schools existing so far, will
make all of us successfull investors; on condition - we do believe - to
really follow and increase the existing experiments.
Mr. Chairman,
the International Community is currently facing a challenge, the one of
concretely putting into practice, of making alive, the principles proclaimed
by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the various Covenants.
We do believe this can happen only if rules and institutions will be made
adequate to the concrete needs of individuals, apart from their belonging
to one or another Nation; only if the rule of law will be made adequate
to a radically changed and changing society.
That's our effort.
Thank You, Mr. Chairman
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