Letter to the Hungarian Government

28/01/2013

The Forum of European Roma Young People FERYP and PAKIV European Network, the undersigned Roma youth networks, write to you to express our serious concerns about the newspaper column of the last January 5, written by Zsolt Bayer, founding member of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz Party, in which he likened the country’s Roma minority to animals.

We are very concerned about the racism and Romaphobia experienced by Hungarian Roma during the last years. Such treatment is offensive, unethical and a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inciting to discrimination and violence against Hungarian Roma, against Hungarian citizens.

This behaviour is totally unacceptable in the XXI century, especially within a democratic country, member of the European Union. It is but one example of the numerous cases and frequent barriers in the access to equal treatment that Hungarian Roma community confront during their interactions with the rest of the Hungarian society.

We urgently request that your government express deep concerns about the hate speech, especially against Roma people in Hungary and to break this political climate influenced by xenophobic and racist tendencies. The Hungarian government should strongly condemn such racist manifestations, whatever its provenance even if are coming from the ruling Fidesz party’s founder.

We call on you to instruct your government to treat this as a priority issue and strongly urge the Hungarian authorities to take clear steps to protect fundamental rights and to take a clear position against Romaphobia.

We hope that our letter assists you to address this serious issue of discrimination, racism and Romaphobia. Our members have much experience with discrimination response and the provision of Roma sensitivity and cultural training within democratic settings. We would be pleased to offer advice, guidance or any other form of assistance in this matter, should you require it.

Sincerely,

FERYP
info@feryp.org