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