Romani (Gypsy) culture and social issues.

Project on Ethnic Relations


The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) was founded in 1991 to encourage the peaceful resolution of ethnic conflicts in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation. It is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with additional funding from the Starr Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Philip D. Reed Foundation. PER conducts programs of action, education, research, and publication in Central and Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation. 

The Roma have had such a long, widespread, and controversial presence in all of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as to warrant special attention by the PER. It has devoted considerable resources to efforts to improve their situation. 

In May 1992, PER organized a meeting in Stupava (Bratislava), Czechoslovakia, that brought together Roma leaders, organizers, and social workers from Central and Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation with government officials in the region. This meeting, the first of its kind, was co-sponsored by the Czechoslovak federal government and the governments of the Czech and Slovak republics, and dealt with the social and political status of the Roma populations in the region and government policies toward them in the post-Communist era. The meeting also included participants from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. 

In April 1993, PER organized a second meeting between Roma leaders and representatives of governments in the region. This meeting was held at Snagov, near Bucharest, in cooperation with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several Roma organizations. 

The results of these meetings and related initiatives are summarized in two PER reports: The Romanies in Central and Eastern Europe: Illusions and Reality (1992), and Countering Anti-Roma Violence in Eastern Europe: The Snagov Conference and Related Efforts (1994). 

To follow up on these two meetings, PER formed a Roma Advisory Council (PERRAC). In February 1994, members of PERRAC, together with other specialists, visited Romanian villages and cities where anti-Roma mob violence had occurred or where a high potential for it existed. The team surveyed local Roma residents and majority populations and then met with police chiefs and prosecutors at the national and local levels to discuss patterns of ethnic violence, evaluate preventive measures, and make practical recommendations based upon their findings. 

In April 1994, PER brought four leaders of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe to Washington to testify at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives on human-rights abuses against the Roma and to meet with congressional personnel and with officials of the U.S. Department of State. 

PER works closely with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on human-rights issues involving the Roma and has participated in formulating policy recommendations. PER was a co-sponsor of the Council of Europe planning session, held in Strasbourg, that preceded the September 1994 OSCE meeting in Warsaw on the Roma. PER staff have served as members of official U.S. delegations to the OSCE's Human Dimension seminars on the Roma and on other minorities issues. 

PER supports studies of the Roma at the Romanian Academy Institute of Sociology and the Center for Romani Studies and Social Action, and in May 1994 it co-sponsored, with the Romani Science and Art Association, a conference held in Budapest on Romani culture. 

PER also encourages the training of specialists on the Roma, and in 1994 it funded an internship at Greenwich University in London for the study of Roma issues. 

In Warsaw, PER supports an internship training program for young Roma to work at the Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues (CPRSI) in the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. PER's executive director serves on the CPRSI advisory council. 

Project on Ethnic Relations 
One Palmer Square, Suite 435 
Princeton, NJ 08542, USA

Telephone: (609)683-5666 
Fax: (609)683-5888
Email: [email protected]
Web Site: http://www.websp.com/~ethnic/new/per.html
The Roma in Central and Eastern Europe - Part 1
The Roma in Central and Eastern Europe - Part 2 
The Roma in Central and Eastern Europe - Part 3 

Countering Anti-Roma Violence in Eastern Europe - Part 1 
Countering Anti-Roma Violence in Eastern Europe - Part 2 
Countering Anti-Roma Violence in Eastern Europe - Part 3

The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper - Part 1 
The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper - Part 2 
The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper - Part 3 
The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper - Part 4 

The Media and Roma in Europe: Facts and Fiction - Part 1 
The Media and Roma in Europe: Facts and Fiction - Part 2 
The Media and Roma in Europe: Facts and Fiction - Part 3 

Coverage of the Roma in the Mass Media in Romania

Prevention of Violence and Discrimination Against Roma


Roma Flag

Home - History - Culture - Traditions - Organisations - Rights - Holocaust - Guestbook - Search


© 1996-2000 by the Patrin Web Journal. All Rights Reserved.
URL:<http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/per.htm>
E-mail:<[email protected]>

Free home pages at GeoCities
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1