social integration of the roma population in belarus: providing the...

Social integration of the Roma population in Belarus: providing the right for equality

Center of Equal Rights ExpertiseVilnius, Lithuania http://romaintegration.by

District Public Association «Ašmiany Romani Community»

Republican Public Association «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

equalrightsexpertise.org

Expert and Educational Partnership

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— maintaining equality in all spheres of social life,— keeping cultural, ethnical, and social peculiarities of the Roma population,— inclusion is a maximum involvement of the Roma population into spheres of social life in Belarus,— elimination of all forms of discrimination, segregation, ethnic pro� ling.

About project

The programme of social integration of the Roma population in Belarus is aimed at creating equal possibilities for the Roma population to participate in social life of the Republic,

.ecnerehda cinhte-larutluc dna livic htob fo gnileef eht gnipoleved The scope of this programme is: • education, • job placement, • social maintenance,• culture. Basic principles of the programme of social integration of the Roma in Belarus are:

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region, the second Romani farm was established in Zhlobin district. Romani seven year-school worked in Vitebsk in 1930-th years. Roma brutally killed by the occupation authorities during World War II. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council «On the admission for work Roma who live as tramps» (1956) contributed to a sedentary lifestyle. Roma received passports with residence permit, local authorities had to provide Roma families the employment assistance. As a result of these steps, a signi� cant part of the nomadic tabors (according to the 1959 census - 4662 people) became sedentary. Roma tabors were settled on the outskirts of cities: in the North village of Zavodsky district of Minsk, Kolodishchi settlement in the Minsk region, Titovka in Bobruisk became places of compact Roma settlement.

In Belarus, according to the data of the 1999 census, 9.927 people offi cially declared themselves Roma, among them 77 % named Roma language as their native. According to the 2009 census, the Roma population sank to 7.079 people. But the Roma community says about 60.000 Roma live in Belarus today. The inaccuracy of the statistic data is due to the legalisation problems—many Roma have no documents so there are no statistical data.

Roma population of Belarus: statistics

Roma moved from Poland and Germany into the Belarusian lands at the XV century, from Hungary - at the XVI-XVII centuries. The starting point was the May 25, 1501: Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Kazimirovich Jagiellon gave the special letter for «Roma King», and Roma got the right to travel on lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Main place of their location was a settlement Zelva. Authorities of Rzeczpospolita encouraged Roma to a sedentary lifestyle (XVII cent.), and gave them administrative powers: elected offi cials were called «Roma King» and were granted unlimited power over Roma. Roma community in the town Mir was the most famous, the «Roma King» Jan Marcinkiewicz ruled in this town. Cloth, linen and fur factory were built by Roma in Mir. At the end of the XVIII century the number of Roma in the Belarusian lands sharply reduced: they moved to Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bessarabia. The � rst in the Soviet Union Romani collective farm «New life» was created in 1927 in the Byelorussian SSR in the Vitebsk

Roma population of Belarus: history

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Social integrations of the Roma population can be achieved through simultaneous realisation of systematic measures in the spheres of education, social maintenance, job placement, cultural activity. Central element of the programme for social integration is the system of mediation between Roma communities and state bodies. The functions of the mediators, with corresponding education, are planned to be placed upon the leaders of Roma communities or the persons authorised by the community. Mediator’s main obligations are identifying specialised needs of the Roma population in social services (health care, availability of social infrastructure), job placement, and other spheres, and informing specialised bodies of local management, as well as informing the Roma population about the norms of law of the republic, of state policy in various spheres, etc. The system of mediation in spheres of social maintenance, job placement, legalisation, etc. may be created only in partnership with the Roma organisations. Its speci� c features may be:

Recommendations on the development of the programme for social integration of the Roma in Belarus

Quantity of Roma population

Quantity of Roma who use Romani language as a nativeurban

areasrural areas

Brest region 385 330 420Vitebsk region

877 309 687

Gomel region 1547 954 1815Grodno region

227 145 249

Minsk region 515 487 628Mogilev region

676 54 459

Minsk 573 - 299

Only 80 % of the Roma children have basic and secondary education, although the majority of them only � nished the course of basic education. 12 % of the Roma at the age of 10 and older can’t read and write. According to the unoffi cial data, 55 % of underage Roma in Brest region do not receive any education. No more than 2 % have higher education. About 17 % have secondary, professional-technical or specialised secondary education. Only 9 % of all Belarusian Roma are offi cially employed.

* according to the 2009 Census.

A) maximum closeness to the local Roma settlements;B) participation of the leader of Roma organisation (of the authorised person) in the events organised by

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A) In frames of the mediation system consultation centres on job placement should be created to collect information about various variants of offi cial employment (vacancies) and about labour needs and professional quali� cation of the Roma communities’ representatives.B) Construct a programme for further training for the workers of employment centres dedicated to the peculiarities of labour needs of the Roma population.C) Introduce topics dedicated to International law standards in maintaining the rights of minorities, securing rights and no discrimination in social and labour spheres, into the programmes for further training managing workers of various levels.

Job placement

Culture Keeping cultural originality is one of the main factors for the development of national minorities. The most important elements of cultural originality of the Roma population are language, history, some traditional activities (traditional magic), art (songs and dances), etc. in order to maintain cultural originality of the Roma population, it is recommended:

EducationA) Measures on elimination of illiteracy among adult Roma population through activation of the programmes of external studies, as well as creating special evening schools (weekend schools) which, besides school knowledge, would provide socially useful and practice oriented knowledge and skills (law, elementary medical, � nancial, knowledge on housing policy, social maintenance, etc.).B) In order to elevate motivation to study among children and youth, scholarship programmes for individual and collective encouraging should be introduced.C) Roma leaders and activists should control attendance of educational establishments and studying results.D) Realisation of principle «Education throughout the whole life» in frames of which in the next � ve years in Belarus it is planned to create a � exible system

the local authorities, including � eld oriented, which are connected with life-sustaining activity of the Roma population;C) participation of the Roma leader or activists in the work of the inter-ethnic (public, consultative) councils working at the authority bodies, especially regional;D) interaction and coordination of the mediators with partner NGO of service pro� le;E) coordination of the system of Roma mediators with state system of social order.

of preparation, additional and further training employees in accordance with the needs of innovative development of the country.

A) To take measures for keeping and possibly widening the spheres of public use of the Roma language as a language of national minority despite the lack of its written version;

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Mediator’s main obligations are:identifying specialised needs of the Roma population in social services (health care, availability of social infrastructure), job placement, and other spheres, and informing specialised bodies of local management, as well as informing the Roma population about the norms of law of the republic, of state policy in various spheres, etc.

Mediator’s main obligations:

Mediator’s activity: - rights protection;- promoting the values of education and communication with schools and Roma families;- employment;- social protection;- cultural activities.

Mass mediaA) Encourage mass media to cover positive sides of the Roma’ life allowing no creation of stereotype understanding and provocations of enmity in inter-ethnic relations.B) Include topics dedicated to discrimination and the language of enmity, as well as the ways of delivering information items free of Roma-phobia, into the programmes for further training journalists.

B) To encourage representation of the Roma as leaders of artistic and other collectives;C) To include materials on history and culture of the Roma population into handbooks with special attention to the period of World War II and Holocaust.

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Slutsk, Nesvizh

Viktor Murachkovsky

Gomel

Nadia Geraschenko

Ruslan Gorbunov

Angela Vasilieva

Bobruisk

Alena Martsinkevich Stanislav Martsinkevich

Tolochin

Tamara Ivanova

Vitebsk branch of «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

National coordinator of the Romani Women’s Network

Coordinator of the Romani Youth Network

«Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

«Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

«Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

Vice Chairman of the «Belarusian Romani Diaspora», Director of the Expert and Educational Partnership Romaintegration, National coordinator of the Network of public Roma mediators

THE NETWORK OF PUBLIC ROMA MEDIATORS

«Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

Leader of District Public Association «Ašmiany Romani Community» «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

Minsk

Artur Gomonov

Minsk district

Oleg Koritsky

VitebskRaisa Bankovskaja Konstantin Bankovsky

Ashmiany

Artur Egorov

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It includes both theoretical and practical interactive sessions and workshops. Educational theme: communication with the relevant state bodies and bodies of local self-government and administration, media and NGO of social services; legal procedures to solve problems of Roma communities; communication strategies of mediation, the provision of assistance to socially vulnerable categories of the Roma population.

Was aimed at informing the Romani population in Belarus about the negative consequences of early marriages; promoting the values of the rights of the child and the possibilities for social development of the Romani youth, girls in particular. Information campaign «Early Marriages — Missed Opportunities» held in frames of the project was aimed at parents of the under-aged girls, the Romani youth, leaders of the Romani communities, teachers. Information campaign was implemented by public Roma mediators in 7 Romani settlements of Belarus.

Our projects

Enlightenment project «Preventing Child, Early and Forced Marriages among the Romany Population in

Belarus» (2015-2016)

Socio-educational program for public Roma mediators (2015-2016)

The association of young activists of Roma communities, the organization of socially useful activities, promoting the values of education, legal employment, prevention of crime in the Roma youth communities.

Romani Women’s Network

Romani monitoring HorseWatchIs intended to detect and respond to:- Violations of the rights of the Roma population;- Hate speech;- Ethnic pro� ling- Communication with the relevant organizations and institutions of the Republic of Belarus and international procedures and mechanisms.

The main goal - the consolidation of Roma women, especially young women, to involve them in the socio-cultural processes of the Belarusian society, to participate in the administrative processes within the Roma communities, for promoting the values of education, the image of a successful, con� dent modern Roma lady.

Romani Youth Network