16 November 2024
Others
The Human Rights Institute presented an Institutional Declaration of recognition and coexistence with the Roma People and against antigypsyism at an event held on 16 November in Vitoria-Gasteiz to mark Roma Day in the Basque Country. This document is part of the Basque Strategy with the Roma People 2022-2026, which aims to overcome the historical and structural discrimination suffered by the community.
The text was approved on 13 November by the Plenary of the Council for the comprehensive promotion and social participation of the Roma People in the Basque Country. This body, chaired by the Basque Government's Minister for Welfare, Youth and Demographic Challenge, Nerea Melgosa, brings together Roma and pro-Roma organisations along with representatives from all Basque public administrations (Basque Government, Provincial Councils, and EUDEL).
The declaration presented is the result of a several-month process, led by the Human Rights Institute at the University of Deusto, in which all Roma entities and public institutions represented in the Council participated. Gorka Urrutia and Eduardo Ruiz Vieytez attended the presentation as representatives of the Institute and explained the drafting process, the content and purpose of the document.
The document states that the Basque Country aims to be “an advanced, democratic, plural, and inclusive political and social community, with the aim of building a welfare society that has its own identity, open to all, where the human rights of all people are fully respected and guaranteed.” In this context, the Plenary of the Basque Roma Council advocates for a Basque People that is “plural, inclusive, advanced, and democratic,” based on values of “freedom, equality and justice,” where different identities, particularly “those historically linked to the Basque people, such as the Basque language, and those of the Basque Roma Community,” coexist in harmony.
