International condemnation of the actions of the Italian Government and local authorities for crimes against humanity in connection with the persecution of the Rroms in Italy.

The death sentence is a barbaric act unworthy of the human community, but when we feel outraged at the ruthless state crimes carried out in countries like Iran, we should also pause and reflect on what is taking place here in Italy.

The systematic racial policies being carried out in Italy, both by the Italian Government and the various local authorities against the Rroms are no more humane than the persecutory measures that extremist regimes are using against minorities targeted by those in power.

The oppression of the Rroms is taking place in many forms: by denying them the right to be protected as an ethnic minority recognised by international conventions, and by denying them assistance and programmes of integration necessary for obtaining access to the world of labour and decent living conditions. Rroms are also being persecuted in the only activities which – in the conditions of marginalization they are relegated to – would allow them to survive, such as begging and street peddling (thus pushing them to activities which, if they were a free choice, would be considered unlawful). There have been frequent press campaigns carried out with the aim of criminalizing Rroms, and in this they have been able to count on the complicity of the national press (the majority of cases of racism that reach the Presidency of the Council of Ministers shows that the Rroms are the most discriminated ethnic group in Italy). The government has carried out camp clearances similar to pogroms that are razing their makeshift shelters to the ground and turning innocent families out into the street, families who are then forced to undertake tragic “death marches” towards nowhere. The authorities have failed to investigate racial attacks against individuals and Rroms families, and has violated the laws that guarantee free movement of citizens of the Union in the territory of the Member States, and in particular article 28 of the European Parliament Directive 2004/38/CE which forbids the expulsion of citizens who find themselves in conditions of social and economical hardship (in Italy this article has been interpreted, deliberately, in the opposite sense, and has become an unjust means for unlawful expulsion orders). There has also been an attempt to censor and ignore the laws that protect the Rroms in Italy, among which the Resolution of the European Parliament of November 15th, 2007 regarding the application of Directive 2004/38/CE concerning the rights of citizens of the Union and their families to move freely and reside in the territory of the Member States. Moreover, we must point out that the new public security decree, passed on December 8th, 2007, foresees expulsion from Italy for citizens of the Union who are not in possession of a means of support. This decree does not only violate the Charters on Human Rights and of the Rights of Peoples, but it is also a manifest contradiction of the European Parliament Directive 2004/38/CE which the Italian institutions are choosing not to adopt correctly. The Directive, in fact,  states at Article 14, 4:

An expulsion measure may in no case be adopted against Union citizens or their family members if: 

(a) [...]

(b) the Union citizens entered the territory of the host Member State in order to seek employment. In this case, the Union citizens and their family members  may not be expelled for as long as the Union citizens can provide evidence that they are continuing to seek employment and that they have a genuine chance of being engaged. 

 

Therefore not only is the Rroms minority not being protected according to the laws in the Rights of Ethnic and Racial Minorities, they are being expelled from Italy without a reason, seeing that in every Rroms family in Italy, at least one adult is in search of a job, and has excellent chances of finding one, seeing that the Rroms often accept the most humble and arduous jobs, which other Italian citizens, EU citizens and non EU citizens are reluctant to do. The only obstacle to finding a job is the discriminatory attitude carried out towards them by the institutions, the authorities and the Italian press.

This incredible series of abusive measures has led the Rroms to a new Holocaust, as their average life expectancy has now fallen to age 42 (exactly the same as that of the Jews in Europe during the Nazi-Fascist persecutions). We must add another horrendous statistic to this data that makes the persecution of the Rroms even more detestable. Out of the 150,000 Rroms present in Italy, 80,000 of them are children under the age of 16. Hunger, cold, marginalization, the hardships of life (when the Rroms manage to find work, they are treated little better than slaves) and sickness deny the Rroms the “privilege” of growing old: 70% of them do not live to the age of 30, and only 2% ever reach 60.

We can affirm without a shadow of a doubt that the conditions of the Rroms in Italy has deteriorated since the already tragic situation revealed at the end of the 1990s, (Carla Osella, 1999) and that there has been no improvement in the Rroms infant mortality rate due to infections, which is the highest in Europe (AAVV, 2001).

On the basis of the Italian Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the charters that protect ethnic minorities - among which the Copenhagen Convention and the resolutions of the United Nations and European Parliament which protect vulnerable ethnic minorities - Gruppo EveryOne considers the racial and persecutory policies, the ethnic cleansing and deportations being carried out by the Italian government and local authorities as crimes against humanity. Crimes compounded by premeditation and reiterated, in spite of the warnings received from the international authorities and humans rights organizations. While condemning the oppression carried out by Italian institutions against the Rroms, we point out that in law the definition of “crimes against humanity” covers criminal actions involving violence and abuse against people and ethnic groups,  or crimes which can be perceived - for the general censure they arouse - as being perpetrated against humanity. On the basis of the already attested racial and persecutory measures being carried out by Italian institutions towards the Rroms, Gruppo EveryOne asks that those responsible for this persecution be called to testify in an international court for crimes against humanity.

EveryOne Group
Roberto Malini,  Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau, George Scarlat, Jean (Pipo) Sarguera, Dott. Santino Spinelli, Daniela De Rentiis, Marcel Courthiade, Saimir Mile,  Ahmad Rafat,  Arsham Parsi,  Laura Todisco,  Glenys Robinson,  Steed Gamero, Fabio Patronelli, Stelian Covaciu,  Udila Ciurar,  Alessandro Matta,  Cristos Papaioannou, Paul Albrecht.

Promoters and Consultants

Centre Culturel Gitan, Pavillons-sous-Bois (France) • La Voix des Rroms (Paris) • Gypsy Lore Society (Usa) • Group of Migrants & Refugees of Salonica • Union Gypsy • Roma Right Watch • Union Rromani • Roma Press Center (Budapest) • Opera Nomadi • Associazione Çingeneyiz (Rroms in Turkey) • Romani Yah - Association and Newspaper of Romas from Transcarpathia • Roma Virtual Network • Tamara Deuel (Israel), Holocaust survivor – activist against the discrimination of Rroms • Mercedes Lourdes Frias, Italian Republic Depute (Rifondazione Comunista - Sinistra Europea) • Etudes Tsiganes (Paris) • Alain Reyniers, anthropologist at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgium), expert in Rroma, Sinti and Kale cultures • European Roma Information Office • Roma Diplomacy Programme • John Pearson, Secretary, Democratic Socialist Alliance, UK • Gady Castel (Israel), director, director of the Jewish Film Festival "Jewish Eyes" of Tel Aviv, author of documentaries on the Holocaust • Cristina Matricardi, founder of the first  Multiethnic kindergarten "Oasis" - Genoa • Maria Eugenia Esparragoza, cultural mediator,  member of the Ministerial Intercultural Technical Committee • Professor Matt T. Salo, researcher and publisher, expert in Gypsy culture • Emiliano Laurenzi, giornalista •  Paolo Buconi, Yiddish and Klezmer musician • Marius Benta, journalist • Seven Times (Romania) • Ted Coombs, Director of Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide art) • Steve Davey, co-director of the Hilo Art Museum (Holocaust and Genocide Art) • Mirjam Pinkhof, survivor of the Shoah, Holocaust heroine who saved 70 Jewish children from the Nazis • Halina Birenbaum, survivor of the Shoah, writer and teacher • Oni Onhaus, Holocaust witness • Manzi Onhaus, Auschwitz survivor • Elisheva Zimet, Auschwitz survivor • Alice Offenbacher, Bergen Belsen survivor• Mirko Bezzecchi, survivor the Samudaripen • Antonia Bezzecchi, survivor the Samudaripen • Hanneli Pick-Goslar, friend of Anne Frank, Holocaust survivor • Michael Petrelis, veteran  Human Rights Advocate (Usa) • Stichting Buitenlandse Partner • Professor Saimir Mile, jurist, lecturer in Rromani, Sinti and Kale culture at the University of Paris (INALCO), General-Secretary of the Centre of Research and Action in France Against all Forms of Racism, member of EveryOne Group • Jean (Pipo) Sarguera, President of the Centre culturel gitan – Paris • Emeritus professor Marcel Courthiade, holder of the chair of Rromani, Sinti and Kale language and civilization at the University of Paris (INALCO) • Kibbutz Netzer Sereni, Israel • Antonia Arslan,  essayist and writer • Caffé Shakerato - Intercultura - Genova • Simona Titti, Caritas Livorno • Gazeta de Sud, Cotidian al oltenilor de pretutindeni (Romania) • Oana Olaru, journalist (Romania) • Fabio Contu, playwright and teacher, Comunità Sant'Egidio, Genova • Allie, Gypsy News, NE, Ohio, United States • Guri Gentian - Group of Migrant&Refugees of Salonica •  Associazione Yakaar Italia Senegal • Thèm Romano ONLUS Association