Press Release

Living in Community - Towards equal opportunities and overcoming discrimination.

European Church Conference on the situation of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe closed on Saturday in Bratislava

"It is vital that we meet with mutual respect", said Doris Peschke, General Secretary of the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe in the closing plenary of the churches' conference on the situation of Roma in central and eastern Europe, which has been meeting in Bratislava since Wednesday 2 May. Empowerment of the Roma minority making options available to individual persons, and self-determination are regarded by the church gathering as priorities, if the aim of living in community is to be achieved. "We have to recognise that Roma are as different among themselves as any other people, and they have the right to be different".

Around 70 persons from 16 European countries gathered in Bratislava for this conference, tackling the challenge of finding ways towards equal opportunities and overcoming discrimination. They heard presentations by Angela Kocze from the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest; Miroslav Zima from the Czech Government Commission on Roma; Jean-Claude Concolatto of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Office in Prague, which serves as focal point for Roma in Europe; Nicolae Gheorghe of the OSCE's Organisation for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw; and Adam Tyson from the EU Commission in Brussels. The participants shared the different experiences of churches involved in these issues, from such countries as Norway, Finland, Hungary.

On Friday evening the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Slovakia invited the participants to a reception on the occasion of this conference. Bishop Julius Filo welcomed as guests on this occasion the Minister of Justice and representatives of various government departments. The evening was enriched by the contributions of Roma musicians.

On the last day of the conference, churches' contributions to living in community - towards equal opportunities and overcoming discrimination - were discussed. The deliberations benefited from contributions of Roma pastors from different countries.

The conference adopted recommendations to churches on local, national and international level. It particularly endorsed a recommendation by the Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches of October last year in which the churches in Europe are called upon to dedicate a specific time of the year to meet and pray with Roma.

National consultations on these issues will be held in Hungary at the beginning of June and are being planned in the Slovak Republic.

The conference recommendations will be available as of 8 May 2001.