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Project on Ethnic Relations

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Project on Ethnic Relations
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Mission

The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) is dedicated to preventing ethnic conflict in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. PER was founded in 1991 in anticipation of the serious interethnic conflicts that were to erupt following the collapse of Communism. PER conducts programs of high-level intervention and dialogue and serves as a neutral mediator in several major disputes in the region. PER also conducts programs of training, education, and research at international, national, and community levels.

PER is supported by the United States Agency for International Development, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Government of Switzerland, the Government of Great Britain, the Government of Romania, the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, NCH Capital Inc., the Alfred and Carol Moses Family Fund, and the People Technology Foundation, Inc.

Strategies

The Project on Ethnic Relations...

  • provides neutral auspices for dialogues among government officials, opposition leaders, and representatives of ethnic groups seeking solutions to interethnic disputes.
  • works with strategic elites, national and regional opinion leaders, government officials, and professionals on projects dealing with ethnic conflict, and helps them obtain expert advice.
  • assists in the development of national and local institutions to deal with ethnic conflicts.
  • directs attention to the influence of the media on public opinion and works with opinion makers to encourage professionalism and objectivity in the coverage of ethnic issues and conflicts.
  • increases the visibility of individuals and institutions of moderate views through international recognition, validation, and support; helps them to organize regionally; and provides them with access to information and assistance from one another and from counterparts in other countries.
  • cooperates with international and European intergovernmental organizations in the development of strategies for dealing with interethnic tensions.
  • promotes cooperation between Romani (Gypsy) leaders, their governments, and international organizations.
  • trains a new generation of specialists to carry out both practical and analytical work in the management of interethnic conflicts.

Dialogues

One of PER’s main objectives is to initiate and institutionalize dialogues between majority and minority leaders on sensitive issues of ethnic relations. Its activities in pursuit of this objective are based on three principles:

  1. Sustained and frequent dialogue is the best means of bringing about the long-term reconciliation of differences.
  2. To be successful, dialogue must be removed from the sphere of partisan political competition to a protected space.
  3. Continued dialogue not only provides opportunities for the discussion of divisive issues but also helps to transform such discussions from exceptional to normal events.

In keeping with these principles, PER provides a neutral framework for discussions among government officials and leaders of ethnic groups and civic organizations within and among the countries of the region.

Bulgaria. PER’s first priority in Bulgaria was to support surveys and analyses, based on objective fieldwork, in order to create a baseline of data for policy-makers. The most important and politically sensitive issue has been the potential for tensions between Bulgarians and ethnic Turks.

In June 2001, PER organized the first-ever roundtable discussions between Bulgarian political leaders and the leaders of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), the predominantly Turkish ethnic party. The meeting coincided with the opening of negotiations between the newly elected Bulgarian leadership and the MRF leadership and the unprecedented entry of Turks into the coalition governing Bulgaria. PER is working to create a permanent political dialogue between ethnic Turkish and Bulgarian representatives. In addition, PER conducts an extensive program of activities concerning the Romani population of Bulgaria, including projects intended to encourage participation by the Roma in elections and to foster cooperation between local administrations and their Romani communities. (See the section on the Roma, below.)

PER’s office in Sofia coordinates its projects in Bulgaria and maintains liaison with governmental and nongovernmental organizations and with the leaders of ethnic groups.

Hungary. Not only is Hungary home to several ethnic minorities (among them one of the largest Romani communities in Europe), but ethnic Hungarians are a significant presence in several countries of the region, notably Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. Hungary therefore occupies a crucial position in regional interethnic issues, and PER conducts several programs that reflect that pivotal role. Much of PER’s work in Hungary concerns Hungarian minority communities living beyond the border and the interaction between their situation and Hungary’s foreign and domestic policies.

In cooperation with the Office of the Prime Minister, PER has organized several meetings in Hungary of representatives of ethnic Hungarian communities in Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, focusing on means of promoting constructive dialogues between those communities and their host states. Participants in these meetings from the United States and Western Europe have offered evaluations of the spectrum of opinions, strategies, 4 and tactics that were put forth, with a view toward clarifying the positions and options of these Hungarian communities.

PER has sponsored discussions among leaders of Hungarian parliamentary parties, officials from neighboring countries, NATO, the European Union (EU), and the United States concerning Hungary’s Euro-Atlantic integration, bilateral relations with neighboring countries, and the effects of these issues on Hungarian minorities in those countries.

PER also organizes a series of international consultations for senior policy-makers from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, NATO and the EU, and the U.S. government, to assess the new dynamics that have resulted from the inclusion of some Central European countries in NATO, and the exclusion of others. This development has a significant impact on interethnic relations, since it divides some ethnic groups between countries that are NATO members and those that are not.

PER was instrumental in organizing unofficial talks between Hungarian and Romanian policy advisers beginning in the early 1990s, with a series of meetings alternating between Bucharest and Budapest. This was a prelude to the official talks that ultimately led to the first state treaty between the two countries, signed in 1996. PER continues its work of promoting high-level dialogues between Budapest and Bucharest.

PER’s activities in Hungary are administered with the assistance of its Budapest office.

Romania. PER’s earliest work, and some of its most notable achievements, have been in Romania. Following an outbreak of interethnic 5 violence in 1990 in the Transylvania region of Romania, PER launched an intensive effort to bring Romanian officials and Hungarian ethnic leaders from Romania together for discussion. In June 1991, the leaders of Romania’s fourteen main ethnic communities met together for the first time, at a conference sponsored by PER and the Romanian Academy. Where there had been no contact, PER established the first serious discussions among key decision-makers and began to put in place a pattern of dialogue that has now replaced the traditions of confrontation.

The historic reconciliation that has taken place between Romania and Hungary and, in Romania, between the majority Romanian population and members of the large Hungarian minority, followed several years of intensive efforts by PER to induce the respective sides to engage in discussions with one another. These efforts began to pay off when, at roundtables organized by PER in 1993 in Gerzensee, Switzerland and Neptun, Romania, and in 1995 at the Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta, the first agreements were reached between Romanian officials and leaders of the Hungarian community on a number of disputed issues. One of the most important outcomes of the talks was the establishment of a Council for National Minorities. Moreover, 300 additional openings were created at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj for training teachers for Hungarian-language secondary schools. Both Romanian majority and Hungarian minority leaders have expressed appreciation to PER for its contributions to making it possible to bring the ethnic Hungarian party (the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, or UDMR) into the coalition that governed Romania from 6 1997 through 2000 (Romania’s first interethnic coalition), and for preparing the ground for the signing of the first state treaty between Romania and Hungary in 1996.

Romanian-Hungarian reconciliation is a longterm process that requires patient work at both community and national levels. Although the UDMR does not participate in the government that was formed after the 2000 elections, the precedents that were created during the course of PER-initiated dialogues over the last decade remain a basis for continuing interethnic cooperation. Early in 2001, a formal agreement on political cooperation was concluded between the governing party and the UDMR. The leadership of the current government and the UDMR have requested PER’s continuing involvement in their long-term dialogue.

Finally, Romania, along with most other countries in the region, faces a major challenge in seeking solutions to the plight of its large Romani (Gypsy) population, and PER has been active in helping to organize policy initiatives on this question. (See the section on the Roma, below.)

PER works through offices in Bucharest and Tirgu Mures, which conduct active programs of seminars and consultations throughout Romania and carry out projects with political leaders, the police, media, and educators.

Russia. PER’s programs in Russia began in September 1992 with a meeting in Moscow of representatives of more than fifty regional ethnic groups to discuss the draft of a new nationalities policy for the Russian Federation. Leading U.S. and European specialists, as well as Russian government officials, participated. PER’s Russian partner in this effort was the State Committee for Nationalities Affairs.

Russia participates in a continuing East-East— East-West dialogue that PER initiated in 1995. The dialogue brings together leading Russian experts and policy-makers with their counterparts from other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, its neighbors to the west, the United States, and Western Europe in order to consider the impact of ethnic and national issues on regional security. Recently, PER has devoted particular attention to the problem of Russian-Baltic relations and their implications for regional security. Disputes over the status of the large Russian-speaking minorities in the newly independent Baltic states, especially Latvia and Estonia, have created major interethnic and diplomatic frictions. PER has conducted several roundtables where the antagonists have sought common ground.

Slovakia. PER’s efforts in Slovakia have been credited by officials there with helping to bring about Hungarian participation in the interethnic governing coalition that was formed following the election of 1998. PER had worked for several years to bridge the gap between the Slovak and ethnic Hungarian political parties.

In June 1995, PER brought representatives of the Slovak government, the presidency, and the Slovak and ethnic Hungarian opposition parties to Washington, D.C., for roundtable discussions concerning regional security and minority rights in Slovakia. A follow-up meeting, co-sponsored with the Slovak parliament, took place in Slovakia, at Casta-Papiernicka, near Bratislava, in May 1996. An important aspect of this meeting was the participation of senior officials from 8 9 major European organizations and the U.S. government. This dialogue was continued at a meeting in Le Mont-Pelerin, Switzerland, in September 1996, when, for the first time, leaders of Slovakia’s parliamentary parties, including both ethnic Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians, signed a declaration of cooperation concerning minority rights.

The deep rift between Slovak and ethnic Hungarian political leaders, however, has turned out to be more durable than some had hoped. By 2001, the interethnic governing coalition had been seriously challenged by a dispute over the terms and conditions of Slovakia’s program of decentralization, which Hungarians perceived as insufficient to satisfy their expectations. With the assistance of its Bratislava office, PER remains in close touch with all of the principals and expects to renew and extend the series of Slovak-Hungarian discussions that had contributed to the earlier easing of tensions.

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The end of the Milosevic era has left Yugoslavia (and its neighbors) with a dangerous tangle of interethnic problems that a decade of wars has worsened. PER’s efforts in Yugoslavia focus on several key issues of interethnic relations in that country: between Serbs and Albanians; among the several ethnic communities in Vojvodina and in Montenegro; political tensions between Serbia and Montenegro; and the problems of the Yugoslav Roma.

In September 1993, PER brought Serbian intellectuals and political leaders to New York to participate in a seminar with U.S. experts on the Balkans. The seminar focused on how Serbian moderates could rebuild bridges between Serbs and ethnic minorities in the new Yugoslavia and in its newly independent neighbors. That was followed by a meeting in Belgrade in June 1995 that was attended by senior officials of the governing Socialist Party of Serbia and representatives of several ethnic minorities in Serbia. Especially noteworthy was the participation by the leadership of the Democratic League of Kosova (the major ethnic Albanian party), which broke the four-year boycott by the Kosovar Albanians of public contacts with Serbian officials.

In April 1997, in New York City, PER organized a meeting at which political leaders from Belgrade, including the heads of Serbian parliamentary parties, met for the first time with the leaders of the Albanian political parties from Kosovo for face-to-face discussions of the explosive issue of the future of this province of Serbia. The group devised and issued a set of principles to guide future dialogues. We believe that, if the Serb-Albanian ethnic dispute is ever to be settled, the sides will ultimately have to resume some form of dialogue, despite the further divisions that followed the 1999 war in Kosovo.

In April 2001, PER undertook its first post-war effort in Pristina, when it organized a roundtable, with the assistance of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), that included the heads of all the principal political parties in Kosovo and the leaders of Kosovo’s ethnic communities. Albanians and Serbs debated their immediate and future security concerns and issues of governance. This was followed by a roundtable in October 2001, again with OSCE assistance, 10 that brought together Kosovar Albanian leaders with officials from Belgrade to debate whether the Serbs would participate in Kosovo’s first post-war elections. It was the first encounter, in Kosovo, of Albanian party leaders and Serb officials since 1997.

PER is active as well in Montenegro which, with Serbia, makes up today’s Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the Milosevic years Montenegro, separating itself from Belgrade’s policies, took steps to include Albanians and ethnic Muslims in leadership positions and became an alternative model to the extreme ethnic nationalism that prevailed in Serbia at that time. PER has launched a program to help the republic organize government institutions and to devise legislation aimed at expanding and safeguarding minority rights and participation. In October 2001, PER arranged for discussions between the leaders of Montenegro’s two ethnic Albanian parties and the mainstream political parties, and brokered the first agreement between the sides to systematically consider a series of Albanian requests concerning education, medical care, municipal governance, and the like. PER has been asked to monitor and to participate in the process.

Regional and Multinational Programs

Problems in interethnic relations typically extend beyond national boundaries, posing security problems for entire regions. PER therefore makes particular efforts to bring together officials and political leaders from different countries to consult on the regional and multilateral dimensions of interethnic tensions.

PER’s regional efforts are organized into five major initiatives: an East-East — East-West series, which brings together Russians and Central and East Europeans (with Western participation) to discuss their evolving relationships; a Central European series, bringing together leaders from neighboring countries that share an interest in minority populations; a Balkan political leadership series; a Euro- Atlantic series; and a series on the Baltic region.

East-East — East-West series. Officials and political leaders from Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and other newly independent states gathered in Moscow in January 1995, together with participants from Western Europe and the United States, to discuss ethno-national issues and their impact on regional security. At the conclusion of the meeting, participants made plans for a standing consultative group to arrange for the further consideration of these issues.

Upon the advice of the standing group, the dialogue was resumed in Moscow in March 1996, when political leaders, government officials, and policy advisers from the Central and East European countries and the United States conferred with their Russian counterparts about improving East-East and East-West relations. The discussion on this occasion was dominated by deep differences over the implications of NATO enlargement for regional security. PER convened the third meeting in the series in Warsaw. This meeting took up the question of how ethnic and national rivalries affect regional security, and considered means and prospects for cooperation in light of new alliances being made in Europe. The series will be continued.

Central European series. Diverse ethnic populations in this region straddle state boundaries in a bewildering variety of patterns, and often are the focus of serious contention. There is an urgent need to make leaders from all of these countries aware of the consequences of their policies and behavior for the security of the entire region. The issues have become all the more acute as the differential rate of NATO and EU enlargement creates new patterns of interethnic competition and cooperation. Interethnic tensions, which have traditionally been approached as domestic or bilateral matters, are increasingly played out within larger systems of multilateral relations. PER believes that all countries in the region can profit from a more realistic understanding of the relationships among the domestic, regional, and international dimensions of policies and practices concerning interethnic relations.

To this end, PER has organized a series of highlevel consultations for political leaders from Austria, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, with U.S., NATO, and EU participation. These informal discussions, in which the participants are cabinet-level officials and opposition party leaders, provide unique opportunities to debate, express opinions, and develop working relations outside the glare of public exposure.

Southeast Europe series. In 1997, PER, with assistance from the Council of Europe, initiated a series for young leaders from the 13 region. Countries in that region have lagged behind in the development of intra-regional ties and in preparations for integration into European and international institutions. Beset by the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia, by the postponement of economic reforms, and by the complex mosaic of interethnic rivalries, some Balkan leaders have been inclined to adopt a pattern of self-isolating behavior that, if left unchecked, can only prolong the dangers of ethnic violence. This initiative is aimed at encouraging emerging Balkan leaders to develop a consultative framework within which interethnic issues can be constructively discussed. Another regional initiative, launched in 1998, encourages officials of the ministries of education from the region to review secondaryschool history texts with the aim of introducing more objective, and less nationalistic, treatment of neighboring countries.

During the 1999 war in Kosovo PER convened, in Rome, an emergency meeting of political leaders from across the Balkans to discuss the crisis, its impact on their countries, and to make recommendations for postwar stabilization.

After the war PER launched a major regional initiative, “Albanians and their Neighbors.” In 2000, two PER gatherings of senior leaders from the Balkans and officials from NATO, EU, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the U.S., Russia, and other European countries took place in Budapest and Athens, respectively, with the support of the Hungarian and Greek governments. (The Athens meeting, held in December, was the first time since the war in Kosovo that Yugoslav cabinet members sat down at the same table with the senior Kosovar Albanian leaders.) The core issues were 14 the future of Kosovo, stability and democracybuilding in Albania, interethnic relations in Macedonia and Montenegro, relations between Belgrade and Pristina, and the policies of the international community in the Balkans. Additional sessions are planned.

A new series, on “Serbs and their Neighbors,” was initiated in December 2001. This effort is intended to bring together Yugoslav and Serbian officials, ethnic Serb leaders from Kosovo, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, as well as officials from countries that border Yugoslavia.

Euro-Atlantic series. Ethnic conflicts are all too often exacerbated by ineffective and inconsistent responses by the Western powers. Conceptual and policy disagreements and misunderstandings between the United States and Europe, as well as among European countries and institutions, have often delayed or paralyzed responses to outbreaks of violence and have sometimes created political tensions in the Euro-Atlantic community itself.

With this in mind, PER initiated a project to delve into the reasons for this problem and to consider policy options. In January 1998, at a meeting in Brussels co-sponsored by the Office of the Secretary General of NATO, PER organized discussions that included officials and consultants from NATO, the U.S. government, and the European Union. A second meeting was held in Brussels to consider in depth the European institutional capacity to deal with interethnic disturbances and the implications of Europe’s dependence on the United States.

Baltic series. Another PER initiative concerns Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which experienced increasing tensions with Russia following the collapse of the U.S.S.R. One of the major regional issues is the status of very large ethnic Russian populations in Estonia and Latvia. In 1998, PER arranged for the first highlevel Russian-Baltic region-wide dialogue in Novgorod, in northwestern Russia, emphasizing the potential for cooperation between Russia’s northwest provinces and the Baltic countries.

A second meeting in the series was held in Riga, Latvia, in January 1999. The participants considered issues of social integration of the Russophone communities in Estonia and Latvia and Russian-Baltic relations. Future plans include roundtables between leaders of the Russian minority communities in Estonia and Latvia and the political leaders of those countries.

The Roma

The Roma (Gypsies), Europe’s largest and most vulnerable minority, are especially numerous in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The treatment of the Roma is in many respects a litmus test for the region’s new democracies.

Building the capacity of the Roma to help their communities has been a guiding principle of PER’s activities in working with this ethnic group. PER’s trailblazing work with the Roma began in 1991, before the plight of this transnational minority became such a public concern. In May 1992, PER organized a landmark meeting in Stupava, near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, for Central and East European officials and leaders of the Romani communities. This was followed in April 1993 by a gathering in Snagov (Romania) that was organized in cooperation with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These events are now considered to be the beginning of the international effort to create a long-term agenda on the Roma for governments and for Romani organizations.

The PER Romani Advisory Council (PERRAC). A team of prominent Romani leaders, activists and experts from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and the United States advises PER on its projects, and designs Romani policies for the international community and for their governments. PERRAC functions as an informal ‘think-tank’ that creates new ideas and concepts in addressing Romani issues.

Empowering young Romani leaders and activists. The Roma need well-trained and educated leaders who can serve as spokesmen and participate effectively in mainstream political life. PER initiated an internship program for young Romani leaders at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (ODIHR/OSCE) in 1995. Several prominent Romani leaders are the products of that effort. PER currently facilitates the participation of Romani leaders in major European councils concerned with the Roma.

Development of national policies. PER brings together government officials and leaders of the Roma for dialogues on designing effective state policies toward the Roma. PER has held groundbreaking meetings in several countries of the region that have led to adoption of new policies. PER has brought government officials and Roma involved in policy-making to Brussels, where members of the European Commission discussed the importance of effective state policies toward the Roma.

Increasing Romani participation in political and social processes. PER supports efforts of the Roma and their leaders to increase participation of the Roma in elections both as voters and as candidates. In a series of projects on elections PER has encouraged the Romani leadership to seek new political strategies.

Addressing sensitive issues and those of immediate concern. PER responds to challenging and sensitive issues for the Roma, including root causes of Romani migration, the legitimacy of their leadership and representation, and government statistics on the Roma. In an effort to combat ethnic stereotypes of that community, PER has pioneered in working with the mass media and the police on coping with “ethnic” crime statistics that are sometimes used to paint a derogatory picture of the Roma.

PER’s cooperation with international organizations. PER promotes cooperation and partnerships among Romani leaders, their governments, and international organizations. PER cooperates with ODIHR/OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission. PER staff and overseas offices are frequently consulted by organizations and European institutions working on Romani projects.

Education, scholarship, and training. Education, scholarship, and training are important parts of PER’s program on the Roma. In cooperation with the Ministry of Education in Romania, PER conducts a series of training workshops for teachers of Romani children, organizes seminars to support the development of a distance learning program for poor Romani students, and sponsors training sessions for newly appointed Romani school inspectors. PER has also supported scholarship and publications on the Roma. The PER report “Roma in the Twenty- First Century: A Policy Paper,” published in 1997 and written by Romani scholars and activists, is an essential resource for practitioners.

Working with Strategic Elites

One of the chief obstacles to the peaceful resolution of interethnic conflicts has been the lack of expert advice available to governmental authorities, leaders of political oppositions and ethnic minorities, and academic and social institutions. Seeking to deal with this problem, PER locates and provides access to expertise that may help to avoid violence and to manage conflicts when they occur. These efforts have been concentrated in three crucial areas: political leadership, the media, and the police.

Political leadership. PER endeavors to help political leaders recognize and avoid the cycles of provocation and reaction that characterize violent ethnic conflict. PER representatives monitor developments that lead to crises and consult with government officials and opposition leaders on peaceful and practical measures to defuse them. For example, PER has sponsored seminars in Romania on mediation techniques for leaders of ethnic communities in Transylvania and for Romanian police officials. The seminars were conducted by a specialist from the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice.

From time to time, PER brings key participants in interethnic disputes to the United States for consultations with academic specialists and government policy-makers in order to familiarize them with other perspectives and to update U.S. colleagues on developments in their regions.

The media. The influence of the media on ethnic relations cannot be overemphasized. The media, particularly when they manipulate public opinion for political purposes, bear much of the responsibility for such events as the outbreak of interethnic violence and warfare in the former Yugoslavia. Encouraging the media to provide more objective coverage of interethnic disputes has been a major preoccupation of PER.

Leading print and TV journalists from Central and East European countries and Russia met in Prague in March 1994 to discuss the reporting of ethnic tensions. This was the first in a series of PER initiatives that, over the years, have brought journalists together in several countries to consider ways to improve the professionalism of their coverage of interethnic issues, to consider the depiction of the Roma in the mass media, and to attend training seminars given by respected senior editors. PER also organizes exchanges and roundtables for publishers and journalists from Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Russia, the Baltic countries, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The police. In everyday life, the police are the most visible embodiment of state authority, and their behavior often sets the tone for social relations at the community level. PER’s concern with police-management training began with an effort to analyze the causes of mob violence against the Roma in Romania. A PER team sent to the field in February 1994 discovered that much of the problem could be attributed to a lack of expertise in ethnic-tension management and to the scarcity of resources available to lawenforcement officials. PER, together with the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville (Kentucky), and with the assistance of the Romanian General Inspectorate of Police, the Interior Ministry, and the Council for National Minorities, held several seminars for senior police commanders on the policing of ethnic confrontations and the influence of the police on social and ethnic relations.

These activities led to the formation of a department of prevention within the Romanian General Inspectorate of Police to monitor social and ethnic tensions, with the aim of preventing conflicts or, when necessary, intervening in a timely fashion to minimize the loss of life and property. The department has a branch in each of Romania’s counties and a center in Brasov, which employs social scientists to assist the police in tracking ethnic and social relations in Romania. PER has facilitated similar initiatives in Hungary and Slovakia, also conducted by the Southern Police Institute.

Publications and Information

PER issues reports on its conferences, workshops, and meetings as well as a newsletter. These publications are distributed free of charge to interested institutions and individuals.

PER also maintains a World Wide Web site that contains publications and information about PER. The address is www.per-usa.org.

The following publications and documents are available in print form from PER, or can be downloaded from PER’s website. Please check the website for new additions.

  • Romanian-American Symposium on Inter-Ethnic Relations (1991)
  • The Romanies in Central and Eastern Europe: Illusions and Reality (1992)
  • Nationality Policy in the Russian Federation (1992)
  • Interethnic Relations in Serbia/Yugoslavia: Alternatives for the Future (1993)
  • The Media of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Reporting on Interethnic Relations (1994)
  • Managing Ethnic Conflict: The Kona Statement (1994)
  • Countering Anti-Roma Violence in Eastern Europe: The Snagov Conference and Related Efforts (1994)
  • Ethnonationalism: Fears, Dangers, and Policies in the Post-Communist World (1995)
  • Slovakia Roundtable in the United States (1995)
  • Democratic Processes and Ethnic Relations in Yugoslavia (1995)
  • Russia and Eastern and Central Europe: Old Divisions and New Bridges (1996)
  • Second Slovakia Roundtable (1996)
  • Ethnic Relations: A Selected Bibliography (1996)
  • Reporting in a Post-Conflict Environment: Bosnian and Croat Journalists Meet (1996)
  • The Media and the Roma in Contemporary Europe: Facts and Fictions (1996)
  • The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: A Policy Paper (1997)
  • Prevention of Violence and Discrimination Against the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe (1997)
  • Enhancing Regional Security: Russian and Central European Perspectives (1997)
  • The New York Roundtable: Toward Peaceful Accommodation in Kosovo (1997)
  • Images and Issues: Coverage of the Roma in The Mass Media in Romania (1997)
  • Self-Government in Hungary: The Gypsy/Romani Experience and Prospects for the Future (1997)
  • Political Leaders on Interethnic Relations and Regional Security in Central Europe: A Roundtable (1998)
  • Interethnic Relations in the Balkans: New Generation, New Politics (1998)
  • Schools, Language, and Interethnic Relations in Romania: The Debate Continues (1998)
  • The Roma in Bulgaria: Collaborative Efforts Between Local Authorities and Nongovernmental Organizations (1998)
  • Baltic-Russian Relations in the New Geopolitical Framework (1998)
  • Political Participation and the Roma in Hungary and Slovakia (1999)
  • Building Romanian Democracy: The Police and Ethnic Minorities (1999)
  • Catastrophe in the Balkans: Serbia’s Neighbors and the Kosovo Conflict (1999)
  • State Policies Toward Romani Communities in Candidate Countries to the EU: Government and Romani Participation in Policy-Making (1999)
  • Montenegro on the Brink: Avoiding Another Yugoslav War (2000)
  • Roma and the Law: Demythologizing the “Gypsy Criminality” Stereotype (2000)
  • Vojvodina: The Politics of Interethnic Accommodation (2000)
  • The Year 2000 Elections in Romania: Interethnic Relations and European Integration (2000)
  • The Roma in Hungary: Government Policies, Minority Expectations, and the International Community (2000)
  • Toward Community Policing: The Police and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary (2000)
  • Albanians and Their Neighbors: Unfinished Business (2000)
  • Roma and the Government in Slovakia: The Debate Over Migration (2000)
  • Roma and Statistics (2000)
  • Albanians as Majorities and Minorities: A Regional Dialogue (2001)
  • State Policies Toward the Roma in Macedonia (2001)
  • Parliamentary Representation of Minorities in Hungary: Legal and Political Issues (2001)
  • Political Will: Romania’s Path to Ethnic Accommodation (2001)
  • Yugoslav Roma Face The Future (2001)
  • Leadership, Representation and the Status of the Roma (2001)

Documents

  • Joint recommendations by Romanian government officials and representatives of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, Gerzensee, Switzerland, February 25-26, 1993
  • Joint recommendations by Romanian government officials and representatives of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, Neptun, Romania, July 15-17, 1993
  • Joint statement by representatives of parliamentary parties from Slovakia concerning interethnic relations, with special reference to Slovak-Hungarian relations in the Slovak Republic, Le Mont-Pelerin, Switzerland, September 8, 1996
  • Jointly agreed positions of the Serb-Albanian Kosovo roundtable, New York City, April 7-9, 1997
  • Concluding statement of the Serb-Albanian Kosovo roundtable, New York City, April 7-9, 19976
  • Communiqué of the Roundtable on Interethnic Relations in Vojvodina, Vienna, Austria, September 23-25, 1999
  • Communiqué of the seminar on The Impact of the Electoral Year 2000 on the Status of Minorities and the European Integration of Romania, Poiana Brasov, Romania, February 10-12, 2000
  • Communiqué of the Roundtable on Interethnic Relations in Vojvodina, Athens, Greece, February 14-15, 2000

PER Regional Centers

In addition to its U.S. headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, PER maintains centers and representations in Sofia, Bulgaria; Budapest, Hungary; Krakow, Poland; Bucharest and Tirgu Mures, Romania; Moscow, Russia; Bratislava, Slovakia; Belgrade, Yugoslavia and in Pristina. These offices provide neutral settings for mediation, sponsor regional opinion surveys and other forms of applied research, and serve as a resource for public officials, journalists, and others who seek objective information about ethnic issues. The offices also organize special seminars and programs.

© Copyright 2002 by Project on Ethnic Relations