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

Republican Public District Public Association Association «Belarusian «Ašmiany Romani Community» Romani Diaspora»

Center of Expert and Educational Partnership Equal Rights Expertise Vilnius, Lithuania http://romaintegration.by

equalrightsexpertise.org 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, developing the feeling of both civil and cultural-ethnic adherence. 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: — 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.

1 region, the second Romani farm was established in . 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 Roma population of admission for work Roma who live as tramps» (1956) contributed to a sedentary lifestyle. Belarus: history 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 Roma moved from and Germany into the Belarusian tabors (according to the 1959 census - 4662 people) became lands at the XV century, from Hungary - at the XVI-XVII centuries. sedentary. Roma tabors were settled on the outskirts of cities: The starting point was the May 25, 1501: Lithuanian Grand Duke in the North village of Zavodsky district of , Kolodishchi Alexander Kazimirovich Jagiellon gave the special letter for settlement in the , Titovka in Bobruisk became places «Roma King», and Roma got the right to travel on lands of the of compact Roma settlement. Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Main place of their location was a settlement Zelva. Authorities of Rzeczpospolita encouraged Roma to a Roma population sedentary lifestyle (XVII cent.), and gave them administrative powers: elected offi cials were called «Roma King» and were of Belarus: granted unlimited power over Roma. statistics Roma community in the town Mir was the most famous, the «Roma King» Jan Marcinkiewicz ruled in this town. Cloth, In Belarus, according to the data of the 1999 census, 9.927 linen and fur factory were built by Roma in Mir. people offi cially declared themselves Roma, among them 77 % At the end of the XVIII century the number of Roma in named Roma language as their native. According to the 2009 the Belarusian lands sharply reduced: they moved to Moldavia, census, the Roma population sank to 7.079 people. But the Roma Wallachia, and Bessarabia. community says about 60.000 Roma live in Belarus today. The The rst in the Soviet Union Romani collective farm «New inaccuracy of the statistic data is due to the legalisation problems— life» was created in 1927 in the Byelorussian SSR in the Vitebsk many Roma have no documents so there are no statistical data.

2 3 Quantity of Roma Quantity of Roma population who use Romani Recommendations on urban rural areas language as a native the development of the areas programme for social Brest region 385 330 420 Vitebsk 877 309 687 integration of the Roma in region Belarus region 1547 954 1815 Social integrations of the Roma population can be achieved Grodno 227 145 249 region through simultaneous realisation of systematic measures in the spheres of education, social maintenance, job placement, cultural Minsk region 515 487 628 activity. Mogilev 676 54 459 Central element of the programme for social integration region is the system of mediation between Roma communities and Minsk 573 - 299 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. Only 80 % of the Roma children have basic and secondary Mediator’s main obligations are identifying specialised needs of education, although the majority of them only nished the course the Roma population in social services (health care, availability of basic education. 12 % of the Roma at the age of 10 and older can’t of social infrastructure), job placement, and other spheres, and read and write. According to the unoffi cial data, 55 % of underage informing specialised bodies of local management, as well as Roma in Brest region do not receive any education. informing the Roma population about the norms of law of the No more than 2 % have higher education. About 17 % republic, of state policy in various spheres, etc. have secondary, professional-technical or specialised secondary The system of mediation in spheres of social maintenance, education. job placement, legalisation, etc. may be created only in partnership Only 9 % of all Belarusian Roma are offi cially employed. with the Roma organisations. Its speci c features may be: A) maximum closeness to the local Roma settlements; B) participation of the leader of Roma organisation * according to the 2009 Census. (of the authorised person) in the events organised by

4 5 the local authorities, including eld oriented, which of preparation, additional and further training employees in are connected with life-sustaining activity of the Roma accordance with the needs of innovative development of the population; country. C) participation of the Roma leader or activists in the Job placement work of the inter-ethnic (public, consultative) councils working at the authority bodies, especially regional; A) In frames of the mediation system consultation D) interaction and coordination of the mediators with centres on job placement should be created to partner NGO of service pro le; collect information about various variants of offi cial E) coordination of the system of Roma mediators with employment (vacancies) and about labour needs and professional quali cation of the Roma communities’ state system of social order. representatives. Education B) Construct a programme for further training for the workers of employment centres dedicated to the A) Measures on elimination of illiteracy among peculiarities of labour needs of the Roma population. adult Roma population through activation of the C) Introduce topics dedicated to International law programmes of external studies, as well as creating standards in maintaining the rights of minorities, special evening schools (weekend schools) which, securing rights and no discrimination in social and besides school knowledge, would provide socially labour spheres, into the programmes for further useful and practice oriented knowledge and skills (law, training managing workers of various levels. elementary medical, nancial, knowledge on housing policy, social maintenance, etc.). Culture B) In order to elevate motivation to study among Keeping cultural originality is one of the main factors for the children and youth, scholarship programmes for development of national minorities. The most important elements individual and collective encouraging should be of cultural originality of the Roma population are language, introduced. history, some traditional activities (traditional magic), art (songs C) Roma leaders and activists should control and dances), etc. in order to maintain cultural originality of the attendance of educational establishments and studying Roma population, it is recommended: results. A) To take measures for keeping and possibly widening D) Realisation of principle «Education throughout the the spheres of public use of the Roma language as a whole life» in frames of which in the next ve years language of national minority despite the lack of its in Belarus it is planned to create a exible system written version;

6 7 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. Mass media A) 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 Mediator’s main language of enmity, as well as the ways of delivering information items free of Roma-phobia, into the obligations: programmes for further training journalists. 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. Mediato r’s activity: - rights protection; - promoting the values of education and communication with schools and Roma families; - employment; - social protection; - cultural activities.

8 9 THE NETWORK OF PUBLIC Slutsk, Nesvizh ROMA MEDIATORS Viktor Murachkovsky «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

Minsk Gomel Artur Gomonov Nadia Geraschenko Vice Chairman of the «Belarusian Romani National coordinator of the Romani Diaspora», Director of the Expert and Educational Women’s Network Partnership Romaintegration, National coordinator of the Network of public Roma mediators Ruslan Gorbunov Coordinator of the Romani Youth Minsk district Network Oleg Koritsky «Belarusian Romani Diaspora» Angela Vasilieva «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

Bobruisk Vitebsk Alena Martsinkevich Raisa Bankovskaja Stanislav Martsinkevich «Belarusian Romani Konstantin Bankovsky Diaspora» Vitebsk branch of «Belarusian Romani Diaspora» Ashmiany Tolochin Artur Egorov Leader of District Public Association Tamara Ivanova «Ašmiany Romani Community» «Belarusian Romani Diaspora»

10 11 Romani monitoring Our projects HorseWatch Is intended to detect and respond to: - Violations of the rights of the Roma population; Socio-educational program - Hate speech; for public Roma mediators - Ethnic pro ling (2015-2016) - Communication with the relevant organizations and institutions of the Republic of Belarus and It includes both theoretical and practical interactive international procedures and mechanisms. sessions and workshops. Educational theme: communication with the relevant state bodies and bodies of local self-government and Romani Women’s Network administration, media and NGO of social services; legal procedures to solve problems of Roma communities; communication strategies The main goal - the consolidation of Roma women, especially young women, to involve of mediation, the provision of assistance to socially vulnerable them in the socio-cultural processes of the categories of the Roma population. Belarusian society, to participate in the administrative processes within the Roma communities, for promoting the values Enlightenment project «Preventing of education, the image of a successful, Child, Early and Forced Marriages con dent modern Roma lady. among the Romany Population in Belarus» (2015-2016)

Was aimed at informing the Romani population in Belarus Romani Youth Network about the negative consequences of early marriages; promoting The association of young activists of Roma the values of the rights of the child and the possibilities for social communities, the organization of socially useful development of the Romani youth, girls in particular. activities, promoting the values of education, legal Information campaign «Early Marriages — Missed employment, prevention of crime in the Roma Opportunities» held in frames of the project was aimed at parents youth communities. 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.

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