RIGHTS: Roma Are Scapegoats During Downturn

• by Marina Litvinsky (washington)
• Wednesday, April 08, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Held on Apr. 8 every year since 1990, International Roma Day draws attention to discrimination directed at Roma and gypsy communities globally, according to Amnesty International (AI).

Roma are stigmatised as criminals based on the actions of a few, according to Paul Legendre, director of the fighting discrimination program at Human Rights First (HRF). Roma are often viewed as a scapegoat for broader societal ills, often characterised as outsiders who are less than citizens and are unwanted in their respective communities, he explained.

The present economic crisis has garnered increasing resentment and violence against Roma, as some politicians and extremist groups blame them for taking away jobs.

HRF’s 'Hate Crime Survey: Violence Against Roma' documents violence and other forms of intolerance against Roma in eleven countries during 2007 and 2008. The most widely reported incidents occurred in Italy, where efforts to vilify Roma involved high-ranking government officials.

The report notes that Roma, like members of other visible minorities, routinely suffer assaults in city streets and other public places as they travel to and from homes, workplaces, and markets. In a number of serious cases of violence against Roma, attackers have also sought out whole families in their homes, or whole communities.

The scope of discrimination is often difficult to assess, as 'governments don’t generally report on violence against Roma,' said Legendre.

Roma are not only ill treated at the hands of private citizens. The report found that police and local public authorities are sometimes complicit in driving Roma from their homes and seeking their relocation to other towns or cities.

According to the HRF report, in Italy, violence was triggered by the heinous 2007 murder of Giovanna Reggiani, a naval captain’s wife, which was attributed to a Romanian immigrant of Roma origin. The government responded with roundups of Romanian immigrants and summary expulsions of some two hundred, mostly Roma, disregarding E.U. immigration rules.

AI reports that several EU governments plan to forcibly return Roma to Kosovo, where they face severe discrimination. Forcible returns are expected from Switzerland, with whom an agreement was concluded in February 2009, France and most of the Scandinavian countries.

In many areas of Europe, Roma are confined to segregated camps or ghettos, are denied access to basic education and prospects for formal employment, and may even be refused recognition as citizens in their own countries.

According to AI discrimination against Roma continues in the Czech Republic. An anti-Roma march by far-right protesters through the Romani community in Prerov descended into violence on Saturday, when demonstrators clashed with counter-demonstrators.

AI’s also states that in Slovakia, huge numbers of Romani children are inappropriately placed in 'special schools' for children with mental disabilities, where they receive a substandard education, and have very limited opportunities for employment or further education. Independent studies suggest that as many as 80 percent of children placed in special schools in Slovakia are Roma.

In Kosovo, over 200 families have lived, since 1999, in camps sited on wasteland contaminated by lead. Despite reports in 2001 by the World Health Organisation and others that the degree of lead contamination in the blood of both children and adults is one of the highest in the world, the Roma remain in these camps.

Since 2007, the Italian authorities have increasingly adopted 'security' measures, which appear to be discriminatory, affecting disproportionately the Roma and Sinti minority. The mayors of Rome and Milan signed 'Security Pacts' in May 2007 that 'envisaged the forced eviction of up to 10,000 Romani people.' The clearance and destruction of Roma settlements without prior notice, compensation, or provision of alternative housing was reported throughout the year, according to HRF’s report.

The human rights agencies European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) issued a joint statement calling on 'governments, intergovernmental organisations and civil society to step up their efforts in tackling the human rights violations that the Roma continue to face in Europe.'

'As the economic crisis deepens, political leaders need to unequivocally and publicly condemn any form of violence targeting Roma,' the agencies said.

International legal and political bodies have taken up and issued decisions in cases of police violence against Roma and Sinti.

In spite of the existence of strong anti-discrimination legislation and policies to promote the inclusion of the Roma in many countries, evidence shows that discrimination against the Roma persists. In July 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found, in the case of Andreas Kalamiotis v. Greece, that the government of Greece violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The case concerned the lack of an effective investigation into allegations of police brutality against Andreas Kalamiotis, a Roma man, on Jun. 14, 2001. The Committee ruled that Greece must provide the victim with an effective remedy and appropriate reparation, as well as take measures to prevent similar violations in the future.

HRF calls on governments not only fight anti-Roma violence, but to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma across Europe.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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