Report on IOE and IHRA committee on the genocide of the Roma Expert Meeting and Conference on the Genocide of the Roma
10 – 11 May 2014
UCL Institute of Education, London
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has supported research and education on the Roma genocide since 2007. The expert meeting on Saturday 10 May 2014 brought together for the first time a range of colleagues who had worked on IHRA-funded projects on the Roma genocide to share their experiences, successes and challenges in developing and implementing these projects.
The conference held on Sunday 11 May 2014 prior to the IHRA plenary, aimed to inform IHRA delegates and a wider audience of educators on the results of the IHRA-funded projects relating to the genocide of the Roma, and to provide a deeper understanding of this history. 102 people registered for the conference. Coming from 22 countries, they have very different professional backgrounds: 40 were IHRA delegates, over 25 were affiliated to Roma organisations, and British educators from formal and non-formal education were the third group in attendance.
The conference opened with a welcome by Professor Chris Husbands, Director of the Institute of Education and by Sir Andrew Burns, Chair of IHRA and Head of the UK Delegation, followed by a powerful statement by Ladislav Balaz, Chair of the Europe Roma Network who highlighted the deep prejudice and vicious discrimination across the continent with which Roma continue to face.
This report presents the work done on both days, by giving an overview of the presentations, lectures and workshops and also drawing on the debates that took place. On the basis of the evaluation of both days, recommendations for the future work of IHRA in the field of research, education and remembrance of the genocide of the Roma are included at the end of the report:
Report on the Conference on the genocide of the Roma. IOE & IHRA London May 2014
This report was compiled by Karen Polak (Anne Frank House/Netherlands), Paul Salmons, Rebecca Hale and Chitro Ghose (UCL Centre for Holocaust Education)