Roma meeting this Friday (fwd)

[Kevin Eric Laney]

From: Erika Solyom <esolyo at law.columbia.edu>
Subject: Roma meeting this Friday
Author:  Erika Solyom at lazarus
Date:    11/20/97 10:01 AM


     Public Interest Law Initiative in Transitional Societies (PILI)
     Columbia Law School

     PILI will present a panel discussion on "LEGAL DEFENSE OF THE ROMA
     (GYPSIES) IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE" on November 21, 1997 from
     10:00 - 12:00.

     Featured speakers of the panel discussion include:

        JACK GREENBERG
        (Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, NY)

        ARYEH NEIER
        (President, Open Society Institute, NY)

        RUDKO KAWCZYNSKI
        (Director, Regional Roma Participation Program, OSI, Budapest)

        DIMITRINA PETROVA
        (Executive Director, European Roma Rights Center, Budapest)

        THEODORE M. SHAW
        (Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP LDEF, NY)

     Reception to follow.

     PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION:
     Dag Hammarskjold Lounge, 6th Floor
     International Affairs Building, Columbia University
     420 West 118th Street.

     *******

     The Roma (Gypsies) are the most disadvantaged ethnic minority across
     Europe. The rights of individuals belonging to Roma communities have
     been systematically violated in the context of what seems to be an
     enduring pattern of racism.

     In 1996, a new international public interest law organization, the
     European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), was established in Budapest,
     Hungary, with the purpose of monitoring the human rights situation of
     Roma in Europe and providing legal defense to victims of abuse. The
     ERRC has asked the Public Interest Law Initiative to help bring
     attention to the severe problems faced by Roma, and to initiate a
     discussion about strategies to challenge discrimination and
     racially-motivated violence in European courts.

     Columbia Law School's Public Interest Law Initiative in Transitional
     Societies (PILI) was established in September 1997 to assist a growing
     public interest community of non-governmental organizations, lawyers
     and others now in its formative stage in Central and Eastern Europe
     and the former Soviet Union. It is supported by the Ford Foundation.