Renowned human rights activist and philanthropist George Soros has received the European Sinti and Roma Civil Rights Prize for his long-standing work supporting Roma communities across Europe. The award, presented at a ceremony in Berlin, was accepted on his behalf by George Soros’ son Alex, who is chairman of the Open Society Foundations founded by his father. The prize is worth \u20ac15,000.<\/p>\n
A press release from the Open Society Foundations said George Soros was awarded the prize for supporting "Roma-led organizations in combating discrimination, expanding access to education and justice, improving early childhood development and health care, and strengthening Roma voices in public life." Soros himself said in a statement: \u201cRoma have endured centuries of discrimination and exclusion rooted in a long history of violence \u2013 from the Holocaust to forced sterilizations to child displacement and evictions.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThese injustices continue to emerge, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently when Roma fleeing the war in Ukraine faced barriers to protection and assistance,\u201d he wrote. "I have always believed that open societies must protect the rights of all people – especially those who are excluded. Working with Roma leaders and communities has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life’s work." According to the press release, he said he would donate the prize money to the Roma Education Fund, which provides Roma communities with access to skills, employment programs and education.<\/p>\n
Previous winners include Simone Veil, the former President of the European Parliament, the former Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg and Merkel.<\/p>\n
The roots of the Sinti and Roma go back to the northern Indian subcontinent and came to Europe in the 15th century. The term \u201cSinti\u201d refers specifically to communities traditionally living in Central Europe, including Germany, while \u201cRoma\u201d and \u201cRomani\u201d are used as broader umbrella terms. The ethnic minority was systematically exterminated under the German Nazi regime – it is estimated that up to 500,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered by the Nazis and their allies by the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n
Today there are around 80,000 to 140,000 Sinti and Roma living in Germany, and in Europe there are a total of around 10 to 12 million. Sinti and Roma are still subject to significant discrimination and prejudice. Last year, German authorities reported that there would be a significant increase in antigypsy incidents in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to George Soros’ Award Renowned human rights activist and philanthropist George Soros has received the European Sinti and Roma Civil Rights Prize for his long-standing work supporting Roma communities across Europe. The award, presented at a ceremony in Berlin, was accepted on his behalf by George Soros’ son Alex, who is chairman of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[4647,6588,16474,1295,15999,16465,8129,16464,7991,1311,16470,16461,1644,248,16472,10459,653,16466,16462,16473,16469,16467,1724,95,16468,8123,4232,16471,2550,16463,4273],"class_list":{"0":"post-26106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle","8":"tag-1995-enlargement-of-the-european-union","9":"tag-allies-of-world-war-ii","10":"tag-anti-romani-sentiment","11":"tag-berlin","12":"tag-central-europe","13":"tag-child-displacement","14":"tag-civil-and-political-rights","15":"tag-compulsory-sterilization","16":"tag-council-of-europe","17":"tag-discrimination","18":"tag-european-commissioner","19":"tag-george-soros","20":"tag-german-empire","21":"tag-human-rights","22":"tag-indian-subcontinent","23":"tag-minority-group","24":"tag-nazi-germany","25":"tag-open-society","26":"tag-open-society-foundations","27":"tag-prejudice","28":"tag-president-of-the-european-parliament","29":"tag-roma-education-fund","30":"tag-romani-people","31":"tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine","32":"tag-simone-veil","33":"tag-sinti","34":"tag-the-holocaust","35":"tag-thomas-hammarberg","36":"tag-violence","37":"tag-voices-in-public","38":"tag-world-war-ii"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26108,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106\/revisions\/26108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}