When Natalia Duminica applied for the LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice at the University of York, United Kingdom, as a Chevening scholar, she already knew that her dissertation will be about Roma women, the topic she puts her greatest interest in. In mid-October 2021 Natalia has crossed the finishing line and generously thanked herself for the hard research work. Her dissertation, named “Addressing discrimination experiences of Roma women through intersectional law and policy: The case of Romania”, has been highly appreciated.
Yet, success hardly happens without any impediments. While working on her dissertation, Natalia lost her beloved father – the precious person she inherited the Roma identity from. Also, while writing an academic text about racism, she had to face racism on a daily basis through living under the same roof with the most racist person, in her words, she has ever met (i.e., her Airbnb host).
Natalia Duminică graduated BA in Marketing and Logistics from Moldova State University. She has been a Law and Humanities Scholarship Program beneficiary of REF and, later she became the Country Coordinator of REF Scholarship Programs in Moldova from 2017-2020.
In 2021, Natalia joined the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), a team of highly dedicated professionals sharing expertise in international human rights law, as a Former Soviet Union Fellow.

- Which are the problematic areas concerning Roma women, in your view whether human rights, employment, professional accomplishment, health?
It was such an exciting journey to investigate to what extent Roma women have been continuously exposed to different forms of discrimination and intolerance based on multiple characteristics. As a Roma woman from Eastern Europe, I have personally encountered and witnessed various instances of intolerance, injustice, and discriminatory behaviors based on ethnicity, gender, social class, nationality, and many other accounts. As a Roma rights defender, feminist, and scholar, I have learned how to translate these experiences into advocacy efforts and opportunities. Personal experiences together with professional commitments have motivated me to engage with this research in order to study how multiple and combined disadvantages, in the particular case of Roma women, could be deconstructed.
It is acknowledged that Roma have been the most discriminated group in Europe. When it comes to the specific issues of Roma women, though, more identities are involved, and they overlap and intersect with each other. The result is the intersectional discrimination of Roma women, which is a much more complex, broader concept, than just the discrimination towards the Roma in general. It seems to be an under-researched topic in academia, I found just a couple of books on discrimination of Roma women. I noticed that only Roma women would talk about these issues! You would hardly see male Roma activists speaking about Roma women’s problems. It is Roma women speaking about labor discrimination, health or early marriages. What is also alarming, I see this topic incorporated neither in the agenda of the big Roma organizations, nor in the program of big non-Roma organizations.
- Tell us more about your education, family, and early years.
I remember that, as a child, I was always thirsty for knowledge and at some point, I had to balance between work and studies. I have come from a poor family; me and my brother had to help our parents with both agricultural and household errands. I had to combine work and studies. From an early age I know the value of work and the value of studies.
When it comes to higher education, it was quite challenging because at that time my parents could not afford my tuition fee and my father had to work abroad in order to support my first year in university. And I was very happy to receive the LHP scholarship of the Roma Education Fund in the second year. With that scholarship I was able to continue my studies. In the third year of my studies REF rejected my application. Fortunately, I had savings from the first scholarship, and I was able to pay and successfully graduate in Economic sciences, majoring in Marketing and Logistics.
Nearly in that period, I received a proposal to get involved in a Roma rights organization and I thought, why not. I could have some income and I could explore Roma culture. Within the family we did not speak Romani language, we did not follow Roma traditions. Basically, I came with nothing in that organization. At the beginning I was volunteering for two months and then one position was available, that of the Office Manager and I got the job. And this is how I have remained in the human rights field for already ten years.
- Which language do you consider your native one?
I consider Romanian to be my native language. My second language was Russian, now it is English. I don’t speak at all Romani language. The reason is that my father was a Roma and my mother is a non-Roma. Both sides of the family were against this marriage, especially my father’s parents: they didn’t want my father to mix with the non-Roma. And once my father went into marriage with my mum, his relatives prohibited him to use the language, the traditions and everything related to the Roma. I remember when we went to our grandparents, everyone was speaking Romani but me and my brother, we couldn’t understand a word.

- Do you publicly state your Roma identity, or do you choose the context in which to do so?
At first, I had conflicting aspects when it came to my identity. Then, the scholarships for Roma higher education students were announced by REF and I thought: OK, I am eligible! All my life I was called with the “G” word, why not to apply for an opportunity which belongs to the Roma!?
Roma identity is so diverse and complex that when people talk about it, they should be given a bit of a context. For instance, I am coming from a mixed family, an assimilated one. We were living in a non-Roma community. The only Roma person in our village was my father and his family and the whole village knew who were “those g****s”. We were “those g*****s”. To go for studies was my escape from the reality in which I was called with the “G” word. And I decided to go to the capital city of Moldova where no one knew I was a Roma. During lectures some teachers would allow racist jokes about Roma and I would never rebuke those jokes; I never said I am Roma and I felt offended. Once I joined the Roma rights organization, I gained confidence about my identity, and I got ready to speak up and oppose any verbal discrimination. It was a long way to accept who I am.
In international context I present my name, nationality, I say that I am Roma and a Roma rights activist and usually I stop here.
- Tell us about your participation in volunteer activities and cultural events, and to what extent they were related to supporting Roma communities?
I have worked for the Roma National Center in Moldova. We did not have all the time project-related funds, hence, I kept on working with the beneficiaries even in times when there was no particular funding, on voluntary basis.
When it comes to volunteering within REF’s scholarship community, it should be a moral obligation for each of the scholars to work with the Roma globally. Once they become beneficiaries, students report an increase in their quality of life. Also, they gain access to information and opportunities for internships, career, training courses; they receive access to mentors, membership in organizations. In addition, REF scholarship recipients expand their contacts, learn how to work in a network, meet new friends, find jobs. Not every Roma youth has access to funds to support one’s education. Once the scholars had access to these funds, they must pay back to others who have not had the chance to take advantage from these benefits.
- What in volunteering made yourself one step more mature? What kind of skills did you learn from volunteering?
Having a little presentation when I was telling my story, the story of my father and my family, I had the opportunity to break the stereotypes, at least those of the people in the audience. It did not have a worldwide effect but what I am trying to do is to change the people around me.
Apart from that, it was the networking component which has impact on my professional growth. Doing volunteering, you expand your network, you have better connections, you can explore more opportunities, you could find friends. A final word for volunteering – it should come from the heart and out of the desire to help other Roma peers.
- Have you ever analyzed what is the imprint of the Roma cultural heritage on your everyday life?
As a human rights professional, I read and write about Roma every day. On the other hand, it is my family: we discuss racist instances, we debrief Roma-related news and injustices, and we also debate how those cases could be prevented in the future. We have our little dialogue about the Roma situation, based on our encounters and experiences. These are the two sources which remind me every day that I am Roma. I don’t have anything culturally-related such as language, or clothes or customs, and I try to replace this cultural gap with activism and the family.
- What in the Roma culture is most unique, in your opinion? What, in your opinion, could the non-Roma learn from the Roma?
It is our unique historical trauma. The way we live nowadays is definitely rooted in the historical events: Roma Holocaust, the slavery and the persecution. We can also trace instances of discrimination since Roma have arrived on the European continent. There is a lot of historical turbulences which haven’t been spoken or thought about. What we, as Roma, should do is to learn about our historical past and communicate it to the non-Roma and to the future generations, and specifically the way historical events have deeply shaped our current lives. Roma culture, the language, the way we dressed, some traditions, etc. could differ from community to community, from country to country but the common thing between all the Roma is the traumatic historical path and our resilience.
- How do you cooperate with international organizations in order to promote change among the Roma? And what effect has had the international human rights work on yourself?
I believe that having Roma expertise within a non-Roma organization could diversify the professional environment and vice versa, non-Roma experts should be invited to share their knowledge in the Roma organizations. I tend to learn from many people, who are educated in different fields, and have different experience. This way I encounter more angles, more points of view, thus, I have become more critical towards human rights issues. Hence, I am trying to bring my Roma-shaped expertise within the mainstream organizations such as the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre.
