COMMITTEE OF ROMA CITIZENS ASKS FOR NOMINATION OF EVERYONE GROUP FOR THE 2010 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

Source: IMG PRESS (  http://www.imgpress.it/notizia.asp?idnotizia=44545&idsezione=1)

Declaration by Americano Grancea, representative of the Roma “Nobel Peace Prize for EveryOne Group” Committee

August 28th, 2009

It is with great pleasure that I communicate the creation of the Roma “Nobel Peace Prize for EveryOne Group” Committee, composed of over 500 people from the Roma ethnic group, as well as various anti-racist political figures, activists, intellectuals and democratic citizens. The Committee, of which I am a representative, is promoting an international petition to put forward the human rights organization EveryOne Group - particularly active in Italy - as a candidate for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Most of us belong to Roma families originating from Romania or the former Yugoslavia. Our families have suffered every form of violence and discrimination, both in Italy and in other European countries. The activists from EveryOne Group have always offered us help before every form of abuse: before the Law, when we Roma have been deprived of our rights; when we have had to face intolerance and violence from racists; during camp clearances when our children, our women and our sick have been ill-treated and thrown out onto the street - while our huts and shelters were bulldozed, along with our possessions. Often the men and women of EveryOne Group have prevented seriously sick people from dying, and pregnant women losing their babies. They have also prevented families being split up. On many occasions they have stopped the authorities taking children from our women, due to our poverty, by explaining to police officers, the social services, and the magistrates the laws that protect the unity and the dignity of families and citizens living in conditions of hardship. Several politicians, some of them from the Roma ethnic group, have written to the jury for the Nobel Peace Prize – which is awarded in Oslo – asking that EveryOne Group be accepted as a candidate, both because of its campaigns in defence of Roma rights and because of its collaboration with the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Council, and the United Nations, which has led to the approval of important resolutions and documents speaking out against discrimination. EveryOne Group has also promoted initiatives for peace, the memory of the Holocaust and against the persecution of minorities in totalitarian regimes, in particular the homosexuals living in fundamental Islamic countries. The website www.everyonegroup.com shows the many cases taken up by EveryOne Group in its work to help the victims of racism, homophobia and social persecution.
Finally, we have set up a website to collect signatures from all those who wish to join our appeal:  http://nobelpereveryone.altervista.org. We hope we will be joined by many other supporters, and that the Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo takes up this request, which comes from the hearts of many of our people.

Americano Grancea

Romani Committee “Nobel Peace Prize for EveryOne Group”

 http://nobelpereveryone.altervista.org

Contact:  americanograncea@gmail.com (also for callings, I speak Romanes and Italian)