Ruthenians in Serbia: a Tradition- Cherishing Nation with No Motherland

Consultations on Reporting Procedures Project “Carpathian on the Implementation of the Parallels” Brought to Minority Action Plan Completion 35 Minority Newapril 2s 017 Ruthenians in Serbia: A Tradition- Cherishing Nation with No Motherland Conference “Roma “Gergina 2017” Women in Serbia - Festival – Keeper of the Achievements, Challenges, Tradition of Vlah Old and Perspectives” Music HIGLIHTS EDITORIAL 35 Strengthening of the Capacity o f the National Searching f or a Pl a ce un der the Sun Minority Co uncils The right to a decent an d dignified life is some thing we w ere all Two-day train ing sessions have bee n born wi th. Yes, we all have the righ ts to ed ucatio n, medic al ca re, carried out fo r the r ep resentat ives of emplo yment, bu t, can we all, i n reality, execu te these rig h ts? This the nation al minorit y councils a s a part que stion can fre que ntly b e heard a round sp ecific dates, pe rhaps of the Government’s ac tivities aimed most ofte n when th e In ternatio nal D ay of the R om a, the c itize ns at the strengthening of the capacity of of the wo rld with out a m otherla nd, is to be marked. the nationa l minorit y councils. T he goal of these sessions is to introduc e the re - Let us remind ourselves that April 8, as the International Roma present atives o f the nation al minority Day, ha s b een cele bra ted sin ce 1971, w hen the R o ma fr om 25 councils to t he p rin ciples of goo d ma - countr ies met for the fir st tim e and founded the Unio n of the nage m ent, program planni ng, budge - Roma. F or full 46 years we h ave tried to mark this d ay. On this ting and reporting, from the perspective day, the re i s not a singl e new s progr am th at does no t featu re a of the increased efficiency and transpa - specia l re po rt abou t the R om a. A repre sentative o f any national rency in the work of the national mi - community can only be pleased with the fact that public pays so nority councils, particularly in regard to the use of the fund s allocated from the mu ch attentio n to their natio nal day . However, more i m portantly, budget of th e Republic of Serbi a. it would be even more pleasing if the public provided system so - luItions to the pr ob lem s link ed to t h is comm unity f or years. As a nation without a motherland, the Roma people are forced to be Agreement on Reporting in th e pro cess o f constant mig ration a nd to be subjec te d to per - on the Implementation of secution, even ge no cide . Is this w here the intole rance towar ds the M in ority Ac tion Plan the Rom a c omes fr o m? zbog toga š We do not have an answer to this question, but negative experi - On April 25, 2017, t he represe ntatives of the C oordinati on of t he National M i - ence of the past cannot be used as an excuse for the future. De - nority Cou ncils m et i n Belgrade w ith the spite num erous ref orms carried out by our state, t h e Rom a people Director of the Office for Human and are still the m ost discrim inate d m štoino uzdišemority comm zaun i„starletama“ty in our coun kojetry. Minority Rights to discuss the reporting As hi gh level of disc rimina tion, u nemployment, segregation in ed - on the implementation of the Action ucation is still present in our society. In the annual report of the Plan for the Execution of the Minority Com mission er for Pro tection o f Equ alit y, o ut of the tot al number Rights. The meeting was organized in line with the Coor dination’s request to of complaints of ethnicity-based discrimination, as many as 40% change the method ology for mon itoring of th e com plaint s a re t he Roma p opulatio n rela ted. The Gov ern - and reporting on the im plementation men t o f the Repub lic o f Se rbia ra tified the S trateg y for So cia l In - of the Action plan. clu sion of R oma i n th e Republi c o f Serbia 201 6-2 02 5. But, h ow is it possibl e that an Action Plan for the implementation of this Strat - How Well Do We Kno w egy has not been ratified yet? How can we follow the implemen - tation o f t he meas ures en visag ed by t he Strat egy, if w e lac k such Ea c h Other an im portan t mechanis m? L ast m onth , a Coo rdin ation Body for The 11th cy cle of th e high sch ools quiz the Monitoring of the Strategy was created, too, pointing to the “How Well Do We Know Each Other”, start of the implementation of the Strategy, but is this sufficient? which is a part of the Provincial Go - vernment’s Project “The Affirmation of Multiculturalism and Tolerance in Vojvodina - Confidence Building Mea - 30 d iffer ent national m inorities live in Serbia sures among the Youth”, started with qualification competiti on on the 18th of April. Conf ere nce “R om a W o men i n Serbia – Achievements, Challenges, and Perspectives” Organized On April 11, the conference “Roma Wo - men in Se rbia – Achieveme nts, Chall en - ewsle er for all ges , and Perspe cti ves” was org anized in and ONE n the Palace Serbia, during which the pu - bli c was inform ed on t he difficu lt position of this multi ple-discrimin ated minority in our country and the efforts to change their position. www.minoritynews.rs Minority News Portal OUR INTERVIEW: IVANA DUDAŠ, ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF VOJVODINA RUTHENIANS A Tradition-Cherishing Nation with No Motherland which were part of the inheritance of the family of photographer Budinski from Ruski Krstur and donated to the Greek Catholic parish in Krstur. Another part of the project included polling of the people on the ground, who were asked if they could rec - ognize the individuals from the old photo - graphs. As a result, a two week exhibition of the Ruthenian history was organized at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, as a part of the “Days of Ruthenian Culture 2016”. Last year, we also implemented the project “Carpathian Parallels”, with financial support of the Open Society Foundation, which has just been brought to completion. During the implementation of this project, we have had genuinely good cooperation with other national minorities. Do you cooperate with other national mi - norities on other projects, as well? Absolutely. Every year, we earmark special amount in our financial plan for one multi - cultural project. Last year, we organized an ettlement of Ruthenians in these territories began in 1751. They exhibition in Slovakia, and, this year, if other migrated from present Slovakia, Carpathian Ukraine and the north - Institutes set aside similar funds, we plan east Hungary. The life of the immigrants has changed over centuries, to organize a theatre play “Wings of but their language, culture, and customs have remained the same. Panonia”, directed by Miroslav Benka, a Vo - While Ruski Krstur is considered to be the central settlement of the jvodina Slovak Director. Most of the cultural VSojvodina Ruthenians, the institute that has jurisdiction over protection and institutes and a few of the national minority promotion of the Ruthenian culture is seated in Novi Sad. The Cultural Institute councils have supported this idea. In this of Vojvodina Ruthenians was founded in 2008 and is presently headed by multicultural project, we plan to engage the acting director, Ivana Dudaš. most prominent actors from all national mi - What was the main goal of the Institute’s great importance for the Ruthenian com - norities. However, while both the idea and founders? munity implemented during this time. Let the project are very inspiring, I cannot guar - me mention a few of them. We published antee that it will be implemented this year. The Cultural Institute of Vojvodina Ruthe - a book of songs “The Red Rose”, comprising We carried out a similar project last year – nians was founded by the Assembly of the of folk songs and popular and children mu - A. Chekhov’s “Wedding”, directed by Lidija Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the sic, as a part of the 50th Red Rose Festival, Stevanović, with participation of Ruthenian Ruthenian National Minority Council. I be - the most important festival for the Ruthen - actors, as well. lieve that the main objective at the time ian national minority. Furthermore, we pub - was to increase the level of the national How does the Institute support the lished a far-reaching book “Ruthenian Folk Ruthenian Culture? culture, i.e. development and promotion of Costumes”, which includes description of the culture of Vojvodina Ruthenians. Since folklore steps, as well as detailed descrip - Every year, the Institute funds the cele - the moment it was founded, the Institute tion of the folk costumes, sequence of put - bration of the Ruthanian National Day, has had four directors and acting directors, ting its their elements on, explanation on which is organized in a different town Miroslav Keveždi, Janko Bučko, Sergej the ways the hair is combed… Couple of every year.

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