Statement

2007

Chair’s Declaration on Teaching About the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti

The ITF Chair speaks about the importance of strengthening education of Roma and Sinti history and supporting projects that help counter anti-Roma and Sinti attitudes.

Chair’s Declaration on Teaching about the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti

The Chair draws the attention of member countries of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research to the importance of supporting projects and of strengthening education on the fate of the Roma and Sinti during World War II.

The Holocaust Task Force, in accordance with the 2000 Stockholm Declaration on the Holocaust, focuses its activities on the Holocaust or Shoah, i.e. the genocide of the Jews perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators. In addition, the Task Force deals with other atrocities, particularly other genocidal crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and their accomplices, such as the genocide of people of Roma and Sinti origin, especially on the territory of the Reich and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, but also elsewhere. Roma and Sinti were victims of genocide in the sense of the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention.

The Czech Chair of the Holocaust Task Force encourages working groups to keep reviewing and supporting projects related to crimes against the Roma and Sinti, and commends the Education Working Group (EWG) and especially the Brno Museum of Romani Culture for working on this topic. We encourage the Education Working Group to pursue this type of activity and wethank the Shoah Memorial of Paris for accepting to provide the EWG with necessary technical support in the future.

The Chair also prompts national delegations of the Holocaust Task Force to address this issue in their countries with relevant ministries and NGO’s, and in cooperation with relevant international organizations, in particular in Central and South-Eastern Europe where discriminations against the Roma still exist.

In line with the recommendations of the Education Working Group, the Chair of the Task Force asks that member countries:

-Provide training for teachers, educators, students and museum guides on this topic

-Complete textbooks with information on the genocide of the Roma and Sinti, and that relevant pedagogical material, such as for instance Council of Europe documentation, is provided to teachers and educators

-Support research and academic publications on this issue