The most important current project of the “Pakiv Reflexion Group” is the production and publication of a compilation called “The Price of Integration”, which is being supported equally by the Open Society Foundation (Soros) and the Freudenberg Foundation. The book is an attempt to initiate a discussion among the Roma themselves, particularly on such topics as ethics. The primary objective of the authors and supporters of a self-critical discussion process is to improve the conditions underlying the Roma’s own perception of civic rights. This book is now available. It was and still is discussed in the circle of several national Pakiv-Groups mit friends and like-minded persons. The aim is to find out by these different “conferences” whether this english written book could be a basis of a wider reflexion process in Roma communities in Europe.
The disappointing results of over two decades of activism in the supposedly more liberal climate of post- Communist democracies prompted András Bíró, Hungarian journalist and renowned human rights activist to put down his reflections about the situation of Roma in Eastern Europe. These thoughts in turn stimulated insightful responses from two scholars of the subject: Nicolae Gheorghe, an ethnic Roma living in Romania, and Martin Kovats, among others special advisor on Roma issues to the European Commission in Brussels.
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