The WRF has made significant changes to its structure, parted ways with former members, appointed new ones and has expanded its operations in 4 more countries.

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, August 16, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Just last year, the WRF's Director of International Relations, Deny Dobobrov, picked up the VERY FIRST Proclamation in US History which proclaims April 8th as International Roma Day in a U.S. State (Illinois), and recognizes the Roma People's Heritage, Culture and History.

"We were building momentum and had a successful year in 2021 when it comes to advocacy and raising awareness. Just when we were staring to make some kind of progress in our advocacy efforts and as we were preparing to launch new programs and initiatives, the conflict in Ukraine began and we found ourselves in the middle of a Roma Refugee Crisis" said Deny Dobobrov.

Since the war began, the World Roma Federation has been preoccupied in assisting Roma Refugees as much as possible. In the early stages, they set up multiple welcoming booths at border train stations in Hungary, Romania and Poland providing food and clothing and translation services to help them get registered.

"As recent as last week, mainstream media both locally and abroad has reported that Roma refugees fleeing war in Ukraine say they are suffering discrimination and prejudice. Unfortunately, this is not surprising. Our teams witnessed blatant discrimination against Roma people fleeing the conflict.
We have been receiving similar recent complaints from our teams on the front lines. Roma refugees are clearly not welcome and are placed into substandard accommodations." said Janos Sztojka, President of the WRF.

Amid ongoing issues with Ukraine and new issues in Sweden, The World Roma Federation has slowly resumed its usual operations and has created new relations with other organizations such as the IHRC and th United Nations Human Rights Council which is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.

"The World Roma Federation is fully aware of the ongoing as well as new issues, however we must focus and resume our advocacy efforts by pushing for new reform and legislations in Europe. On the local level, we continue to engage the UN as well as multiple U.S. Senators & Congressmen, the Department of State, and other diplomatic channels to develop a plan of action. We are now collaborating with the World Peace Tracts who has appointed me their World Peace Ambassador. We have appointed an Honorary Ambassador to represent us in Israel, Mr. Yosef Yomtov. Additionally, we have new representation in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Italy." said Dobobrov.

The World Roma Federation is holding a side event on September 21st, parallel to the UN High-level meeting to mark the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, where their written statement and response will also be circulated to member states.

About:

The World Roma Federation exists to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We advocate for the freedom, dignity and well-being of the Roma people and all mankind. The World Roma Federation intends to stand in its convictions against all forms of prejudice and discrimination based upon race, color, religion, age, disability, and or orientation.

We aim to educate and engage policymakers by providing them with data, research, stories and general information about key issues. We provide data and research that highlights pressing needs in our community. And we invite policymakers to learn more about the Roma and the real issues they face. We highlight the failures of past initiatives and frameworks and point out the reasons such initiatives fail.

Deny Dobobrov
World Roma Federation
email us here