[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 2, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6341-S6342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      ROMA STILL WAITING FOR THEIR ``BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION''

  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, 2 years ago, the United States Helsinki 
Commission, which I co-chair, held its third hearing on the human 
rights problems faced by Roma. At that time, we gave particular 
attention to the barriers Roma face in the field of education. As the 
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities said in his very helpful 
report on Roma in OSCE region, ``exclusion of Roma extends to every 
sphere of social life, perhaps nowhere with more far-reaching and 
harmful effect than in respect of schooling.''
  In other words, ensuring equal access for Roma in the fields of 
education is an essential element for their integration in other areas 
of life. The World Bank and United Nations Development Program have 
also emphasized, in their reports, that integration in education is an 
essential ingredient for improving the overall conditions in which Roma 
live.
  Last month, as our own country was commemorating the Supreme Court's 
historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the European Roma 
Rights Center issued a report entitled ``Stigmata: Segregated Schooling 
of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe.'' This report evaluates 
practices and policies in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, 
Romania, and Slovakia and describes the most common ways of segregating 
Romani children from non-Roma: channeling Roma into so-called ``special 
schools'' for children with developmental disabilities; the de facto 
segregation that goes hand-in-hand with Romani ghettos; having mixed 
population schools where Romani children are segregated into all-Romani 
classes; and the refusal of some local authorities to enroll Romani 
children in mainstream schools.
  The European Roma Rights Center report concludes that, unfortunately, 
``with the exception of Hungary, concrete government action aimed at 
desegregating the school system has not been initiated to date.'' It is 
surely not a coincidence that Hungary is also the only country in 
Europe where the mainstream political parties have started to compete 
for the Romani vote--both developments which reflect meaningful steps 
towards the real integration of Roma in that country.
  As the European Roma Rights Center notes, segregated schooling is the 
result of many factors which conspire together--not the least of which 
is the

[[Page S6342]]

pernicious stereotype that Romani culture is somehow incompatible with 
education. This fiction continues to be widely held and disseminated by 
the media, by government officials and public leaders, and sometimes 
even by the representatives of respected international organizations. 
Frankly, this myth needs to be debunked.
  In reality, before World War II, there was no country in Europe that 
allowed Roma to attend school and maintain their language and cultural 
identity at the same time. Formal schooling, by definition, meant 
forced assimilation. It is amazing testimony to the strength of Romani 
culture that--after centuries as a dispersed people in Europe, after 
slavery in Romania and Moldova, after forced assimilation campaigns, 
and after the Holocaust--Romani identity has survived.
  For most Roma in Europe, concentrated in countries that fell behind 
the Iron Curtain, it is only the context of a post-communist world, a 
Europe which has now recognized the rights of ethnic and linguistic 
minorities, that the theoretical opportunity to be educated without 
having to hide or surrender one's Romani identity is within grasp. Kids 
like Elvis Hajdar, the Romani-Macedonian computer whiz-kid the 
Christian Science Monitor profiled in April, embrace this opportunity.
  For many other Roma, however, educational opportunities remain only 
distant and only theoretical. And, contrary to popular mythology, it is 
not Romani culture that holds them back, but crushing poverty and 
entrenched racism.
  Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and it is no 
surprise that Romani organizations across Europe have made access to 
education one of their principle demands. Moreover, the ``Action Plan 
on Improving the Situation of Roma and Sinti within the OSCE Area,'' 
adopted at the Maastricht Ministerial last December, the OSCE 
participating states outlined a variety of concrete measures states 
might undertake to achieve this goal. But desegregation will not just 
happen on its own. It will take leadership and political will and--as 
we know from our own experiences after the Brown decision--it may still 
take many years. The time to get started is now.

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