Roma Minority Group

Passage A There is no universally accepted definition within international law for the term “national minority.” It is most commonly applied to (1) groups of persons—not necessarily citizens—under the jurisdiction of one country who have ethnic ties to another “homeland” country, or (2) groups of citizens of a country who have lasting reason, perhaps, “people” is often used instead of “nation” for groups subject to a colonial power.

While the lack of definition of the terms “minority,” “people,” and “nation” presents difficulties to numerous minority groups, this lack is particularly “problematic” for the Roma (Gypsies). The Roma are not a colonized people, they do not have a homeland, and many do not bear ties to any currently existing country. Some have ethnic and linguistic ties to other groups of Roma that reside in other countries.

Passage B Capotorti’s definition of a minority includes four empirical criteria—a group’s being numerically smaller than the rest of the population of the state; their being nondominant; their having distinctive ethnic, linguistic, or religious characteristics; and their desiring to preserve their own culture—and one legal criterion, that they be citizens of the reference to empirical characteristics, it seems patently unfair that it should be included in the definition.

However, the Roma easily fulfill the four objective elements of Capotorti’s definition and should, therefore, be considered a minority in all major European states. Numerically, they are nowhere near a majority, though they number in the hundreds of thousands, even millions, in some states. Their nondominant position is evident—they are not even and identity through centuries of persecution is evidence enough of their desire to preserve their culture.