[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 49 (Thursday, April 5, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3525-S3526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         INTERNATIONAL ROMA DAY

  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, in my capacity as chairman of the 
Helsinki Commission, I take this opportunity to let my colleagues know 
that on Sunday, April 8, Roma from around the world will commemorate 
the 30th anniversary of the inaugural meeting of World Romani Congress. 
In countries across Europe as well as in North America, Roma will 
gather together to demonstrate solidarity with each other and to draw 
attention to the human rights violations they continue to face.
  Roma are a dispersed minority, present in virtually every country in 
the region covered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
Europe, OSCE, including the United States. They first arrived in Europe 
around the 13th century, after migrating from Northern India and their 
language, Romani, is related to Sanskrit. Roma were enslaved in what is 
now modern Romania and Moldova until 1864 and, in much of the rest of 
Europe, the Romani experience has been marked by pronounced social 
exclusion.
  The single most defining experience for Roma in the 20th century was 
the Holocaust, known in Romani as the Porrajmos, the Devouring. During 
the war itself, Roma were targeted for death by the Nazis based on 
their ethnicity. At least 23,000 Roma were brought to Auschwitz. Almost 
all of them perished in the gas chambers or from starvation, 
exhaustion, or disease.
  Not quite a year ago, the Helsinki Commission, which I now chair, 
held a hearing on Romani human rights issues. I heard from a panel of 
six witnesses, four of whom were Romani, about the problems Roma 
continue to face. Unfortunately, since the fall of Communism, the 
situation for Roma in many post-Communist countries has actually gotten 
worse. As Ina Zoon said, ``the defense of Roma rights in

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Europe is probably one of the biggest failures of the human rights 
battle in the last ten years.''
  The more I learn about the plight of Roma, the more I am struck by 
certain parallels with the experience of American Indians here in our 
own country. Increasingly, Roma have begun to raise their voices not in 
search of special treatment, but for an opportunity to freely exercise 
their human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination.
  At the OSCE's Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in 
Istanbul in 1999, the United States strongly supported the commitment, 
adopted by all OSCE participating States, to adopt anti-discrimination 
legislation to protect Roma. It is heartening that a number of Central 
European governments, countries where Roma are the most numerous, have 
publicly recognized the need to adopt legislation that will protect 
Roma from the discrimination they face. The adoption last year of the 
European Union's ``race directive'', which will require all current EU 
member states, as well as applicant countries to adopt comprehensive 
anti-discrimination legislation, should spur this effort.
  The Helsinki Commission will continue to monitor the plight of the 
Roma in the 107th Congress.

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