International Romani politics: more successful than commonly realized? Thomas.A.Acton, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.), FRSA, OBE Emeritus Professor of Romani Studies, University of Greenwich

The perception of failure:  41 years since the first World Romani Congress near London, but still no academic of GRT heritage has been elected to the 2 nd Scientific Committee of the European Academic Network.  European bodies frustrated in their attempts to find a single negotiating partner  Portrayed as a failure of GRT to realise their common interests and work together.

But, should there be only one Roma party?  At the 5 th World Romani Congress Romani nationalism begins to look more like the PLO than like Zionism.  BUT the nationalism of the International Romani Union is determinedly non-terrtorial.  Many different Romani political positions emerge, responding to  More clearly articulated local and historic cultural interests, which is sign of the massive growth of the Romani intelligentsia.

What are the sources of the diversity of Romani politics?  1) The diversity of legal systems within different GRT ethnic groups  2) The diversity of Gajo legal and political history

Romani and Traveller Law  What GRT legal systems command is remarkably similar: from Irish Travellers to Romanian Kalderash they all seek to avoid physical danger from the environment, and social danger from majority society by overarching codes of propriety or cleanliness.  But the enforcement of these codes in different groups is as different as it possibly could be.

Ideal types of social control in GRT (and any human) groups  1) Systems of justice by avoidance, and individual self-defence. According to Pashukanis, the original criminal law; civil law only emerges when the community is constructed as an artificial person with its own interests, as in …….  2) Tribunal systems which appeal to traditional authority, and  3)Tribunal systems which appeal to social consensus and the restoration of harmony

The Justice Triangle * Most groups are somewhere in the middle of the triangle. * Todor Mutti’s speech at WRC5 shows how they can clash. * Gajo societies also balance the same values, but in different places.

Gajo diversity  European Society is fragmented by its Islamic, Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant heritages, which in different places marginalised GRT as segregated taxable communities, slaves, and pariah commercial nomads.  American-led democratisation pursues 3 broad strategies to end marginalisation of minorities:  A) The Citizenship model  B) The Civil Rights model  C) The Human Rights model

The Citizenship model.  Current UK policy is an example. It involves compulsory assimilation: the government has just introduced an English language competence requirement, citizenship classes and an oath of allegiance for immigrants who wish to acquire British citizenship. Rights are acquired in virtue of citizenship.  The model implies a clear definition of and contrast with the non-citizen, such as the asylum-seeker, who has been increasingly deprived of rights and demonized in current UK discourse

The Civil Rights model.  A model developed during the struggle of Black people in the United States, still aimed at equal citizenship, but recognizing that it requires not just a simple declaration but also recognition of historic injustices. Also taken up by Catholics in Northern Ireland.  It is tailored to the needs of particular ‘minorities’ and explicitly disputes the over-riding rights of ‘national majorities’ to impose their will. But it still does not address the rights of non-citizens who do not have civil rights.

The Human Rights model  This model suggests that human beings should have their fundamental human rights respected and defined in virtue of their simple humanity, rather than in virtue of their adherence to this that or the other nation-state.  Although not particularly well implemented in either the United States or the European Union, it is the model both have chosen for export to other countries, and in particular the Roma in Eastern Europe.

The GRT contribution  Hitherto the pressure has been on Romani social control systems to submit to those of host societies, BUT  Now the diversity of GRT cultures contributes to pluralising human cultures in an age which is inevitably one of increasing migration, eg, the kris as an example of restorative justice.  Gaje can learn from GRT diversity, not by imposing one comprador/collaborator GRT authority/negotiating partner.

Survival is success!  The holocaust, and the post-war settlement could have finished the GRT peoples.  Instead they have rebuilt their families and businesses, crossed continents, and produced a flourishing, diverse, international civil society.  The unstoppable tide of young, educated Roma will change the whole world, not just their own  And maybe on Tuesday will break down the doors of the EAN-SC!