Human Rights and Roma Activist
Keynote Speaker

Zemfira “Zola” Kondur has been a lifelong human rights advocate and Roma activist. She was born in 1976 in the small city of Kiliya in the Odessa region of Ukraine and was raised in a traditional Roma family. But unlike most Roma, Kondur’s father attended university and obtained two advance degrees.

Education was important to the Kondur family, and Zola’s mother had to fight against discrimination so that her three children could attend an English school in Odessa. To this date, the Kondur children are the only Roma students to have graduated from the school. Kondur went on to enroll in the State Pedagogical University and earned a teaching degree in Russian language, literature and world culture.

In 1993, Kondur and her family helped form the Izmail Roma Association, which works to protect the rights of Roma people in southern Ukraine. In 1997, Kondur became the head of the association’s Sunday school. The school offers preschool education for young Roma children as well as programs for older children to help them develop important social skills. During this time, Kondur encountered Roma children whose rights were violated, including those who lacked access to quality education and health care.

In response to a serious lack of services for Roma girls, Kondur helped launch the Chiricli International Roma Women’s Fund in 2000 to advocate on behalf of Roma women across Eastern Europe. As the vice president of the nonprofit organization, Kondur’s priorities are ensuring that Roma girls have access to adequate education and proper health care for themselves and their families.

Kondur says she is especially concerned by the spread of diseases like tuberculosis, which have a devastating impact on Roma communities. Many Roma people face discrimination at mainstream health centers and are regularly turned away from obtaining services. Others avoid doctors because they lack citizenship documents or are too poor to pay for treatment.

“Tuberculosis is a huge problem for Roma communities,” says Kondur. “Poor families have to choose between buying medicine or food for their children. Those who go to the hospital are met with open discrimination by doctors who do not want to help them, calling them ‘dirty’ and a plague on society.”

Kondur’s advocacy on human rights and passion for Roma issues have led to consultancies with international human rights organizations, including a current role with the European Roma Rights Centre. Kondur has also been invited to speak at numerous conferences and conventions, and is a keynote speaker at the high level Ministerial Forum in Berlin, All Against Tuberculosis.

Kondur is also the proud mother of a four-year-old son.

“The birth of my son has made me even more committed to fighting for human rights,” said Kondur. “I view marginalization now not just as an activist, but as a mother. All people deserve fundamental human rights like access to health care, regardless of their ethnicity or social status.”