Analytical materials

The history of wars usually focuses on battles, heroes, and political decisions. But behind these events are often lost the personal stories of ordinary people, including children who survived the occupation. Their experiences, especially those of vulnerable groups such as the Roma, have long remained invisible and did not fit into official narratives. This document is an attempt to restore the voice of Roma children who were victims of genocide during World War II. Through their testimonies, we can see history from a new angle and restore the silenced pages of the past.

Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 changed all plans, significantly reduced opportunities, and put the Roma community on the verge of survival. Some activists ended up in the occupation, some moved to other, safer regions of the country, and some went abroad. Established connections were broken, some organizations and initiatives stopped their work, and public activists faced unexpected risks.

The idea of holding the Roma Civil Society Forum on Ukraine in Berlin (Germany) was the answer to all these challenges. The Forum run from the 4th to 8th of December 2022 and became a platform for youth, experts and artists of the Roma movement from Ukraine and other European countries involved in helping Roma from Ukraine.

Key representatives of Roma and (pro-)Roma civil society, politicians and various stakeholders gathered to create a coalition that will strengthen the equality, integration and participation of Ukrainian Roma in the European context. The Forum promotes European and national policies to be more inclusive and responsive to the current needs of the Ukrainian Roma.

This report was produced by participants of the ERRC’s volunteer-led project Challenging Digital Antigypsyism.

The volunteers, who formed digital activist communities, were tasked with monitoring and recording examples of hate speech targeting Roma on online media and social networks, and reporting this hate speech by using available tools on each platform. The reporting took place in four non-EU countries: Albania, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine, and was conducted between November 2020 and August 2021.

More generally, there is widening concern about the spread and consequences of unchecked hate. According to a recent European Parliament (EP) study, hate speech and hate crime ‘poison society’ and have been steadily on the rise over the last decade; hate speech has surfaced at the “highest level of the public administration of some Member States”.

The EP report noted how hate speech has become especially prevalent on social media, where both political actors and citizens “express their thoughts without inhibition”, and how attempts to regulate hate speech on social media so far have brought ambiguous effect.

The conference “Roma as an Integral Part of Ukraine” took place on June 13, 2023 and was organized by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Roma Youth Organization ‘ARKA’ from Ukraine in cooperation with the Evangelical Academy in Berlin, the Society for the Assistance of Peoples in Danger (Germany) and the International Charitable Organization “Roma Women's Fund ”Chiricli" (Ukraine).

The purpose of the conference was to raise awareness of the situation and needs of Roma in Ukraine and to inform representatives of governments, embassies, international organizations and civil society about these needs.

Fifteen representatives of the Roma community from Ukraine had the opportunity to participate in the conference and convey their position and demands to a wider audience of representatives of governments, embassies, international organizations and civil society. They also had the opportunity to present a policy document with clear recommendations for the Ukrainian government and the international community, which was developed prior to the conference.