Slovakia: International conference on the Romani issue

Roughly 130 experts from several continents have come to Bratislava to discuss the Romani issue. Those invited include guests from Argentina, Brazil and the USA.

The Gypsy Lore Society, which convened the congress, has evaluated it as the best-ever in its history. The accredited guests include Romani people such as Hristo Kyuchukov, a Turkish Rom from Bulgaria who has long lived in Berlin, Germany.  

"The experience and knowledge discussed here can aid our Roma with improving their living conditions. I believe policy towards us can be improved and that it can positively change the situation of all Romani people in Europe," Kyuchukov told Gipsy Television.

Delegates from the Czech Republic include Viktor Elšík, an expert on Romani linguistics; Michal Beníšek, who has focused on the sociolinguistic situaton in Uzhhorod, Ukraine; Helena Sadílková, who gave a paper on the postwar migration of Romani people in the former Czechoslovakia; and Jan Červenka, who gave a paper on individualized creation in Romani art. The congress is annually organized by the Gypsy Lore Society, an international organization headquartered in the USA that brings together experts from several countries worldwide.

The group’s congresses take place in a different state every year on a regular basis, and this year Bratislava hosted the experts. The Ethnology Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was in charge of organizing it there.    

The Gypsy Lore Society was created in Great Britain in 1888 and has held the annual congress in some of the world’s great cities:  Washington, DC (USA, 2000); Budapest, (Hungary, 2002); Ann Arbor (Michigan, USA, 2003); Newcastle upon Tyne (England, 2004); Granada (Spain, 2005); Helsinki (Finland, 2009); Lisbon (Portugal, 2010); Graz (Austria, 2011); Istanbul (Turkey, 2012); Glasgow (Scotland, 2013). The next Gypsy Lore Society congress will take place in Moldova.