This project is funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission and its goals are:
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To provide Roma communities with information on EU and national anti-discrimination legislation.
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To provide Roma communities with information on the 2008-European Year for the Intercultural Dialogue and to encourage them to participate in the “Year” activities.
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To provide Roma with information on EU programmes on social inclusion and anti-discrimination and to encourage them to participate in them.
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To reach Roma who are not familiar with EU policies and do not have access to virtual information means. The main countries to be covered by the project are Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Project activities will also reach further Member States and Candidate Countries where Romanes, the Roma language, is spoken.
The project will create fact sheets regarding anti-discrimination legislation throughout the EU. There will be three types of fact sheets created: one targeting all Member states of the EU, and two targeting specific nations and their corresponding situations of the Roma of Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. These fact sheets will be distributed to Roma individuals as well as Roma organisations in order to facilitate knowledge of the rights of the Roma according the EU legislation on anti-discrimination.
Also, there will be a number of public broadcasting’s and C.D.’s via Radio Rota in order to reach the Roma and provide information regarding the dialogues of the EU and anti-discrimination legislation. These broadcasts will include interviews with victims of discrimination in order to further mobilise the Roma in actively pursuing their European citizenship and their knowledge of their rights. These radio broadcasts will facilitate a working relationship between ERIO, Dzeno Association of Czech Republic and the Roma population. The Dzeno Association is also a Roma informational organisation. This partnership with ERIO and Dzeno aims to successfully transmit the broadcastings via the Czech radio station as well as provide the C.D.’s to a number of radio stations in Slovakia and Czech Republic.
This information will also to be included on the ERIO website and throughout the network of cooperative organisations- promoting active citizenship, equal opportunities, and inter-cultural dialogue. The broadcasts, C.D.’s, and the information available on the website will be available in Romanes, Slovak, Czech, and English in order to be more comprehensive in supplying the information to various persons’ nationalities and languages.
This project corresponds with the objectives of the Europe for Citizen’s programme in a number of ways. First, the project will create a network between Roma communities across the European Union, specifically in Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, successfully meeting the aim of bringing people together from across Europe to share information and personal experiences. Also, the factsheets, broadcasts and C.D.s will provoke discussion and debate regarding the Roma issues in the European Union, successfully achieving the aim of promoting debate and action regarding Europeans, culture and history. The aim of bringing people closer together regarding culture and history is achieved by the flow of information given by ERIO. And lastly, ERIO is encouraging dialogue between groups, organisations, and the European Union by advocating for Roma which suffices the goal to encourage inter-state and inter-cultural dialog.
The expected result of this project is that a significant number of Roma individuals will have access to pertinent information regarding their rights as European citizens. Because there are changes in European policies, many Roma are not aware of their rights, especially when dealing with anti-discrimination and equality. This project will provide them with the knowledge of exactly what treatment they are entitled to within their home country. This project also aims to create dialogue between the Roma organisations and the EU in order to provide information regarding the lack of protection of Roma rights across the EU, promoting advocacy and policy change. It will also build the network of Roma advocacy groups across the EU to create a more comprehensive and active network with several organisations with stronger mobilisation capacity.
FACT SHEET ON EU ANTIDISCRIMINATION POLICIES: [link]
- BULGARIAN VERSION - [link]
- ROMANES VERSION - [link]
FACT SHEET ON EU ANTIDISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION: [link]
- BULGARIAN VERSION - [link]
- CZECH VERSION - [link]
- ROMANES VERSION - [link]
FACT SHEET ON INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE: [link]
- BULGARIAN VERSION - [link]
- CZECH VERSION - [link]
- ROMANES VERSION - [link]
