[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6372-S6373]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING NICOLAE GHEORGHE

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on August 8, Nicolae Gheorghe, one of the 
leading figures of the Romani civil rights movement, passed away. He 
was devoted to improving the situation of Roma, ultimately playing a 
pivotal role on the international stage and especially within the OSCE. 
Gheorghe lived an extraordinary life and will be long remembered for 
his singular contribution to the advancement of human rights.
  Nicolae Gheorghe was born in 1946 in Romania during the aftermath of 
the fascist regime led by Marshall Ion Atonescu. His mother had 
narrowly escaped the mass deportations of 25,000 Roma planned and 
implemented by the Antonescu regime.
  Members of the Helsinki Commission first met Nicolae Gheorghe when 
Senator Dennis DeConcini and Representative Steny Hoyer, then-Chairman 
and Cochairman, led a delegation to Romania in April 1990. At that 
time, Gheorghe was emerging as one of the clearest and most compelling 
voices sounding the alarm about the deplorable situation of Roma. 
Although the

[[Page S6373]]

fall of communism in Central Europe ushered in an era of 
democratization, it also gave free rein to old bigotry against Roma. In 
fact, only a few months after that visit, police efforts to remove 
demonstrators from Bucharest degenerated into brutal attacks on the 
offices of opposition papers, opposition leaders' homes, and members of 
the Romani minority.
  At almost the same time, the OSCE participating States were meeting 
in Copenhagen negotiating what would become one of the most ambitious 
agreements of the Helsinki process: the seminal 1990 Copenhagen 
Document. I was part of a delegation Representative Hoyer led to that 
historic meeting where we raised our concerns about religious and 
ethnic minorities directly with the delegation from Romania.
  It was also in Copenhagen where Nicolae Gheorghe pressed--
successfully--for the adoption of the first reference in any 
international human rights agreement to the specific problems faced by 
Roma. The U.S. delegation to that meeting, headed by the late 
Ambassador Max Kamplemen, helped secure the inclusion of that text in 
the final document.
  But in the context of post-Communist economic and political 
transition, Roma became targets of ethnically motivated attacks. In 
Romania, dozens of pogroms against Roma were carried out between 1990 
and 1997, prompting Gheorghe and others to found Romani CRISS in 1993. 
The name is a Romanian acronym for Center for Social Intervention and 
Studies but also a play on the Romani word ``kris,'' which is a kind of 
council of elders. In the 1990s, he worked with the New Jersey-based 
Project on Ethnic Relations and served on the board of the European 
Roma Rights Center.
  He also brought his concerns to the United States. In 1994, the House 
Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, 
International Organizations, and Human Rights, chaired by 
Representative Tom Lantos, convened the first hearing before Congress 
on the situation of Roma. Gheorghe, joined by Romani activists Ian 
Hancock, Andrzej Mirga, and Klara Orgovanova, testified, along with 
Livia Plaks of the Project on Ethnic Relations.
  Gheorghe argued that anti-Roma attitudes and behaviors could serve as 
a barometer to gauge the success of countries building democratic 
institutions, the rule of law, and ``the consolidation of civil 
movements and associations and societies and states deeply distorted by 
the decades of pro-fascist, authoritarian and communist totalitarian 
regimes.''
  He presciently surveyed the scope and implications of anti-Roma 
manifestations including in Bosnia, Germany, the Czech and Slovak 
Republics, and Romania. ``[T]he most important assistance which can be 
brought to or sent to our region is the rule of law, the breeding of 
democratic institutions, and careful implementation of individual human 
rights.'' Gheorghe testified at Helsinki Commission briefings and 
hearings in 2002 and 2006.
  Nicolae Gheorghe also became a fixture at OSCE human rights 
meetings--first in his capacity as an NGO, then as the first senior 
adviser on Romani issues for the OSCE Office for Democratic 
Institutions and Human Rights. In whatever capacity he worked, he was a 
relentless advocate for the human rights of Romani people.
  His appointment coincided with the deterioration of the situation in 
Kosovo, the NATO air campaign against Milosevic's Serbia, and the 
subsequent deployment of a large OSCE mission to Kosovo. As a 
consequence of developments in the Balkans, he became immediately 
engaged on issues relating to the displacement of Kosovo Roma to 
Macedonia and elsewhere. Throughout his tenure with the OSCE, which 
lasted through 2006, his work was driven by the need for crisis 
management stemming from acts of violence and other extreme 
manifestations of prejudice against Roma--not only in the Balkans but 
elsewhere in the OSCE region as well.
  In his 2006 testimony before the Helsinki Commission, he observed 
that international organizations had largely focused on the situation 
of Roma in Central Europe, neglecting Western countries such as Greece, 
France, Spain, and Italy. ``I don't think that Europe for the time 
being realizes the depth of the racism and racist attitudes in its 
structures, [in] Europe as a whole.'' The mass fingerprinting of Roma 
in Italy in 2008 and the expulsions of Roma from France in 2010 would 
illustrate that Gheorghe had spoken with typical insight.
  I wish that I could say Nicolae Gheorghe's work to advance the human 
rights of Roma was complete. Clearly, it is not. Each day, it must be 
carried on by the many people he encouraged and a new generation of 
activists. Toward that end, our load is lighter because of the burdens 
he carried, our goals are nearer because of the distance he traveled, 
and we are inspired by his legacy.

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