Thirty Years of Roma Rights Activism: ERRC Marks Anniversary with Archive Exhibition in Budapest

Thirty Years of Roma Rights Activism: ERRC Marks Anniversary with Archive Exhibition in Budapest

06 November 2026

Budapest, 6 November 2026: Thirty years ago, the European Roma Rights Centre was founded on a simple proposition: that Romani communities must stop asking for tolerance and start demanding justice. Three decades of strategic litigation, advocacy, and struggle later, we are still here, and the fight has never mattered more.

To mark this anniversary, the ERRC presents an exhibition of photographs from our archive, at the Blinken Open Society Archive in Budapest, the city where the organisation was founded. The photographs date back to the early 1990s and tell the story of Roma rights activism in Europe: the landmark cases, the campaigns won and lost, the communities that organised and the people who stood beside them. It is the history of a movement.

The exhibition follows the record chronologically, from the pogroms and police raids of the early 1990s that demanded an organised legal response, through decades of evictions, segregation and struggle in the courts, to the Romani activism of today. Each image documents a place, a date, and a piece of that story.

These photographs were taken as evidence, not merely to witness but to stand as proof of what was done, and to whom. Thirty years on, the evidence keeps arriving, and so does the work of contesting it. Antigypsyism has not faded with the decades; it has entered parliaments, shaped government policy and returned to the streets in organised far-right movements. The archive of evidence is still open, and so are we.

In light of the occasion, the ERRC will also bring together legal professionals and activists for two days of closed strategy and reflection in Budapest, looking back at what thirty years of Roma rights litigation and advocacy have taught us, and forward at how to sustain the movement for justice.
Alongside these closed sessions, the ERRC is hosting a free online learning event, open to the Roma Rights Network and any human rights activists and lawyers who wish to take part:

New Approaches to Fundraising for Human Rights Work takes place on the morning of 11 November 2026, in hybrid session from Budapest. The session will explore movement money, community fundraising, and models beyond the foundation grant, drawing on the ERRC's own ideas of how to change the way we resource the fight for equality. Participants will learn from each other and from the ERRC's thirty years of practice. Interested activists can register here.

We invite anyone in Budapest in the next few months to come and see the history of a movement - brought back to the city it was founded in - thirty years on and still fighting.

The exhibition runs from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027 at the Blinken OSA Archivum, Arany János utca 32, Budapest. Entry is free.

This press release is also available in Hungarian.

For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: +32 483 35 69 41

The Roma Rights Network enjoys the financial support of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the EU nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

The ERRC's 30 Year Anniversary programme takes place thanks to the support of the Council of Europe.