Geneva, March 23rd, 1998

THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY ASKS FOR A SPECIAL REPORT ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GYPSIES

The Transnational Radical Party has given today in the UN Commission on Human Rights an Oral Statement in the frame of Agenda Item 12 (Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance).

Mr. Paolo Pietrosanti has given the Statement, also on behalf of the International Romani Union, a NGO with Status of Category II.

After having underlined the importance of the process which is bringing the UN to create the International Criminal Court as a crucial step toward a development of sovranational Law and Right, Mr. Pietrosanti has proposed the Commission to charge the Special Rapporteur to deliver a Special Report on racial discrimination against Gypsies.

"It is evident and known that the ancient concept of the state as the coincidence of a people and a territory does not fit the new scene of the world any more. The Gypsy Nation does not want to be a State. Isn't the inner characteristic of the Gypsy culture and tradition and way of life a treasure for the entire human community? It is a treasure which should be in the very core of the current cultural and political international debates."

The specificity of a Nation which has been able to mantain its identity after having suffered a genocide, should find an answer, and, as a first step, a Special Report on the discrimination it is still suffering in so many countries.

The Transnational Radical Party