The week of March 16th-24th 2013 was declared as the European Week Against Racism. ternYpe International Roma Youth Network points out that racism still leads to a daily infringement of the rights of Roma in terms of their structural discrimination, segregation and persecution. It therefore calls for a stronger individual and political support of anti-racist actions and movements within the European civil society. Members of the Roma community suffer from discrimination, stigmatization and exclusion all over Europe: they are regularly the target of racist hate speech and attacks, harassment from police forces and the denial of their fundamental citizens' rights. Discrimination against them is prevalent in all parts of life which is of great concern for Roma youth living in this reality.
TernYpe participate in the conference "The Genocide of the Roma and Sinti: New Teaching Materials" that took place in Eisenstadt, Austria from 8 to 10 November 2012. New teaching materials on the Genocide of Roma and Sinti were presented at this conference which brought together 140 people, including many teachers and NGO representatives. Two introductory panels examined similarities and differences concerning the genocides of the Roma and Sinti and the Jews. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, the Memorial de la Shoah (Paris) as well as the ITF have authorized an team of experts to create the teaching materials that were presented in workshops. An introduction to the persecution of the Burgenland Roma concluded with a visit to the memorial site of the former "gypsy camp" Lackenbach.
Although recognizing the efforts and the dedication in the development of the teaching materials, ternYpe remains highly critical about the current outcome and strongly believes that a conceptual revision and a further elaboration is necessary to make it a valuable, usable and adequate pedagogical tool.
Participants: ternYpe International Roma Youth Network, FERYP Forum of European Roma Young People, Pakiv European Network, ERGO Network, other Roma youth organizations (local-national) Stakeholders: OSI Open Society Institute, OSCE-ODIHR, ERIO, ERRC, REF Roma Education Fund, Advisory Council on Youth / Joint Council
Background of the Conference
ternYpe participated with 10 people, representing all member organizations, in the Roma Youth Conference, which was hosted between September 26-30th by the Council of Europe. The conference brought together 50 representatives and youth leaders of Roma youth organizations and young Roma between 18 and 30 years in order to discuss needs and challenges of Roma youth and youth organizations, to exchange experience in youth work and to develop guidelines for a Roma Youth Action Plan (RYAP) of the Council of Europe and beyond for 2012-2013.
Expectations of ternYpe:
ternYpe expressed during the preparatory process and at the beginning of the conference its expectations that we want to have enough space for the participants to discuss, to share and to learn, as well as to base the work on youth participation and transparency. This conference should make a change and have a great impact on the activism, mobilization and empowerment of Roma youth! ternYpe expected a concrete, realistic, but ambitious Roma Youth Action Plan based on the participation of youth and youth organizations and a better coordination between international stakeholders. Unfortunately, most of our expectations were not fulfilled, but we look forward to continue this process and to contribute with our experience and activism.
Roma Youth Conference “Voicing the aspirations and projects of Roma Youth in the Council of Europe”, Strasbourg, 26-30 September 2011
Dear participants,
I am sad that I could not be with you in person during this conference – when you hear or read this message I will be on a visit to Slovakia, where the situation of the local Roma communities will be very much in focus.
The need to break the vicious circle of prejudice and marginalization of the Roma in Europe is of outmost urgency. You are all aware of this, and I am sure that the slow progress makes you as deeply impatient as I am.
Roma inclusion has been the subject of numerous national and international discussions with very little effect so far. However, there is one important result that I want to share with you today: Roma inclusion has never been higher on the European agenda. After two decades of efforts, the improvement of the situation of Roma has finally gone from the margins to the centre of European social policy.
He comes from Spain, but he has been to Poland last week and spends a lot of time traveling. Vicente Rodriguez Fernandez is a young professional who works in creative education – and a member of the Roma community in Spain. “It is a very dense community,” he says, “it takes time to gain their trust, but if you have their trust, you will have 100% of it.” Vicente Rodriguez Fernandez provides education material for Roma children in schools, but also the Spanish culture ministry and other institutions. “Education through art” is the idea that he pursues, and he is very successful in it.
Racism of many kinds, including anti-Semitism, is alive and well. However, in the U.K., you generally won't find official institutions, mainstream politicians, or newspapers openly espousing blatantly racist sentiments -- unless it's racism against Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people: this is still a socially acceptable form of racism. This site allows you to look at articles and website about Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people through the lens of anti-Semitism. Enter the url of any news article or website above, and the words Gypsy and Traveller will be substituted by the word Jew. We think you'll be shocked by the results. http://www.jewify.org/
The week of March 16th-24th 2013 was declared as the European Week Against Racism. ternYpe International Roma Youth Network points out that racism still leads to a daily infringement of the rights of Roma in terms of their structural discrimination, segregation and persecution. It therefore calls for a stronger individual and political support of anti-racist actions and movements within the European civil society. Members of the Roma community suffer from discrimination, stigmatization and exclusion all over Europe: they are regularly the target of racist hate speech and attacks, harassment from police forces and the denial of their fundamental citizens' rights. Discrimination against them is prevalent in all parts of life which is of great concern for Roma youth living in this reality.
TernYpe participate in the conference "The Genocide of the Roma and Sinti: New Teaching Materials" that took place in Eisenstadt, Austria from 8 to 10 November 2012. New teaching materials on the Genocide of Roma and Sinti were presented at this conference which brought together 140 people, including many teachers and NGO representatives. Two introductory panels examined similarities and differences concerning the genocides of the Roma and Sinti and the Jews. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, the Memorial de la Shoah (Paris) as well as the ITF have authorized an team of experts to create the teaching materials that were presented in workshops. An introduction to the persecution of the Burgenland Roma concluded with a visit to the memorial site of the former "gypsy camp" Lackenbach.
Participants: ternYpe International Roma Youth Network, FERYP Forum of European Roma Young People, Pakiv European Network, ERGO Network, other Roma youth organizations (local-national)
The Blog of the II Convention on Volunteering gives interesting insights into all different dimensions of volunteering around Europe. 
Racism of many kinds, including anti-Semitism, is alive and well. However, in the U.K., you generally won't find official institutions, mainstream politicians, or newspapers openly espousing blatantly racist sentiments -- unless it's racism against Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people: this is still a socially acceptable form of racism. This site allows you to look at articles and website about Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people through the lens of anti-Semitism. Enter the url of any news article or website above, and the words Gypsy and Traveller will be substituted by the word Jew. We think you'll be shocked by the results. 