Central Council of German Sinti and Roma
The Central German Sinti and Roma is an advocacy based in Heidelberg , working for the interests of the long-in Germany -based Roma German citizenship begins. These Roma belong mainly to the Sinti group. The Central Council refers to the descendants of the Roma families who immigrated to Central Europe from Southeastern Europe in the second half of the 19th century .
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The association was founded in 1982 and is the political umbrella organization of 17 member associations, the nine regional associations and several other associations. The chairman is Romani Rose . Franz Rosenbach was honorary chairman until his death . The Central Council runs the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg, an important cultural center and at the same time an archive for the Porajmos , the Nazi persecution of the German Sinti and Roma. The Central Council is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media with around 500,000 euros annually .
The Central Council and its member organizations - unlike the Rome and Cinti Union in Hamburg , for example - do not see themselves as spokesmen for the Roma who have immigrated as migrant workers or refugees from the civil war in recent decades . Most of them come from Southeastern European countries or Spain and are now many of them German citizens. Nonetheless, the Central Council opposes anti-gypsy measures and processes abroad and advocates better protection for those affected. The chairman of the Central Council advocates deporting “no minority members” - by which he means “ Bosniaks , Croats , Gorani , Roma, Ashkali , Egyptians ” - to Kosovo as long as the situation there is unsafe for returnees. The return agreement should be suspended and the Kosovar Roma who have been living in Germany for a long time should be granted permanent residence.
Member associations are:
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Fields of action, political successes
On March 17, 1982, then Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt received a delegation from the Central Council. In a way that is significant under international law, it recognized the National Socialist crimes against the Sinti and Roma as genocide on the grounds of so-called “race”. Since then, the Central Council has been holding talks with the federal and state governments on protection against discrimination and promotion as a national minority. In addition, it promotes the memory of the victims of the Porajmos, the education and documentation of the Nazi crimes committed and the compensation of the survivors.
- The first international memorial rally to commemorate the National Socialist genocide of 500,000 Roma and Sinti took place in October 1979 in the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp .
- Since 1985, the Central Council has brought about fundamental changes with regard to the earlier discriminatory compensation practice for the surviving concentration camp victims of the German Sinti and Roma. In 3200 individual cases, new decisions by the compensation authorities were enforced.
- After years of disputes with the interior ministers of the federal states and the federal interior ministry, the central council also made known to the judicial and police authorities the methods of racist special registration, some of which were adopted from the time of National Socialism .
- Since 1993, the Central Council has demanded a ban on discrimination in state media laws in order to prevent discriminatory and stigmatizing reporting. The practice of identifying minorities, as ordered by the National Socialists for Jews and for Sinti and Roma, can still be found in press reports today. In order to defend itself against such discrimination, the Central Council protested against 40 newspaper articles and two agency reports from a period 2004/2005.
- In 1995, the Central Council continued the legal recognition of German Sinti and Roma as a national minority with their own minority language, the novel , according to the "charter" of Europe by.
- In 2006, the Central Council demanded stricter criminal laws from the federal government to better combat racially motivated acts of violence by individuals or groups.
- On November 17, 2007, the association founded the European Sinti and Roma Civil Rights Prize together with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma and the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation . It went to Wladyslaw Bartoszewski in 2008 , Simone Veil in 2010 , Thomas Hammarberg in 2012 , Tilman Zülch in 2014 and Amnesty International in 2016 .
- On October 24, 2012, the nationwide memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism was inaugurated in the presence of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Joachim Gauck in the Great Tiergarten in Berlin .
- In the cultural field, the organization supports many events and projects in which members of the minority express themselves and which can contribute to mutual understanding through an intercultural dialogue , including the Roma Routes project , which is also supported by the EU .
State treaty with the Free State of Bavaria
On February 20, 2018, the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer signed a contract with the Association of German Sinti and Roma, the state association. Almost three years after a unanimous decision by the Bavarian State Parliament , the state government fulfilled the mandate. State chairman Erich Schneeberger signed for the Association of German Sinti and Roma . The contract aims to bring awareness of history in the state as well as the education and promotion of tolerance towards minorities into the focus of public attention. In addition, the contract regulates financial support for the association by the state government. So far, the state's allocations to the association have been voluntary services, and will be a contractual obligation in the future. There was initially no information on the amount of the donations.
The conclusion of the contract is "of central importance" for the Sinti and Roma and has a major influence on their equality and the preservation of their culture and tradition, said Schneeberger. “By signing the contract, we are setting a historic example,” said Seehofer. Bavaria is thus acknowledging its political and historical responsibility towards the Sinti and Roma, who for a long time were among the forgotten victims of the Nazi tyranny.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ online self-description of the State Association of German Sinti and Roma NRW , accessed on June 24, 2018
- ↑ We mourn Franz Rosenbach , obituary of the Central Council, accessed on June 24, 2018
- ↑ Art & Culture Promotion - National Minorities , from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, accessed on June 24, 2018
- ^ Romani Rose, On the Situation in Kosovo. Statement by the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma on the planned deportation of more than 10,000 Roma from Germany to Kosovo, in: Hinterland. Quarterly magazine of the Bavarian Refugee Council, No. 13, June 12, 2010, pp. 4–5 (PDF) ( Memento from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ List of the names and seats of the member organizations , from Zentralrat.sintiundroma.de, accessed on June 23, 2018
- ↑ History of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , from centralrat.sintiundroma.de, accessed on June 23, 2018
- ↑ European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma: Prize Winners , from www.buergerrechtspreis.de, accessed on June 23, 2018
- ↑ Roma Routes About Us ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Seehofer signs contract between Bavaria and Sinti and Roma , Munich Live TV Fernsehen , February 20, 2018