‘Gypsy eroding liberty is gorgio eroding liberty’: making Europe more equal from the British Romani rights movement

Abstract

This paper explores the capacity for political agency of the British Romani Civil Rights Movement, assessing its particular connections with the construction and application of laws in the UK and Europe during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. A dual perspective will be adopted in order to trace and bring into dialogue the pressure brought to bear by Romani activism on both the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the United Kingdom following the historic Recommendation 563 of the Council of Europe pertaining to the situation of Gypsies and other Travellers. Based on FCO sources, this study highlights the performative power of ‘Gypsy diplomacy’ while negotiating political spaces in the United Kingdom.