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The European Roma Rights Center ("ERRC"), an international public interest law organisation, respectfully submits written comments concerning racial discrimination and violence against Roma in Europe, for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ("the Committee") at its 57^th Session, on the occasion of its thematic discussion on Roma, on August 15 and 16, 2000.

We are aware of the efforts undertaken by a number of Governments to comply with their obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the "Convention"). To date, however, these measures are insufficient to ensure the effective implementation of the Convention, particularly with regard to Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

As to Article 2, discrimination and violence against Roma remain widespread throughout Europe while legal protection against discrimination and racially-motivated violence is inadequate. The problem of insufficient legislative provisions aimed at combating racism and discrimination is further compounded by the failure to ensure their effective implementation.

As to Article 3, in several countries in Europe, Governmental policies towards Roma, most notably in the fields of housing and education but also in other areas of life, amount to racial segregation into conditions of life to which no other segment of the population is subjected.

As to Article 4, prominent public officials in Europe have continued to disseminate racist speech targeting Roma, thereby encouraging racism rather than combating it in the societies they govern.

As to Article 5, many Governments have failed to ensure Roma and other minorities equal protection of the law. Roma in a number of countries suffer widespread discrimination in the justice system, and are the victims of an unchecked wave of violence at the hands of law enforcement authorities, skinheads and others. In addition, Roma are commonly discriminated against with respect to a broad range of rights, most egregiously and systematically, freedom of residence, employment, housing, health care, education, and access to public goods and services.

As to Article 6, notwithstanding the numerous breaches of the Convention perpetrated against Roma throughout Europe, protection is lacking or ineffective, and remedies non-existent or inadequate.

As to Article 7, efforts to promote racial tolerance, in part through the conduct of educational and media campaigns to familiarise the public with the Convention and its standards, are insufficient or entirely absent from the political agendas of most European Governments.

In view of these deficiencies, Governments should, without delay, comply with the following recommendations, aimed to begin the process of eliminating discrimination against Roma:

1. Involvement - In designing, implementing and evaluating policies to combat and prevent discrimination, Governments must involve representative groups of Roma at all stages.

2. Political will - The foundation for any successful anti-discrimination policy is political will at the highest levels of Government. Absent moral leadership in the fight against discrimination, all other steps risk being mere window dressing. Senior Governmental officials must frequently and publicly acknowledge that racism against Roma is a grave and pervasive problem which afflicts, not Roma, but majority society. Governments and the public at large must first acknowledge the extent of racism in order to combat it.

3. Legislation – Although European constitutions uniformly prohibit discrimination and guarantee equality, many governments have yet to follow through on these constitutional promises by enacting implementing legislation specifically prohibiting racial discrimination. This is so, even though a number of countries have criminalised incitement to, and acts of, racially-motivated violence. Governments which have not yet done so should enact comprehensive legislation specifically prohibiting non-violent discrimination – and providing civil and criminal remedies therefor – in all spheres of public life, including but not limited to education, employment, housing, health care, social services, and access to citizenship and public accommodations.

4. Enforcement - Governments must do more to ensure consistent and adequate enforcement of existing legal standards in the field of discrimination.

a) On the one hand, Governments must effectively discipline public officers – including police, prosecutors and other investigative authorities – who fail adequately to enforce discriminatory norms.

b) On the other hand, Governments must arrange for training of public officers – including police, prosecutors and judges – to educate them in binding international law prohibiting racial discrimination, and its applicability in domestic fora. In short, law enforcement officers must be aware that racial discrimination is against the law, and that it is their duty to enforce that prohibition.

5. Positive Action - International law authorises and in some cases mandates affirmative action by governments to ensure equality in fact, as well as in law, for those groups including Roma who have historically suffered systematic discrimination. Among the most important measures which Governments can take in this regard are the active recruitment, identification and capacitation of Roma into the ranks of public employment, including the police, prosecutorial corps and the judiciary.

6. Specialised bodies - Governments must establish specialised official bodies with specific responsibility to act in the field of racial discrimination. In a number of countries, Ombudsmen have been established to address these questions, and in some instances, Ombudsmen have played a useful role in highlighting and focus public scrutiny upon abuses. But this is not enough. Governments must establish state organs with the legal power to investigate and prosecute acts of discrimination.

7. Race Statistics - Governments can hardly comply with international obligations to eradicate racial discrimination absent data showing the racial impact of policies in the fields of, inter alia, employment, housing, education, and criminal justice. Governmental efforts to combat racial discrimination should therefore be based on reliable statistical data and other quantitative information reflecting as accurately as possible the situation of Roma and other minorities in society. Such information should be collected in compliance with human rights principles, and protected against abuse for purposes other than reversing racial discrimination and improving the overall situation of the Roma.

8. Dialogue - Governments should pursue and intensify programmes to facilitate dialogue and understanding between groups of Roma and various public officials, including the police, prosecutors and the judiciary.

9. Anti-racism and human rights education - Governments should intensify efforts at popular education about the extent of anti-Roma racism, about the contributions of Romani culture and history, and about the binding nature of international and domestic prohibitions on racism and discrimination.

10. International commitments - Governments must demonstrate their commitment to combat racism and discrimination by making full use of existing international instruments, in particular:

a) Article 14 of the Convention: All Governments which have not done so should declare, pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention, that they accept the competence of the Committee to consider communications from individuals and groups concerning violations of the Convention;

b) European Union Race Directive: Governments throughout Europe should expeditiously bring their legislation and practice into conformity with the Council Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, adopted by the Council on June 29, 2000, and;

c) Protocol No. 12 to the ECHR: All Council of Europe Member States should proceed with a speedy ratification of Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, broadening the scope of Article 14 on non-discrimination, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on June 26, 2000.

The ERRC believes that the upcoming session of the Committee offers an opportunity to highlight some of the most significant respects in which a number of Governments have failed to fulfill their commitments under the Convention. We submit that our extensive factual research concerning the human rights conditions of Roma throughout Europe and our extensive experience in litigating on behalf of Romani victims of abuse warrant the attention of the Committee to this document.

To date, most European Governments have failed to comply with their obligation to "pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms […]" (Art. 2(1)). In particular, they have not complied with their obligation to "prohibit and bring to an end, by all appropriate means, including legislation […] racial discrimination […]" (Art. 2(1)(d)).

Most tellingly, although European constitutions uniformly prohibit discrimination and guarantee equality, numerous Governments – particularly those in Central and Eastern European countries – have yet to follow through on these constitutional promises by adopting comprehensive implementing legislation prohibiting racial discrimination. This is so, even though a number of countries have criminalised incitement to, and acts of, racially-motivated violence. Many Governments have yet to enact legislation specifically prohibiting non-violent discrimination – and providing civil and criminal remedies therefor – in all spheres of public life, including but not limited to education, employment, housing, health care, social services, and access to citizenship and public accommodations.

The Council of Europe European Commission against Racism and Intolerance has recently concluded that, "[t]here is persistent racial and ethnic discrimination in such areas as employment, housing and the provision of services, and […] it is closely linked to a lack of effective anti-discrimination provisions in several member States." Similarly, in a report released in March this year, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities found that "[a]lthough national constitutions typically prohibit discrimination and ensure equality, many OSCE participating States have failed to enact or implement legislation necessary to give effect to this fundamental norm," urging "States that have not yet met their international obligations in this regard" to make the enactment of such legislation "a high priority." According to the report, "[w]hile enacting such legislation is not a panacea for racism, it is a necessity."

A number of Governments in Central and Eastern Europe have recently pledged to adopt specific anti-discrimination legislation, but none can yet pride itself on having actually done so. For example, the so-called "Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society," endorsed by the Bulgarian Government on April 22, 1999, includes, inter alia, a commitment to enact legislation prohibiting racial discrimination, but ERRC remains unaware of any progress made in this regard. Similarly, in a resolution adopted in April 1999, the Czech Government apparently contemplated presenting draft legislation "restricting racial (or other) discrimination" to the Parliament, but has, as of this writing, not made public any practical steps taken toward the drafting of such a law. In Romania, meanwhile, a draft Law against All Forms of Discrimination was recently adopted by the Government, but has yet to be considered by the Parliament. Elsewhere, even less progress has been made, and some Governments, most notably the Hungarian, have gone as far as affirmatively announcing that no anti-discrimination legislation is needed.

Moreover, even when states do have such legislation, as illustrated in this document, and as observed by ECRI, "it is not implemented satisfactorily. ECRI has frequently noted […] the gap between rhetoric and reality," and that "the application of principles [of equality and non-discrimination] is often less than thorough."

In a number of countries in Europe, Governmental policies towards Roma amount to racial segregation in breach of Article 3 of the Convention, which states that "States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation […] and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction." Racial segregation of Roma is most notable in the field of housing, but is prevalent in other spheres of public life as well, in particular in the field of education (see under Art. 5(e)(v) infra). ERRC notes that the cases described below are not isolated phenomena in the countries concerned, but should rather be seen as illustrative examples of a more general policy fostered and/or tolerated by the respective Governments.

In Italy, by developing a housing policy for Roma premised on the racist and incorrect characterisation of them as "nomads," the Government has fostered the segregation of Roma into inhuman and degrading "camps" to which no other segment of the population is confined. Alone among all population groups, Roma in Italy – be they immigrant Roma from the territory of former Yugoslavia and Romania, or "Italian" Roma and Sinti – are almost invariably confined to a life in camps located far from most city centres, thoroughfares and public services. The entirely predictable result of such intentional racial segregation, and of the racist assumptions which underlie it, is the marginalisation of Roma from mainstream political, economic and social life, and the denial of equality in public spheres from housing to criminal justice, education and employment.

Following its most recent review of Italy’s compliance with the Convention, in March 1999, the Committee expressed concern "at the situation of many Roma who, ineligible for public housing, live in camps outside major Italian cities," and concluded that "[i]n addition to a frequent lack of basic facilities, the housing of Roma in such camps leads not only to a physical segregation of the Roma community from Italian society, but to political, economic and cultural isolation as well." ERRC notes that notwithstanding the 18 months that have elapsed since the Committee expressed these concerns, the housing situation of Roma in Italy remains unaltered.

Roma also suffer de facto segregation in Slovakia. A municipal ordinance passed by the city of Košice in 1995 designated the housing settlement of Luník IX on the outskirts of the town as the site for the "creation of living conditions for citizens of the city of Košice who illegally occupy flats, homeless persons, non-rent payers, and unadaptable citizens." Although the ordinance does not specifically refer to Roma, subsequent municipal documents supplementing the above ordinance, approve financing for "small-sized, substandard flats" "for Roma." Commenting on the 1995 ordinance, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities has recently noted that "it appears that the policy embodied in Resolution 55 was designed principally with Roma in mind." Indeed, since 1995, almost all of the non-Romani residents of Košice have been allocated housing elsewhere in the city and have moved out. Meanwhile, Roma living in other areas of Košice have been evicted and moved to Luník IX. The housing estate is now nearly 100% Romani, and houses approximately 4000 people who all live in appalling conditions in which disease is rife, rats are evident, and electricity, heating and basic sanitation are unavailable entirely or for months at a time. Many families live in flooded basement flats without windows, therefore even lacking natural light. Although virtually all Roma living in Luník IX have applied to move out, none have received flats outside the estate. The one exception of which ERRC is aware – Jan Ziga, a Romani man who reportedly signed a contract to move into a flat on Svatoplukova street in central Košice on September 8, 1998 – was ultimately prevented by the district mayor from moving into his new home, following objections raised by the inhabitants of the building in which he had been granted an apartment. Mr. Ziga continues to live in Luník IX.

Notwithstanding Governments’ obligations under Article 4(c) not to "permit public authorities or public institutions, national or local, to promote or incite racial discrimination," racist speech against Roma by public officials is common. As a result, racism is, not challenged; it is encouraged.

Recent examples of this phenomenon are illustrative:

In Italy on May 17, 2000, Paolo Frigerio, Northern League Mayor of Cernusco sul Naviglio near Milan, made a widely publicised statement in which he promised to pay 5 million Italian lire (approximately 2,500 US dollars) of public Government money to anyone willing to spray manure on the area where a group of immigrant Roma were temporarily residing in his town. According to Mayor Frigerio, "a bath of manure is the only way to even the score with the Gypsies, an act of justice equal to what they leave us when they move on."

More recently, in March this year, Alliance for Romania Deputy Chairman Mugurel Vintila is reported to have told the Romanian daily "National" that "Western chancelleries" are preparing Romania’s "transformation into a Gypsy state" and that the Roma in Romania are financed from abroad in order to "penetrate the [country’s] power structures." Also in March this year, upon returning from a meeting of the Romania-EU Association Council, Romanian Foreign Minister Petre Roman reportedly stated that the Romanian Government has an obligation to "protect 23 million Romanians against the few thousand Gypsies" who are preventing the country from getting off the EU visa blacklist.

ERRC is unaware of any public official who has been criticised – let alone brought to justice – for any of the above incidents, or for any other act of racial incitement against Roma or other minorities. As Member of the European Parliament Claude Moraes recently noted, Roma are "the only ethnic minority which […] seems to [be] regarded as ‘politically correct’ to denigrate." Moraes urged that "[a]lso in the Member States, the authorities should energetically prosecute incitements to racial hatred directed, in particular, against Roma refugees."

Information gathered by ERRC indicates that Roma in numerous countries throughout Europe suffer widespread discrimination in the justice system. This discrimination takes two broad forms; on the one hand, complaints by Romani victims of human rights abuse are not adequately investigated by law enforcement and judicial authorities, and on the other, Romani defendants are subjected to pre-trial detention more often and for longer periods of time than non-Roma, and receive disproportionately severe sentences.

In the overwhelming majority of the cases of anti-Romani violence monitored by ERRC, judicial systems throughout the continent, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, continue to render inadequate decisions, in particular by failing to take into account racial motivation even where evidence has clearly shown that the victims were attacked only because they were Roma. To take one example, on July 1, 1999, the district court of the central Slovak town of Banská Bystrica upheld a first instance ruling by a local court that a skinhead who had assaulted a Romani man in 1996 was not guilty of racially-motivated crime since Roma and the ethnically Slovak skinhead were of the same race. Even if reportedly acknowledging that the only reason for the attack was the hatred felt by the perpetrator for Roma, the first instance court ruled in October 1998 that such hatred was not "because of race," since – in the argument of the court – Roma belong to the same race as Slovaks. A recent Council of Europe report expressed similar concerns about the situation in the Czech Republic: "[T]he interpretation of ‘racial motivation’ rendered by some judges is a very restrictive one," resulting in a situation in which "perpetrators of racially motivated crime often escape being brought before the courts, and even when they are found guilty of such crimes, punishment is relatively light." The murder case of Milan Lacko, a Romani father of four, beaten unconscious and left to die on a road where he was ran over by a truck on May 15, 1998, is just one example of this trend; although found guilty on several charges by the first instance court in October 1998, all four defendants received suspended sentences.

Perhaps even more disturbingly, a report by the Council of Europe found that the Slovak "police in general often refuse to record statements by victims of skinhead attacks against Roma/Gypsies" and "exert pressure on the victims of police brutality to withdraw their complaints, while the media, doctors and investigators refuse to give specific descriptions of the victims’ injuries." Slovakia is not the only country where prospects of remedy are even smaller when the alleged perpetrators are the police. Failure to adequately investigate police abuse against Roma was the source of two adverse rulings against the Government of Bulgaria in the European Court of Human Rights, in October 1998 and in May 2000. Regardless of where they occur, in most cases, police who abuse Roma act with full impunity. Law enforcement officials are rarely, if ever, disciplined or prosecuted for anti-Romani violence. Often out of fear, Romani victims are reluctant to file complaints. Even where the victims do come forward to seek remedies, only rarely do their complaints result in effective and thorough investigations, let alone convictions. Far more often, Romani complaints concerning police abuse are dismissed as ungrounded, and investigations suspended for alleged lack of evidence, or left indefinitely pending with no result.

Roma also receive differential treatment when entering the criminal justice system in the capacity of defendants. Evidence of such discriminatory trends has recently been noted by a number of international monitoring organs.

Extensive research conducted by ERRC into conditions of Romani detainees in Bulgaria, for example, found that Roma are more often detained on remand than non-Roma when charged with the same offence and that they are, as a rule, not allowed access to legal counsel, although they are entitled to this under Bulgarian law. Roma are also likely to receive more severe sentences than non-Roma; a prison director in Bulgaria told ERRC, "They again send me a Gypsy sentenced to serve a year and a half effectively in prison for having stolen something small, like a rotten barn door, while a non-Gypsy who steals a brand new luxurious car gets away with a six months prison term, and even that term is suspended."

In the Czech Republic, according to information provided to the ERRC by the Czech non-governmental organisation "Counselling Centre for Citizenship/Civil and Human Rights," Roma often receive higher sentences than non-Roma for the same crimes committed and are not given suspended sentences in situations in which non-Roma are granted such. Additionally, Roma are apparently often not afforded alternative punishment, such as community service, while such sentences are available to non-Roma. Furthermore, according to the Centre’s findings, Roma are placed in pre-trial detention more often than their non-Romani counterparts, and, once convicted, are less likely than non-Roma to be released on parole.

Credible information indicates similar problems in Hungary. A report released by the Council of Europe in March 2000 expressed "concern[] at evidence that severe problems in the administration of justice exist as regards discrimination against members of the Roma/Gypsy community and non-citizens. There are authoritative reports that Roma/Gypsies are kept in pre-trial detention for longer periods and more frequently than non-Roma, although the prohibition of the recording of the ethnic origin of suspects makes it difficult to evaluate the extent of such discrimination."

In Italy, too, ERRC research indicates racial bias against Romani defendants. One Italian police officer flatly told ERRC, "Roma [in Italy] are held in detention for longer periods of time and more frequently than non-Roma for the same offence." Since most of the Roma in Italy – and only Roma – live in camps, and camp addresses are not considered official, Romani defendants are placed in pre-trial detention on flight-prevention grounds even for minor infractions for which non-Roma are routinely released. Employing similar reasoning, judges apparently often sentence Roma to prison terms for crimes which might, in other cases, merit non-custodial punishment.

A number of Governments have themselves acknowledged that, notwithstanding principles of equality and non-discrimination, in practice, Roma and other minorities are often treated differently from others. The Slovak Government’s "Resolution of the Slovak Republic for the Solution of the Problems of the Roma National Minority and the Set of Measures for its Implementation," for instance, states that "[…] the practical application of human rights protection and protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in real life is not absolute, in particular with respect to the citizens from Romany national minority." Similarly, in its recent "Report on the State of Human Rights in the Czech Republic in the Year 1999," the Czech Government noted that "in several cases of serious violent attacks against Romanies and foreigners, again the bodies responsible for penal proceedings tended to trivialize the case." Conclusive verification of discriminatory trends, as well as the undertaking of effective measures to counter them, are, however, difficult absent efforts by most European Governments to monitor systematically indicators of racial bias in the justice system.

Roma throughout Europe are regularly subjected to unremedied violence and other forms of abuse by law enforcement officials as well as skinheads and other private parties. International organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, have on numerous occasions noted the frequency of reports of police abuse against Roma, and voiced concern that police misconduct is often racially motivated. To date, the authorities’ efforts to combat these alarming phenomena have proven inadequate. As a rule, investigative and judicial remedies are rare.

Racially-motivated violence by skinheads and others is also widespread in many countries throughout Europe. The most typical perpetrators of hate crime, i.e. violence against Roma solely because they are Roma, belong to extremist nationalist groups, but occasional occurrence of "spontaneous" mob outrages constitute a second pattern of civilian racist violence perpetrated against Roma in a number of European countries, in particular Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. The number and frequency of incidents of hate crimes against Roma, meanwhile, are most alarming in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ("Yugoslavia"). As with police abuse, several of the most serious racist assaults have been inflicted upon children, and in most cases, with full impunity.

1. Cases of unremedied or inadequately remedied racially-motivated violence against Roma by state authorities

Police abuse of Roma takes various forms, ranging from insults and arbitrary arrests to severe physical mistreatment, sometimes involving the use of firearms and resulting in death. In a number of cases documented by ERRC, the victims of abusive treatment by law enforcement officials were minors. The following cases are illustrative and do not purport to constitute a comprehensive survey:

• Hungarian police, too, have engaged in violence against Roma. In the eastern Hungarian town of Hajdúhadház, for example, Roma report being routinely beaten, verbally abused, and otherwise harassed by the police. According to Z.R., a Romani man, while kicking, beating and slapping him during an interrogation in connection with an alleged theft in March 1999, officers called him a "stinking Gypsy," and told him "not to Gypsy," by which they apparently meant "Don’t lie." Among those arrested in the March 1999 incident was a 15-year-old boy, who also reported physical abuse by the police. Following a nationally televised documentary programme about police brutality in the town on March 11, 1999, officers reportedly arrested and beat a Romani man who had spoken out against police abuse on the programme. In response to intense public pressure by local Romani and human rights organisations and the ensuing media scandal, the Ministry of Interior admitted on June 18, 1999, that Hajdúhadház had the highest reported police violence in Hungary and that 26 officers – half of the town’s entire police force – had been under investigation for alleged abusive conduct over the past three-year period.

• On August 12, 1999, police allegedly shot and seriously wounded 21-year-old L’ubomír Šarišský in the course of interrogation in connection with a bicycle theft in the town of Poprad in central Slovakia. As a result of the shotgun wound, Mr. Šarišský died in hospital several days later, on August 17. Police reportedly claimed that the detainee had shot himself with the pistol of the officer questioning him. Speaking on the private television station "TV Markiza" on August 12, Slovak Minister of the Interior Ladislav Pittner stated that the victim had pulled the policeman’s gun out of its holster and shot himself in the stomach. "It does not make sense to me that the policeman would use his weapon against a man who is being interrogated," Minister Pittner reportedly said. The lawyer of the victim’s family, however, reports that Mr. Šarišský told a friend before losing consciousness in the hospital that he had been shot by the police. According to ERRC’s information, nearly a year-long investigation into the incident has yielded no result.

• Police violence against Roma is not confined to Central and Eastern Europe. On May 22, 1998, at around 4:00 p.m., P.N., a police officer from the carabinieri (a police force reporting to the Ministry of Defence), shot and permanently injured Natali Marolli, an 8-year-old Romani girl in Montaione, approximately 40 kilometres south-west of Florence, Italy. The police were apparently waiting in ambush after having received a report that a "suspicious-looking car with Gypsies was in the neighbourhood." One of the two police officers involved in the incident reportedly recognised one of the persons in the car as "one Mustafa from one of those Gypsy camps." ERRC is not aware of any disciplinary measures taken against either officer. An initial investigation acquitted Officer P.N. of attempted murder of the child. Following persistent efforts by the family of the victim, local activists and counsel, the case was reopened in late 1998 and has since been pending without major progress before the investigating judge in Florence.

• In Greece, too, police violence against Roma is commonplace. ERRC field research in Greece in May 1998 found that police officers are rarely, if ever, punished for violating the law, even in extreme instances in which officers kill Roma in the course of duty. On February 23, 2000, the Council of Judges of the Magistrates Court of Thessaloniki acquitted three officers, indicted for the murder of a Romani man named Angelos Celal in April 1998 on grounds of self-defence – despite unequivocal forensic evidence that Mr. Celal had been killed by a shotgun wound in the back.

b) Police raids

In a number of countries, law enforcement authorities target Roma communities for special raids – armed assaults in the early morning hours during which homes are searched, contents ransacked, inhabitants, including women, elderly and children, harassed or subjected to excessive force, and men rounded up for arrest or questioning – often without warrants or other legal safeguards required in the ordinary course. Not infrequently, the purpose, and certainly the effect, of such actions, is to intimidate and harass a vulnerable population group, rather than to apprehend and prosecute criminal offenders. In many cases, police officers readily admit that such raids target Roma communities because Roma, as a group, are said to be prone to criminality.

In the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, police raids in some communities take place on a regular basis. Some result in what the police term "preventive arrests" – young Roma men are detained absent probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that they have committed a crime – solely on the theory that, if they are Roma, they must have done something illegal. As a police officer from the town of Mukachev explained, "the Gypsy population is a special category and those measures which can be applied to normal people just don’t work on Gypsies."

In Romania, where police raids on Romani communities replaced mob violence as the principal human rights violation affecting Roma 1994 onward, ERRC has documented numerous police raids, all involving abusive treatment. Most recently, on May 15, 2000, a large group of police officers reportedly raided a Romani neighbourhood in Sector 3 of Bucharest, confiscating the identity documents of a Romani woman named L.S. and bringing several young men into the police station in the absence of arrest warrants, for what they termed "verification." A young Romani man visiting the family of Ms. L.S., for instance, was taken to the police station on the justification that he lived in Vitan, a Bucharest neighbourhood where, according to the police, "bad things happen." He remained in detention until being released the following day without charge.

In Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Turkey, ERRC has received reports that police single out Romani communities for similar raids, which commonly involve searches of women and children, and acts of intimidation such as holding guns to people’s heads. Greek police officials have been reported targeting Roma because, in the words of one officer, "they are Gypsies; they are prone to steal."

c) Other

Robbery by the police – the unlawful confiscation without cause of personal belongings, including jewelry and/or money, accompanied by the threat of physical violence – is yet another common form of police abuse of Roma. In some countries, the police routinely refuse to provide written documentation of confiscated items, which are almost never returned to their owners. Recent reports concerning unlawful confiscation have been received from Roma in Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. ERRC is unaware of any police officers who have been disciplined or prosecuted for these crimes.

Other forms of police misconduct targeting Roma include strip searches of women by male police officers, arbitrary destruction of identification documents during identity checks, and forced labour.

1. Cases of unremedied or inadequately remedied racially-motivated violence against Roma by non-state actors

As illustrated under Article 5(a) supra, like police abuse, most cases of racist violence against Roma by non-state actors go unpunished, or, at best, result in sentences not commensurate with the seriousness of the crimes. Due to limitations of space, only a few illustrative examples are provided of the numerous racist attacks systematically perpetrated against Roma throughout the continent:

• The Czech Republic continues to experience a wave of anti-Romani violence of late. According to the Government itself, "the occurrence of racially motivated criminal acts in 1999 increased, in comparison with the previous year: the number of criminal cases grew from 157 to 198, the number of criminal acts from 285 to 371. […] In most cases the victims of verbal and physical attacks in 1999 were Romanies and in some cases foreigners of dark complexion." To give one recent example, on the evening of May 2, 2000, two men attacked and severely injured a Romani couple during a promenade on Lazecká Street in the north-western Czech town of Orlová with their five-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. The attackers, who were wearing black hoods, repeatedly struck the man, L.P., and his wife R.P. with a baseball bat and shouted racist slogans such as "Shut up your black swine." L.P. reportedly suffered lacerations and contusions to his head, broken arms, and contusions to his left side, while his wife’s kneecap was broken. Both were treated at a local hospital and required surgery. Despite reports that the couple’s 11-year son was able to recognise one of the attackers from photographs of local skinheads shown to him by the police, ERRC is not aware of anyone being arrested for the attack.

• Gruesome crimes of racial hatred against Roma are rampant also in Bulgaria, resulting in at least two deaths in the past two years. In Sofia on June 15, 1999, three teenagers celebrating the end of the school-year and their graduation from eighth class of elementary school beat to death a 33-year-old Romani woman named Nadezda Dimitrova. The boys reportedly came across a group of younger children who were provoking the victim, and joined in attacking her, hitting and kicking her in the head repeatedly until she died. Three suspects were arrested several days later, one of whom confessed to the killing. This prompt initial reaction notwithstanding, as of this writing, more than one year after the incident, the case appears to be stalled at the stage of preliminary investigation. Moreover, the investigative authorities are apparently not considering the attack as a racially motivated crime. One year earlier, on May 15, 1998, Metodi Rainov, a 15-year-old Romani boy in downtown Sofia, was attacked by skinheads wielding knives and truncheons, dragged to the second-story window of a building, and thrown to his death. Also this incident remains unresolved.

Slovak authorities have recently annulled elections on what appear to have been racist grounds. In local elections in November 1998, a Romani man named Marian Bily was elected mayor of Petrova, a town in northern Slovakia with a population approximately 50 % Romani. Immediately after the elections, non-Romani members of the city council initiated a petition drive to contest the outcome. The petition was reportedly circulated by persons going door-to-door and persuading residents, including Roma, to sign, "so that we will not have a Gypsy for mayor." The Slovak parliament subsequently annulled the election, and in September 1999, re-elections returned a non-Romani man named Ján Borecký as mayor. In the ten months that elapsed between the two elections, Mr. Bily was prevented from taking office, and the former mayor remained in power until the new elections were held.

In Bulgaria, due to a constitutional provision banning the creation of political parties on the basis of religion or ethnicity (Article 11(4)), Romani parties have been forced to avoid the word "Roma" in their names. Thus, Roma standing for election in the October 1999 municipal elections were running under parties named "Free Bulgaria" and "Bulgarian Party for the Future." Unlike ethnic Turks, the other significant minority in Bulgaria, in parliament since the first free elections in 1990, Bulgarian Roma have thus far not been able to gain effective political representation at the national level.

A 1993 law on minorities in Hungary has been widely hailed domestically and abroad as providing for the effective political participation of Roma in Hungary through the establishment of minority advisory councils at a local level. In practice, however, these councils have little real power. Appeals by minority councils to the county administration have proved ineffective. Moreover, as noted by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, "inappropriate actions by municipal authorities compounded the problem. In some areas local authorities reportedly refused to provide social assistance to Gypsies once minority councils were established, referring applicants instead to the Gypsy self-government." Meanwhile, real political participation by Roma in Hungary has dropped precipitously; there were three Roma in the first post-communist Hungarian parliament, 1990-1994. Today there are none.

Municipal authorities in several countries in Europe have in recent years issued exclusion orders barring Roma from certain towns or neighbourhoods. In one recent example, on May 20, 2000, following a dispute over an allegedly illegally parked vehicle owned by a local Romani man, the municipal council of Nea Kios, in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece, adopted a resolution to evict all Roma from the land they own and live on in the area. The municipality also reportedly condemned those residents of Nea Kios who had sold land to the Roma, and asked the police to assist in implementing their decision to evict Roma within 48 hours. The municipality further established "surveillance groups" and organised a series of demonstrations by local residents against Roma in the village. As of this writing, Roma are not allowed to enter the village, shopkeepers have been instructed not to sell anything to Roma, and Romani children cannot go to school. On May 31, 2000, following the declaration in Nea Kios, the neighbouring municipality of Nea Tiryntha reportedly issued a similar ban on Romani presence, requiring that Roma leave the region by August 30, 2000. ERRC is not aware of any measures taken by the Greek Government against these unlawful actions.

Having unsuccessfully exhausted all domestic remedies to legally challenge the two discriminatory ordinances, on March 12, 1999, three Romani clients represented by ERRC and local counsel filed applications with the European Court of Human Rights. One month later and as an apparent result of this legal action, in mid-April 1999, Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights László Nagy ordered the two towns to repeal their respective anti-Romani decrees. As noted by ECRI as recently as June 27 this year, however, "it appears that the effect of these resolutions remains in place and the Roma/Gypsy communities are still not able to build houses in the municipalities in question."

On November 28, 1998, it was reported that officials in the southeastern Slovak town of Jelšava had taken a decision to refuse to grant residence permits to Roma moving there. According to press reports, five Romani families who had recently purchased homes in Jelšava had been denied residence permits and therefore were unable to settle in the town legally. When questioned about the incident, Jelšava Mayor Ondrej Mladší is reported to have stated, "The denial of permanent residence was caused by Jelšava citizens’ fear of a wave of Romani migration into abandoned Jelšava houses, which are selling for relatively low prices." While apparently acknowledging that the town’s conduct was in breach of law, Mayor Mladší reportedly said that the town’s representatives were acting "under the pressure of citizens who fear deterioration of the socio-economic and crime situation in the town." According to the mayor, "We had to act the way we did to discourage others from the intention of moving to Jelšava and to draw attention to this Slovak-wide problem, about which nothing is being done." ERRC is unaware of any action undertaken by the Slovak Government to put an end to this discriminatory and unlawful practice.

In the field of citizenship, discrimination against Roma is of concern particularly in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Macedonia. Although the widely-criticised citizenship law of the Czech Republic was finally amended in July 1999 – rendering all persons who were citizens of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and who had permanent residence on Czech territory at the time of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 eligible for citizenship of the Czech Republic – much remains to be done before Roma can become Czech nationals on an equal footing with their co-citizens. As the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities recently noted, "[…] past experience points up the need for continued vigilance in ensuring that the law is faithfully executed. In particular, special efforts may be required to ensure that bureaucratic obstacles do not bloc Romani applicants from claiming their fundamental right to citizenship in accordance with the new law. Past experience has also shown the importance of effective outreach programs to ensure that those previously denied citizenship are aware of their rights and the procedures for exercising them." Similarly commenting on the Czech citizenship law in a report issued in March this year, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance stated that "[i]n view of persistent allegations of discriminatory attitudes by local officials towards members of the Roma/Gypsy community, including misinformation and discouragement in pursuing applications, strict central government supervision over local offices is urgently required."

In Macedonia, too, Roma have suffered large-scale discrimination in access to citizenship. Despite eight years of international criticism, the 1992 citizenship law remains unaltered, and continues to impose unduly stringent requirements in breach of European standards – including a 15-year-residence requirement, a physical and mental health pre-condition, and unreasonably high administrative fees – which have disproportionately affected Roma. As a result, thousands of Roma who have genuine and long-standing ties to the territory of Macedonia are presently de jure or de facto stateless in their own land.

ERRC field research conducted in Croatia in 1998 revealed that large numbers of Roma have also been denied citizenship in Croatia. During the two weeks that ERRC spent in Croatia that year, it did not meet one single Rom who had successfully claimed to be a Croat and thereby been granted citizenship. Instead, all applications by Roma for citizenship had been processed by the authorities under the provisions applicable to "aliens." Among the conditions for naturalisation under these provisions are that the applicant must demonstrate that "he or she is proficient in the Croatian language and Latin script," and that "a conclusion can be derived from his or her conduct that he or she is attached to the legal system and customs persisting in the Republic of Croatia and that he or she accepts the Croatian culture." ERRC found that in particular the latter requirement has allowed the police such arbitrary powers of interpretation with respect to what constitutes the acceptance of Croatian culture that Roma have been systematically turned down.

Roma throughout Europe suffer marginalisation and de facto discrimination in the enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights. The failure to date of most Governments to gather reliable data concerning Roma and other vulnerable groups in the field of housing, education or employment – or, for that matter, to maintain any statistics based on race, ethnicity and/or mother tongue – severely impedes governmental efforts to design policies aimed at remedying the situation.

Roma experience widespread discrimination in employment. Lack of access to adequate education and skills preparation (see Article 5(e)(v) infra) is compounded by widespread discrimination by employers. Numerous reports suggest that, even when Romani job applicants possess the requisite qualifications, they are turned down solely due to the colour of their skin. In the Czech Republic, the Government has recently concluded that "there is often discrimination on the part of employers who refuse to employ Romanies without explanation, or state as the reasons for not accepting Romanies the ‘unadaptability’ of Romanies to the usual working regime or their bad experience with other Romanies."

Even if the political will to combat discrimination against Roma in employment were not lacking, legal protection from employment discrimination remains largely ineffective. Labour Code provisions in a number of countries do contain non-discrimination clauses, but are either not clearly binding or not adequately enforced. In Hungary, for instance, notwithstanding a finding by the Parliamentary Ombudsman for National and Ethnic Minority Rights that a discriminatory employment notice "violates national and international legal regulations," "due to the lack of legal regulations there is presently no public administrative directive or forum at our disposal that would make it possible to take action against the publication of employment notices which are in violation of the Constitution […] against such actions there is no form of legal administrative sanction." Investigation into discriminatory hiring practices in the form of testing conducted by the Hungarian non-governmental organisation "Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities" (NEKI) last year revealed that out of six testers – three Roma and three non-Roma, and all of whom possessed the necessary qualifications for the position selected – all Roma were turned down while all non-Roma were offered the post. A lawsuit challenging discrimination filed by NEKI with the assistance of ERRC on September 22, 1999 was ruled inadmissible by the Budapest Labour Court on November 25, 1999 and is currently pending appeal at the Hungarian Supreme Court.

Similarly, in November last year, it was reported that Slovak officials in the country’s National Labour Office were marking with the letter "R" files of persons they believed were Roma. According to Slovak National Labour Office Director General Jaroslav Šumný, the measure did not constitute discriminatory treatment but was implemented because of the "complicated social adaptability" of the group.

As noted under Article 3 above, de facto racial segregation of Roma in housing is pervasive especially in the Czech Republic, Italy, and Slovakia. Racial discrimination in access to housing is not restricted to these three countries, however. ERRC has documented numerous instances throughout the continent in which large numbers of Roma live separated from the rest of the population and often in sub-standard housing conditions. A recent report by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities found that "[r]esettlement projects, ghettoization and the exclusion of Roma families from municipalities have become common occurrences in many countries," and expressed concern at "housing policies that relegate Roma to segregated communities apart from the rest of society," terming the latter "a common trend in Europe." As established by a number of international monitoring bodies, insofar as Roma are treated differently from, and worse than, all others solely because of their race, they are subjected to unlawful racial discrimination in access to housing.

Roma are often denied social services such as health care, social security and other state benefits to which mainstream citizens are entitled. When it comes to health care, for example, OSCE has noted that "[n]on-existent or inadequate access to health care is […] of immediate concern" and concluded that "[i]mprovement in the health of Roma demands equal access to public health care with a view to achieving the highest attainable standards of health."

A recent study by the Open Society Institute on access of Roma to social protection, health care and housing in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania revealed the existence of a wide range of laws and regulations in all three countries which, although neutral on their face, have had a disproportionately negative impact on Roma. To take one example, in Romania, the system of child allowances reportedly provides for so-called means-tested family support which, instead of growing proportionally with the size of the family, increases for the first three children and remains flat for families with more than three children. Since the overwhelming majority of poor families with four or more children in Romania are Roma, the study found that "this provision is a prima facie case of disparate impact." The situation is reportedly similar in access to health care. In some regions of Macedonia, health insurance is apparently denied to persons who do not finish primary education. Since more Roma do not finish school than non-Roma, the disparate impact of this practice is clear. Moreover, according to the study, the state, which is required by law to pay the health insurance contribution for eligible low-income families, covers only three children per family. Thus, any children above three remain uninsured.

Albania, too, has been singled out as a country in which Roma are particularly vulnerable to discrimination in this field. A 1999 report by the Council of Europe affirmed many of ERRC’s findings in 1996 and found that "[t]he Roma/Gypsy community is often marginalised by Albanian society. Many prejudices and preconceptions exist which foster this marginalisation: for example, the Roma/Gypsy community is sometimes portrayed as being very rich, or the preservation of its ‘traditional culture’ is evoked as a justification for its non-access to basic social and welfare services. […] There have been incidents of hostile treatment from public bodies such as […] hospitals, schools and municipal authorities, and unequal access to basic services such as social welfare payments of health care."

In Hungary, local authorities have been found to discriminate against unemployed Roma, imposing arbitrary conditions on their right to receive social security benefits. One such case went to court on February 24, 1999, when trial began in a case brought against the local government of Karcag, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County, for allegedly making Romani residents carry out community work in order to receive social security benefits. The 135 Romani residents bringing the lawsuit claimed that between 1992 and 1996, they were sent to the government-owned city maintenance office where they had to "volunteer" to do community work, and were reportedly not given their social benefit money unless they could show a certificate proving that they had carried out at least five days of such "voluntary work." The lawsuit was filed after an investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman for National and Ethnic Minority Rights into the practice found it illegal and recommended that the local government pay wages for the work done by the Roma. The Karczag Mayor, however, refused. On May 5, 1999, the Court of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County found the municipality of Karcag guilty of damaging activities in administration and ordered it to pay damages including an amount equivalent to wages to the complainants. According to the Budapest-based non-governmental organisation "Roma Press Center," local authorities in the south-western Hungarian town of Kaposvár have also engaged in the practice of linking benefits to community work.

In Slovakia, a new welfare law introduced by the Government in July 1998, apparently replacing in certain cases financial support by food vouchers, has been criticised for disproportionately affecting, or even for being specifically designed for, Roma. As recently noted by the Council of Europe European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, "[a]lthough such replacement of money payments with vouchers is intended to be carried out on an individual basis, it is not clear that this is the case nor whether it is only members of the Roma/Gypsy community who are affected by this measure. ECRI stresses that the allocation of various forms of welfare benefits should be decided upon on an individual basis and in a non-discriminatory fashion."

Finally, the denial of citizenship to tens of thousands of Roma residing in the Czech Republic following independence in 1993 has deprived them of access to a range of rights and benefits to which only Czech citizens are entitled, inter alia, government social assistance, including child benefits.

In a number of countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, disproportionate numbers of Romani children are relegated to second-class educational facilities – so-called "special schools" – designed for pupils said to be suffering from intellectual or behavioural "deficiencies." These institutions generally offer little opportunity for skills training or educational preparation. Few graduates of such schools go on to higher education. The result is a system of de facto racial segregation in education, the harmful effects of which cannot be overstated.

ERRC research in the Czech Republic, focusing on the north-eastern district of Ostrava in 1998-1999, found that Romani children there outnumber non-Roma in special schools by a proportion of more than twenty-seven to one. Although Roma represent fewer than 5% of all primary school-age students in Ostrava, they constitute 50% of the special school population. Nationwide, as the Czech Government itself concedes, approximately 75% of Romani children attend special schools, and more than half of all special school students are Roma. On the occasion of its most recent periodic review of the Czech Republic in March 1998, the Committee termed "[e]vidence that a disproportionately large number of Roma children are placed in special schools" as leading to "de facto racial segregation," and recommended the Czech Government, inter alia, to introduce legal measures to combat racial discrimination in the field of education. As noted under Article 2 supra, notwithstanding the nearly two and a half years that have elapsed since the Committee issued its Concluding Observations concerning the Czech Republic, the Government has failed to comply with the recommendations set forth by the Committee. As such, there still exists no legal machinery in the Czech Republic to effectively challenge racial discrimination in the field of education. Meanwhile, as noted by the Government itself, "[i]n the school year 1998/1999, remedial schools were again frequented by an unreasonably high proportion of Romany children."

In 1997, a primary school in the northeastern Hungarian town of Tiszavasvári held separate graduation ceremonies for Romani and non-Romani children. In the ensuing publicity into the incident, it additionally emerged that the school had separate dining facilities for its Romani and non-Romani students and that Roma and non-Roma were assigned to separate classes. In a landmark ruling on December 1, 1998, a Hungarian court of first instance found that students who had filed suit had suffered discrimination based on ethnicity and ordered the local government to pay compensation in the amount of 100,000 HUF (approximately 400 USD) to each child in court fees and damages. On September 6, 1999, the Hungarian Minister of Education held a joint press conference with the Parliamentary Ombudsman for Ethnic and National Minority Rights, where he announced that there is segregation in the country’s educational system. The admission came on the heels of a report by the Ombudsman’s Office which found that the high proportion of Romani children in special schools is not a result of their weaker mental abilities, but is a sign of prejudice and failure of the public education system. A review of the legal regulations providing for the education of mentally disabled children, recommended by the Ombudsman’s Office, is allegedly underway, but has, as of this writing, not yielded any results. According to joint monitoring by ERRC and the Roma Press Center, during enrolment in spring 2000, Romani children in Hungary were still effectively blocked from joining integrated schools.

Romani children who attend regular schools also face a series of racially-motivated obstacles, from prejudice on the part of non-Romani parents who do not want their children attending school with "Gypsies," to bullying by non-Roma classmates, to stereotyping by teachers and school administrators. In a school in northern Czech Republic in 1997, in response to requests by the parents of non-Romani children that their children not be seated next to the only Romani pupil in the class, the teacher reportedly seated the Romani boy by himself. More recently, in Spain in May this year, parents of the students in San Juan Bosco school in the Basque town of Barakaldo burst out in vehement protests against the admission of three Romani children, boycotting the school until the district attorney threatened them with legal action if they did not comply with the obligation to send their children to school. To ERRC’s knowledge, no measures – legal or otherwise – were taken against the discriminatory attitude of the parents, however. The three Romani children, meanwhile, were placed in a separate classroom with no other students. In a similar case in Italy, children from six non-Romani families who moved to a new school in Florence in September 1998 confronted angry protests from non-Romani parents who threatened to withdraw their children rather than have them share the same benches with Roma. Again, rather than affirming the right of Roma to equal education, the school administration reportedly dispersed the Romani children among several different schools to assuage non-Romani prejudice.

Roma in a number of countries of Europe are regularly denied admission to restaurants, bars and other public places. Instances of such racial exclusion have in recent years been recorded in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Yugoslavia. Many Governments, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe, have yet to secure by law the right of access on a non-discriminatory basis to public accommodations.

In Yugoslavia, as recently as July this year, Roma were denied access to a swimming pool located in the Krsmanovac Sports Center in Sabac, western Serbia. Reacting to complaints by Roma who were not admitted to the Krsmanovac pool, the Belgrade-based "Humanitarian Law Center" (HLC) and two Romani non-governmental organisations – the "Democratic Association of Roma" and "Oaza" – conducted a testing of accessibility to the public facility on July 8, in which three Romani and three non-Romani men from the above organizations tried to buy admission tickets for the pool. Staff, however, asked the Roma if they were Romani and, upon receiving an affirmative reply, apologised and said the sports center’s rule was that Roma were not allowed to use the pool. The HLC has filed a lawsuit against the owner of the pool.

Roma have also been excluded from swimming pools in the Czech Republic. On May 29, 1999, a guard at the swimming pool in Brno reportedly demanded health certificates from each member of a Romani family before allowing them to bathe. As no one in the family could produce the requested certificates, they were refused entry. When members of the family protested that they had bathed at the swimming pool in the past without showing health documents, the guard reportedly responded that a new set of rules had been introduced, whereby Roma could only be let into the pool upon producing a certificate documenting their good health. Witnesses report that the guard was not requesting similar documents from non-Romani clients. In another, well-publicised Czech case concerning access to a swimming pool, in the absence of legislation expressly prohibiting racial discrimination per se, the deputy mayor of the town of Kladno was criminally prosecuted under Article 198(a) of the Czech Criminal Code – which punishes incitement to ethnic or racial hatred – for barring all Romani children under the age of 15 from entering the town swimming pool in 1996.

The overwhelming majority of cases of racial exclusion documented by the ERRC concern bars and restaurants. In February 1999 and November 1998 in two different bars in the north-eastern Czech town of Ostrava, and in October 1998 in a club in south-eastern Brno, Roma have been refused entry and/or service solely because they are Roma. In the Brno case, police investigators told ERRC in November 1998 that they had decided not to bring charges in connection with the barring – which concerned the single Romani member of the Czech Parliament Monika Horáková. A subsequent appeal filed by Ms. Horáková’s attorney in December 1998 was rejected by a state prosecutor in Brno on January 12, 1999.

In the northern Italian town of Mestre, V.M., a 59-year-old Romani woman, reported having been denied a cup of coffee in a coffee shop in 1996 and told, "Gypsies are not allowed entry here." ERRC is aware of a café in Florence which recently posted a sign at the entrance stating, "No Gypsies." Similarly, on July 16, 1999, a bar in the Latvian town of Talsi reportedly denied entry to a Romani man on racist grounds. An investigation into the incident carried out following a complaint filed by the victim, however, absolved the bar personnel of any wrongdoing.

As illustrated supra, ERRC research throughout Europe indicates that many Governments have failed to comply with their obligations under Article 6 to "assure everyone within their jurisdiction effective protection and remedies, through the competent national tribunals and other State institutions, against any acts of racial discrimination […] as well as the right to seek from such tribunals just and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination." While no Government can eliminate completely racial discrimination and racially-motivated violence, the key question is: given the scope and severity of the problems, are the authorities making a serious and determined effort to combat them? Virtually without exception, the general trend on the continent is: not serious and not determined enough.

Most tellingly, as noted under Article 2 supra and throughout this document, and as pointed out by a number of intergovernmental monitoring organs, in many countries, there still exists no law or administrative regulation expressly prohibiting racial discrimination, either generally or in specific fields of public life. Accordingly, few civil or criminal remedies are available to victims of racial discrimination, and criminal investigators often have no lawful power to investigate acts of racial discrimination as such.

Governments have not only failed to pass adequate legislation. In addition, law enforcement officials have failed to make effective use of those legislative prohibitions against acts of discrimination which do exist. As illustrated supra, perpetrators of violence and discrimination against Roma – whether state authorities or private parties – are rarely prosecuted for their actions and in countries where racially-motivated crimes provisions have been adopted, they are infrequently or inconsistently applied.

Much remains to be done by many Governments in the fields of "teaching, education, culture and information, with the view to combating prejudices which lead to racial discrimination and to promoting understanding […] as well as to propagating the purposes and principles of […] [inter alia, the] Convention." Governments should promptly intensify efforts to promote racial tolerance, in part through the conduct of educational and media campaigns to familiarise the public with the Convention and its standards.

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For more information, please contact:

European Roma Rights Center, 1386 Budapest 62, P.O. Box 906/93, Hungary

Tel.: (+36-1) 428 2351, Fax: (+36-1) 428 2356

E-mail: vszente@errc.org

European Roma Rights Center

P.O.Box 906/93 - 1386 Budapest 62 - Hungary - Phone: + (36 1) 41 32 200 Fax: + (36-1) 41 32 201

Name of Project: Romani Activists Team at WCAR

Applicant: European Roma Rights Center

Project Summary: To facillitate attendance by a team of Romani activists at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

Target Group: 40 Romani activists

Duration: 6 months

Background: The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation which monitors the situation of Roma in Europe and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse. The ERRC aims to empower Roma through its Human Rights Education Department (ERRC HRED), inter alia, by offering scholarships to Romani university students of law and public administration, internships in the ERRC offices in Budapest and externships with partner organisations, and by capacitating Romani organisations and activists through coordinated action.

Problem: The 2001 World Conference Against Racism provides an ideal opportunity for Roma rights advocacy. The World Conference on Racism is the most important event in the foreseeable future on the issue of race and racism and the ERRC has appropriately focused significant advocacy efforts for the coming year on the World Conference. However, without the significant presence of Romani activists, unique opportunities to raise awareness of racism against Roma may be missed. The ERRC seeks to ensure the presence of Roma in Durban by preparing and coordinating a large group of interested Roma to take part. The preparatory meeting of NGOs from Central and Eastern Europe, held in Warsaw in November 2000, was a resounding success for Roma advocacy. The ERRC succeeded in gaining clear recognition that the Roma are the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Europe and hence require much greater representation on the international stage, significantly persuading delegates to back the call for a non-territorial nation for the Romani people. The failure to follow up this achievement at the conference itself would be a wasted opportunity to futher the cause of the Romani people. Moreover, the opportunity for the individual Romani activists themselves to attend and participate in the conference and to gain familiarity with the workings of the international arena will be an invaluable learning experience which will be used to advance the cause of Roma long after the closing ceremony at Durban is concluded.

Project: Romani Activists Team at the WCAR

The ERRC will select 40 European Romani activists and coordinate and assist their participation in the World Conference on Racism (WCAR). The WCAR will take place in South Africa from 31 August to 7 September 2001. The venue will be the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban, South Africa. An NGO Forum will take place from 28 August-1 September 2001, prior to the conference itself. It will be important for activists and ERRC staff to be present at both gatherings in order to gain the maximum from the opportunity this confernece affords to raise awareness of the needs of Roma in Europe.

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Action: The ERRC Human Rights Education Department (ERRC HRED) undertakes preparation of a select group of Romani activists for participation at the World Conference. Crucial stages in this action will be:

• identification
• planning
• participation

The ERRC HRED scholarship and internship committee will identify a group of Romani activists for training and participation in the World Conference from the body of activists involved in ERRC work as ERRC scholarship recipients, interns, externs and colleagues throughout the region. The HRED committee comprises:

Angela Kocze (Human Rights Education Director)

Eva Orsos Hegyesi (Co-Chair of the ERRC Board of Directors)

Refika Mustafic (Human Rights Education Assistant)

Dimitrina Petrova (ERRC Executive Director)

Rummyan Russinov (Member of the ERRC Board of Directors)

In an initial planning stage, selected activists will be mailed selected ERRC publications; under a six week deadline, participants will be asked to prepare a personal statement on the theme "The Effects on Roma of Racism". The ERRC will work intensively via e-mail and other modes of communication to provide material and prepare participants for participation. Many of the participants will also be students at the ERRC Summer University, 1-7 July 2001, in Budapest, and the ERRC will seize this opportunity also to work with participants in the WCAR project.

In the days before the WCAR, participant activists will be brought to the offices of the ERRC. Working together with ERRC staff, they will plan participation in the WCAR, especially the WCAR NGO Forum. Using ERRC materials -- including the photographic archive -- and in cooperation with the Publications Coordinator, activist participants may additionally develop a portfolio of their individual statement. An important additional component of the second stage of training will be working closely with the ERRC staff on coaching for what to expect at the World Conference and how to respond to pressure situations and difficult questions. During the training phase, in cooperation with the International Advocacy Director, the HRED will explore possibilities for participant activists to present their individual statements during the World Conference.

Activists will depart from Budapest to Durban as a team, with ERRC staff; during the WCAR, ERRC will organize briefings for team members and, where possible, press conferences; activists will return to Budapest following the WCAR for debriefing.

Cooperating organisations: The ERRC project will link with similar initiatives by the Network Women's Program of the Open Society Insitute and the international non-governmental organisation American Friends Service Committee.

Gábor Halmai (Hungary) Deborah Harding (USA) Monika Horáková (Czech Republic) Khristo Kyuchukov (Bulgaria)

Rumyan Russinov (Bulgaria) Joseph Schull (Canada) Ina Zoon (Spain)