UN-SUB-COMMISSION ON THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Fifty-second session Geneva, 31 July-18 August 2000 Agenda Item 8 - "Prevention of discrimination against and the protection of minorities" Oral Statement by the Transnational Radical Party, a NGO with Status of Category I. Thank you Madame Chair, Allow to me to draw the Sub-Commission attention on the issue of the Roma, a Nation considered as a minority, even if such a definition does not fit it at all. It is True that in today's world, the concept of minority itself does not seem to be adequate anymore. The Roma Nation is a nation of over 15 million individuals; only in Europe it counts about 8 million. Such a big group can hardly be considered a minority. Nevertheless, this contradiction can bring a new awareness to States as well as to international Institutions. An awareness that we believe could perfectly fit in the debate, which is currently involving some of the most authoritative persons in Europe and the world over: the debate about the sovereignty of states and on the creation of supranational and international bodies. Madame Chair, an entire Nation is represented in the UN System by merely one Non-Governmental Organisation, the International Romani Union (IRU). We believe that the word "Nation" is the proper one about this group, since Roma share the same language, the same traditions, as well as the same origin. There is no doubt that there is a lack of representation for this people - a Nation larger than many others with sovereign presence as a State. Yet the Roma Nation does not want and does not seek to become a State. And this, once again, is one of the major issues at stake in the current international debate on the adequacy of the State system itself in a globalised world with a global new and "old" economy. Madame Chair, the Transnational Radical Party is of the opinion that the main sign of the Roma cultural identity could be today a concrete resource to be offered by the Roma to the rest of the world as a viable path for future relations. Many Roma still suffer in tragic conditions in many regions of the world; the Holocaust of over half a million Roma is essentially forgotten, it does not belong to the Memory of humanity. In these very months in Kosova, Roma people are those who suffer more harshly the climate of ethnic hatred created by a decade of violence and ethnic cleansing, all policies permitted by a non-existent European foreign policy; a non-policy that has not been able, nor it is today, to affirm the fundamental values that Western Europeans honour for themselves, an approach that considers these values to be less important if their negation involves individuals who are not so lucky to live in EU countries. The enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms should not be a matter of luck. After centuries in which the driving desire of every Nation has been the one of becoming an ethnically homogeneous state, Europe - and somehow the UN - faces today a new challenge, the challenge of the adequacy of the State itself to the demands of the new economy and the new society, as well as the challenge of its adherence to old and persisting needs of billions of individuals suffering from starvation and violations of their fundamental human rights. The question, which must be posed at this very moment in history is, "which institutions and rules of the present order can be reformed or re-created in order to give a representation to a Nation formed by individuals who do not want to create a State ?" For the concept of a State - and the one of a Nation - are evidently no longer congruent nor easily applicable nowadays. The Roma question itself is of great help for the current debate on these issues; finding an viable answer will probably be more than a step forward, and evidently not only for the Roma. Freedom plus democracy equals the rule of law: the world's oldest democracies, England and the U.S., have been able to demonstrate it for centuries. Europe and the rest of the world should ask themselves whether the existing international juridical systems and institutions are concretely able to guarantee - for each and every individual regardless of their nationality - freedom and liberty in a changing global context. What is necessary today is to adapt politics itself to emerging realities, otherwise politics itself - the way we create rules, laws, rights, the exercise of the rule of law as a method for living together - will progressively and dangerously erode. Madame Chair and distinguished delegates, I should also like to take this opportunity to convey to you the conclusions of the recent world Congress of the Roma. At that forum the Roma strongly declared that they have a dream, the same concrete, political dream of Martin Luther King, who was able to push the great American democracy into further maturity. Mr. King was not fighting merely for the emancipation of a minority, but, rather or above all, he was fighting for the eventual and deeper implementation of the American Constitution, for the rule of law, for each and every Americans as single individual. A transnational Nation of individuals needs a transnational rule of law. Are Roma unique in needing that? So, this political position expressed by Roma is something useful to be offered in the frame of the current international debate, which should involve not just Governments, but also Parliaments and every individual. Roma ask for help. In being a Nation without a state, they need to be engaged in establishing schools, Roma schools, along the lines of the German, French, American and English schools we know so well. Helping the creation of Roma schools, starting with helping the first existing ones, would obviously suit the interest of the Roma, but at the same time - as it is understandable - the interest of any people living together with the Roma. The Transnational Radical Party believes that the international community has a high duty, and not just a moral one, and that is ensuring the rule of law through adequate and updated institutions with effective jurisdictions that can address the current needs of each and every individual freely taking part in a global society. We believe that this duty should be fulfilled without further delay. Madame Chair, lastly, allow me to add just some final remarks. If the Transnational Radical Party was not here at this time, if, as somebody has asked for, it was not allowed to address this august body today, this forum itself would have lost something important: freedom of speech, and freedom of expression, the ultimate human right. I Thank You, Madame Chair